Killing of Binyamin Meisner

Binyamin (Benny) Meisner was born in El Salvador to Ruth and Erik Meisner. His family immigrated to Israel when he was an infant and settled in Kiryat Tivon.[2] He served in the Israel Defense Forces’ 202nd Paratroopers Battalion and was killed while performing reserve duty.[2] Sources differ on his age: N12 and the Jewish Virtual Library give it as 25, while CAMERA gives it as 24.[5][1] He left behind his parents, a brother, and a sister.[2]

In February 1989, Meisner was killed while serving in the IDF reserves in Nablus; N12 describes the incident as an ambush prepared for a military patrol.[1][2] A CAMERA account states that Na’anish Naif Abdel Jafar Samir was part of a group that lured Meisner into an alley where rocks had been stockpiled, and that Meisner died after being struck in the head with a stone.[5] The Jewish Virtual Library describes Samir Na’neesh as murdering Meisner by throwing a building block at him in the Kasbah.[3] A Jerusalem Post account attributes a role to Taqtuq Lutfi Halma Ibrahim, stating that he lured Meisner into an alley where accomplices were waiting and that they stoned him to death.[6]

At least two men were arrested and convicted in connection with the killing. Samir Na’neesh—also rendered as Na’anish Naif Abdel Jafar Samir—was arrested on February 14, 1989, and sentenced to life imprisonment.[3] Lutfi Halma Ibrahim Taqtuq was arrested on March 3, 1989, and was also listed as convicted of Meisner’s murder.[3][7] The reviewed sources do not clarify the relationship between the two convictions or fully reconcile the specific role attributed to each man.[3][7]

In August 2013, an Israeli ministerial committee approved an initial list of 26 Palestinian prisoners for release. The list included Samir Na’neesh, who had been imprisoned since 1989 for Meisner’s murder.[8] Israel’s High Court of Justice rejected a petition filed by bereaved families seeking to block that release.[9] The release formed part of a four-stage process described as a confidence-building measure connected to renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.[3][8]

A later group of 26 prisoners, approved in late December 2013 as the third phase of the process, included Taqtuq Lutfi Halma Ibrahim, who was listed as having been arrested in 1989 for Meisner’s murder.[3][4] N12 likewise identified Taqtuq as convicted of the murder and imprisoned since 1989.[7] The Hebrew-language Meir Amit Center account states that the third-phase prisoners were received at the Muqata’a in a ceremony attended by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, and other officials.[10] The sources therefore place Samir and Taqtuq in different phases of the same 2013 prisoner-release process.

Most reviewed accounts place Meisner’s killing in Nablus. A 2018 Ynet interview with a senior Israeli sniper identified only as N., however, recalled that Meisner was killed in Hebron by a stone dropped from a roof. The statement is presented as the interviewee’s personal recollection and is not independently corroborated on the page.[11] Sources also give Meisner’s age as either 24 or 25.[5][1] CAMERA describes the object that struck him as a stone, while Jewish Virtual Library entries call it a building block or concrete block.[5][3][1]

Accounts also differ in how they attribute responsibility. CAMERA identifies Samir as part of a group that lured Meisner into an alley, while the Jewish Virtual Library describes Samir as throwing the building block and separately lists Taqtuq as convicted of the murder.[5][3] The Jerusalem Post attributes the act of luring Meisner to Taqtuq, whereas N12 records Taqtuq’s conviction without describing his specific role.[6][7] The sources do not explain the relationship between these accounts. The perpetrators’ names also appear in several English transliterations, including Samir Na’neesh, Na’anish Naif Abdel Jafar Samir, and Taqtuq Lutfi Halma Ibrahim.[5][3]