Arab protesters wave Hamas flags after Friday prayers during the month of Ramadan at the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, April 22, 2022. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)
Judge admonishes Bedouin-Israeli at sentencing for violating his “duty of loyalty to the state” by planning to murder Israeli police and soldiers.
By World Israel News Staff
An Israeli citizen from a Bedouin town in southern Israel was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Wednesday, stemming from a failed November 2020 plan to carry out a terror attack on the Temple Mount.
Walid Abu Madiam, who hails from the crime-ridden community of Rahat, was found guilty in January 2022 of attempted murder with terrorist intent.
On November 6, 2020, he asked a friend for a ride to Jerusalem, saying that he wanted to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Armed with a screwdriver and a knife, prosecutors charged, Abu Madiam planned to murder Israeli soldiers, police officers or other security forces by stabbing them in the neck.
In the indictment, prosecutors said that Abu Madiam had told his wife that he was planning a terror attack but threatened to divorce her if she revealed that information to anyone else.
On the way to Israel’s capital city, Abu Madiam’s nervous behavior raised his friend’s suspicions. He asked if Abu Madiam was planning to commit a terror attack.
When Abu Madiam admitted that he was, his friend stopped the vehicle and begged him to reconsider. Abu Madiam then backpedaled, telling his friend that he was joking and actually wanted to assault a man who had insulted his wife.
That explanation satisfied his friend, and he drove Abu Madiam to Jerusalem.
Abu Madiam was spotted acting suspiciously by police near the Lion’s Gate, and he was found to be carrying a knife and screwdriver.
During a subsequent Shin Bet interrogation, he admitted that he was motivated to murder Israeli security forces because “Israel abuses those who come to the Temple Mount, and soldiers beat Arabs for no reason.”
According to a Haaretz reporter who was present at the sentencing, the judge told Abu Madiam that one of the reasons for the long prison term was his status as an Israeli citizen.
Abu Madiam “has a duty of loyalty to the state,” which he violated, the judge said.
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