Jerusalem Shavuot stabber sentenced to 9 years
Israeli Arab citizen John Kakish was found guilty of a hate crime, after stabbing two Jewish teenagers outside Jerusalem's Damascus Gate on Shavuot 2015; Judge: 'He still poses a moderate threat to society, and I am sentencing him accordingly.'
Justice Raphael Carmel previously found Kakish guilty on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and today pronounced the stabber’s sentence for what both the court and district attorney concluded to be a “hate crime.” Additionally, the court ordered Kakish to compensate each of his victims with NIS 10,000 (USD 2,650).
“The accused was a known juvenile delinquent from a difficult family background, he suffers from mental disability and has serious impulse control issues. All this is aggravated by the fact that he tends to abuse alcohol,” Carmel wrote. “Hence, I believe he still poses a moderate threat to society, and I am sentencing him accordingly.”
Kakish is an Israeli citizen and a Christian Arab. On the night of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot in 2015, he bought a 30cm kitchen knife in the Damascus Gate market in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. After making his way to the street leading to the Western Wall, he waited there until a group of ultra-Orthodox teens passed by. Kakish attacked the group and managed to stab two teenagers before feeling the scene.
In his flight, the Kakish dumped his coat and the knife in one of the Old City's alleys before later changing his clothes and shaving in an effort to make it as difficult as possible for the police to locate him.
The entire incident was caught on the Jerusalem District Police’s security cameras in the Old City, a fact which enabled the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to identify and locate Kakish. According to the Shin Bet, Kakish confessed to the crime during questioning and told investigators that he was motivated by violence and racism he experienced in the Old City from ultra-Orthodox Jews. Police found posts on his Facebook page in which he calls for the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem.
“While he plead guilty to the charges made against him and confessed to his crime, he does not seem to take responsibility for his actions and insists that he is the victim,” Carmel wrote.
