The Jerusalem District Court accepted Thursday afternoon the appeal of bus driver Fakhri Khatib, who ran over and killed 14-year-old ultra-Orthodox teen Yosef Eisental during riots in Jerusalem earlier this week, and ordered his release to house arrest.
The court ruled that the release would not take effect immediately, following a police request for a stay to allow an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Footage of the Jerusalem ramming in which Yosef Eisenthal was killed
(Video: Yehuda Aharoni, Channel 14 News)
The hearing followed an appeal filed by Khatib’s attorney against a decision by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court a day earlier to extend his detention by nine days. Ahead of that hearing, police abruptly changed the suspicion against Khatib, a resident of east Jerusalem, from aggravated murder to causing death through indifference.
In accepting the appeal, District Court Judge Tamar Bar-Asher stressed that the driver was attacked after being surrounded by dozens of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators near a mass protest against military conscription. She said the teen who was killed had been clinging to the front of the bus, making it difficult at this stage to determine whether the driver was aware of his presence when he attempted to force his way through the crowd. She also noted that the driver has cooperated with investigators and does not pose a danger that would justify continued detention.
The judge detailed the circumstances of the incident, which took place Tuesday evening after protesters gathered around the bus on Yirmiyahu Street in Jerusalem. “He was forced to stop after many participants in the disturbances swarmed the bus, opened the doors from the outside, entered it and attacked the appellant,” she wrote. “The appellant, who felt threatened, called the police and asked for assistance, but by the end of the incident, no police had arrived at the scene, nor was any officer visible in the area.
“At a certain point, young people could be seen clinging to the outside of the bus, in addition to those blocking its path. The road then cleared, and the appellant began driving away at a relatively fast speed, which he says was due to the earlier attack and his fear of further violence. Sadly, it later emerged that two youths were clinging to the bus: one on its left side, who fell off when the bus began moving and was apparently lightly injured and seen standing and walking away. The deceased, however, was clinging to the front of the bus and, after traveling dozens of meters, was killed.”
The judge said the central question to be decided is whether the driver could see the teen clinging to the front of the bus. She noted that a key issue in offenses involving causing death through negligence or indifference is whether the harm was foreseeable. She emphasized that she was not taking a position on the charge itself and said the offense does not indicate a level of danger that warrants continued detention.
She added that none of the 39 investigative actions police are seeking to carry out would be compromised by the driver’s release. The judge said Khatib provided a full account and answered all questions, making it unlikely his version would change, and noted his full cooperation with investigators.
Khatib was brought to court wearing the uniform of a security prisoner. When his attorney, Jad Kadmani, asked Israel Prison Service officers why he was dressed that way despite police stating the incident was not a terror attack, one officer replied, “That’s the jacket we have.”
Police removed the aggravated murder suspicion against Khatib on Wednesday. At a hearing that day in the Magistrate’s Court, Judge Sharon Lary-Bavly told the defense that the case was “not a political investigation,” but said that although the driver was surrounded by an angry crowd that counted down before charging him, accelerating forward to escape was not “the right option.” She told the attorney: “Tell me he didn’t see them. He didn’t see them? Twenty kids were standing in front of him.”
Video footage of the incident, lasting about four and a half minutes, shows the driver attempting to reverse as a crowd blocks the bus, curses at him, blocks the road and sets trash bins on fire — with no police officers visible in the area. The driver said he felt distress and feared for his life, prompting him to drive forward once the countdown ended. Police confirmed he had earlier called the emergency hotline to report the situation, but said forces stationed at a nearby mass protest were unable to reach the scene in time.