Palestinian indicted for kidnapping, rape of 7-year-old Jewish girl

Other Palestinian workers were allegedly present during the shocking crime.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

An indictment was brought on Sunday against a 46-year-old Palestinian Arab accused of kidnapping and rape of a 7-year-old Jewish girl from the Benjamin region. The suspect was arraigned at the Judea military court at the Ofer military base northwest of Jerusalem.

The Arab man from the village of Deir Kadis in Samaria was indicted after an investigation lasting several months. According to the charges, the accused worked as a janitor and maintenance man at an educational facility in one of the Benjamin settlements. He got to the know the young victim and won her trust by giving her sweets.

Then, one afternoon, after studies had ended, he took the girl to an empty house where he raped her. She screamed for help and tried to resist. After the rape, he let her go.

A lawyer for Honenu, a legal aid organization helping the family, said “We’re talking about the most cruel and shocking event, when as it was going on other people were present, apparently Palestinian workers who humiliated and degraded the girl and helped the suspect.”

Referring to the report that the rapist’s friends helped the suspect in the incident and have not yet been arrested, Likud MK Etty Chava Attiya said “My stomach turns to hear of these shocking acts by evil people who raped and murdered the tender soul of a 7-year-old girl.”

“These kinds of cases keep me awake, and I call on the security forces to get their hands on these accursed criminals and employ the full severity of the law against them,” she said.

Rafi Peretz, leader of the Jewish Home party and United Right, said “The evil person that committed this terrible act has no right to exist in this world, him and everyone who helped him.”