23 years in prison for terrorist who stabbed Jewish teen

Terrorist who stabbed teenage girl at bus stop some nine times will spend more than two decades behind bars.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A terrorist who stabbed an 18-year-old Jewish girl on the way to her high school matriculation exams in northern Israel was convicted of attempted murder on Monday and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

In 2018, Nur a-Din Shinawi stabbed Shuva Malka some nine times in a brutal, unprovoked attack as she stood at a bus stop in Afula.

The Nazareth District Court found that terror was an aggravated factor in the stabbing and ordered Shinawi to pay Malka 250,000 shekels in compensation in addition to his incarceration.

“It seems that in the current reality of life, in which we are witnessing terrorism perpetrated more than by individuals, young people, with no criminal record or organizational affiliation whatsoever, the need for a clear and unequivocal voice emerges from the court will help the uncompromising fight against terrorism,” read the ruling.

“The punishment of perpetrators of terrorist attacks on a nationalist-ideological background must be extremely severe.”

Shinawi, a 24-year-old originally from the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Jenin, had remained in Israel illegally after entering the country on what was supposed to be a one-day trip.

During a police foot chase after the stabbing, Shinawi attempted to attack a police officer with a knife but was shot in the leg.

He admitted to investigators after the attack that he had targeted Malka because her modest clothing, typical of religious Jews, made her look like a “settler.”

According to a Ynet report, Malka made a full recovery after the attack and is now married. She has attended multiple court proceedings regarding the case.

Following Monday’s ruling, Shinawi’s lawyer told Hebrew-language media that he was innocent and had been convicted on the basis of mistaken identity.

“This is a hallucinatory legal decision…there’s nothing that connects the defendant to this event,” attorney Salah Mahamid told Ynet.

“They said he got off the bus at a specific junction, but that bus line doesn’t stop at that place at all.”

Mahamid acknowledged that his client had been caught in the area shortly after the attack, but implied that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.