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Photo: Hagai Aharon
17-year-old who beat Arabs sent to jail
Youth convicted of assaulting Arab minors with sticks, clubs and knives at Jerusalem mall on eve of Holocaust Day, sentenced to one year in prison. Attack followed messages on Web calling on Jews to hurt Arabs
A 17-year-old youth was sentenced to one year in prison on Sunday after being convicted of assaulting Arabs with sticks, clubs and knives along with several other teenagers on the eve of Holocaust Day.
"I can't imagine that throughout his life the accused never heard of the Jews' Holocaust and was never exposed to the horrors in the pursuit of people for belonging to a different race," the Jerusalem Youth District Court wrote in her ruling.
According to the indictment, several young people of the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood in the capital conspired to hurt Arabs on the eve of the past Holocaust Day.
The plan was distributed verbally and on the Web – through the ICQ instant messaging software – and Jewish youths were urged to hurt Arabs. The message reached a large number of teenagers, who arrived at the neighborhood's mall and began beating Arab minors.
The youth confessed to the acts as part of a plea bargain, and was convicted by Judge Nava Ben-Or of causing sabotage under aggravating circumstances motivated by racism.
The plea bargain did not state a punishment, and despite a recommendation to put the youth on probation, the justice decided to send him to jail for one year.
'A regretful and shameless phenomenon'
The judge said she could not imagine that the defendant's high school did not teach him about the history of the Jewish people and the Holocaust. She stressed in the sentence that "the fact the accused did not internalize these issues raises difficult thought about an extensive education failure and entails a thorough examination."According to the judge, the offense committed is extremely severe and the youth's desire to serve in the IDF cannot serve as a consideration for avoiding a conviction.
The justice added that only a prison term will express the extent of aversion over the minor's act. "Only such a punishment will be enough to deter other young people.
"We have witnessed a regretful and shameless phenomenon of extensive willingness to take part in a racially motivated violent event, without any reservation or thought," the judge wrote.
She sentenced the youth to an additional year of probation and ordered him to pay each of his victims NIS 500 ($125.25).
