Palestinian terrorist gets light sentence because he stabbed only once

A Palestinian terrorist was given a lenient sentence for stabbing a Jewish woman because stabbing only once is not considered murderous intent by the judges. 

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A military court sentenced Hamza Faiz Monday to 14 years in jail for a stabbing attack almost three years ago in which one woman was seriously injured in her back.

He was also ordered to pay half a million shekels in damages to Nirit Zmora, the victim – 10% of what had been demanded by her lawyer.

The lighter-than-usual sentence for such a terror attack stemmed from the fact that the three military judges had convicted him only of aggravated battery and possession of a knife, and not attempted murder, because Faiz struck Zmora only once.

In the April ruling, the judges explained that “only in rare cases have courts convicted defendants of murder or attempted murder for one knife stab, even if it resulted in the death of the victim. The reason for this lies in the difficulty of determining the existence of an intent to kill when just one stabbing is involved.”

This is true, they added, even when the attacker has a clear nationalistic motive for his actions. This was unequivocal in this case, as Faiz was shouting “Allahu akbar” (God is great) while attacking Zmora in a parking lot at the Gush Etzion Junction in October 2015.

Judges’ ‘hallucinatory claims’

The court also stated that doubts arose about whether the terrorist’s intent was to wound or kill since he stabbed her in the back and not the chest; the knife he used was short instead of long; and he fled the scene.

In an Army Radio interview before the sentencing, Zmora called these “hallucinatory claims” by the judges, noting, among other details, that the Hebron resident “admitted that he didn’t know how many times he was going to stab her, but the knife broke so he could not continue.”

Zmora said she was expecting the court to hand down the maximum sentence they could – 20 years – after not charging Faiz with attempted murder as they should have done. She added, however, that her lawyers were already planning to appeal the verdict itself.

Court ‘protected’ the terrorist

The judges, she charged, “protected” the terrorist who tried to kill her, and “chose to use what the terrorist’s lawyer fed them…they simply used their power to choose, and chose the wrong side.” She noted that many lawyers told her that “from a judicial point of view it would have been very easy to convict him of attempted murder.”

“I understand that we are in a battle for the security of the Jewish people … that we, and you in the media, are leading, in contrast to the judges who are not doing their jobs,” she said.