Arieh Arnaldo Leon Agranionic
Murdered - May 8, 2001
Guard killed by terrorists at isolated farm
Article from Jerusalem Post: By Margot Dudkevitch 
(May 9)
(May 9)Arieh Arnaldo Leon Agranionic was murdered by terrorists early yesterday morning as he guarded the Binyamin farm, a lonely outpost on an isolated hilltop 7.5 kilometers east of Itamar in Samaria.
After shooting Agranionic, 48, at close range with Kalashnikov rifles, the terrorists stole his M-16 rifle and fled on foot to a waiting vehicle, which drove off in the direction of nearby Khirbet Yinon. A security patrol from Itamar discovered his body and notified the authorities.
A group, called the Hassan Kadi Brigade, said to be politically close to Fatah, claimed responsibility for the murder, saying it was in revenge for the death of Hassan Kadi last week in Ramallah.
Security forces are focusing the investigation on intelligence, noting that it is difficult to determine the time of murder because no one heard the gunshots. Trackers detected the terrorists' footprints heading southeast for several hundred meters up to the spot where a car apparently picked them up.
Yesterday morning, residents from the surrounding Jewish communities demonstrated at the Tapuah junction and attempted to prevent Palestinian vehicles from using the road.
Security officials declared that the farm was illegal and noted that the civil administration had recently issued an order to stop construction at the site. Itamar residents denied the site was illegal, saying that an agreement had been reached between the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and the authorities that no additional caravans would be placed at the site, which can only be used as a farm.
Security officials are also planning to investigate why Agranionic was on guard duty alone. When asked why no one was with him, Itamar security chief Yossi Levite, who discovered Agranionic's body, asked: "Would you volunteer to guard here?"
Agranionic was buried yesterday afternoon in the cemetery in Yitzhar. The funeral cortege left Ma'aleh Yisrael, where he had lived with his son Oren, 23, until two weeks ago, when he moved to the hilltop which he had planned to fence in and establish a farm.
Oren, the oldest of three children, said his father's dream had been to set up a farm with chickens, dogs, and horses. Agranionic's ex-wife Tzipora lives with their daughter Orian, 11, in Barkan. A third child, Dudu, 20, is in the army.
"At the age of 22, my father immigrated from Brazil, and married in 1976," Oren said. "In 1978, he was the first person to move to Ariel and became the first guard there. When the community began to flourish, my father decided to move to a more isolated spot in Samaria. He yearned for the peace and quiet. We moved to Ma'aleh Yisrael and he moved to the hilltop two weeks ago. His goal was to ensure that the land remained in Jewish hands."
Oren noted that his father sometimes guarded alone and sometimes with others. "He was one of a rare breed, known as the anonymous team of guards, who volunteer to patrol and guard the areas armed with their own personal weapons and driving their own vehicles. I will carry out my father's dream and build the biggest farm in the entire area on that hilltop," he said.
