"It was not a business dispute - my brother was murdered for nothing"
Relatives of attorney Arbel Feldman, who was murdered in Rishon LeZion, demand justice for his memory and are angry at reports that tried to link him to a financial dispute with the murder suspect: "Arbel acted according to the law." "Nothing in his conduct in the last few days hinted that he was afraid of anything."
"My brother was murdered for nothing. Nothing will bring him back. But contrary to what was claimed, the background is not a business dispute. He was murdered for nothing," says Gonen Feldman with pain, the brother of attorney Arbel Feldman, who was shot to death on Tuesday in his office in Rishon LeZion. According to the suspicion, the person who carried out the act is Ahmad Al-Rajoub, a client of Feldman in a lawsuit regarding a car accident.
Feldman's family members are in shock from his sudden and violent death. They intend to fight back against what they call "an additional injustice" — the attempt to link the murder to a business dispute. "There was no business dispute between Arbel and the murderer," says his brother Gonen. "If there was a dispute, it was between the murderer and another person. My brother was not part of it."
According to the family, the reports after the murder created a misleading impression as if Feldman was involved in a financial dispute with a client. "We don't even know what the details of the case were," says Gonen. "But we know how such things are handled."
"Arbel worked according to the law, period," he clarifies. "When compensation is awarded, the money goes to a trust account and is transferred to whoever the law and documents instruct it to be transferred to. The lawyer does not decide to whom the money will be transferred, cannot use it, and cannot do with it as he pleases. Even if someone really wants the money to be transferred to them — Arbel could not have acted against the law."
"I thought: there is no chance it is him"
Yesterday, the Magistrate's Court in Rishon LeZion extended the detention of Al-Rajoub, a 23-year-old resident of Ramle. His defense attorney, Oren Sasson, claimed that his client is insane. In a fitness-to-stand-trial examination conducted for Al-Rajoub, he was found fit, but has not yet been sent for observation.
Attorney Feldman left behind a wife and three children. Next week, the extended family members were preparing to fly for a vacation in Montenegro. According to Gonen, "Last Friday we all sat at a family meal. We laughed, enjoyed, were happy. On Sunday I spoke with him. Nothing in his conduct hinted that he was afraid of anything."
"When I heard on the news that a lawyer was murdered in Rishon LeZion, Arbel's name came to my mind — and immediately went away. I thought there is no chance it is him. If he was threatened, if he was involved in some dispute or financial matter, we would have known. We are a very close family. We work together, talk all the time. There was nothing like that."
In the family, they describe a person who adhered to every rule, even when it concerned those closest to him. "Even when it came to us," says Gonen, "if we needed to sign a document, he demanded that we come to him and sign in his presence. He did not cut corners, not even for his own family members."
Feldman's father, Israel, adds: "When he received money for me in trust, he did not just transfer it to me. I had to arrive, sign, and receive it according to the procedures. That was my son. That was the law."
According to the family members, it is precisely this uncompromising adherence that makes the reports about a "business dispute" especially painful. "There is no murder that has a reason," says Gonen, "but here we are talking about a murder devoid of any logic."
"He lived to help people and do good," says his brother. "We ask for only one thing: that justice be done. And that they do not try to paint him as a person who was part of a dispute that was not his."
Attorney Sasson stated that Al-Rajoub carried out the act after telephone threats against attorney Feldman, after he was awarded a sum of money following an accident he had three years ago. He further stated that "my client is not of sound mind. His father told me, 'If I had known what his intentions were — I would have stopped him from leaving.' He tried to enlist him in the IDF at any cost."
"The law needs to be changed, according to which lawyers in the field of torts receive the money awarded by the court into their hands, before it is transferred to the client."
