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Israel issues reduced sentence for Jewish man who tried to kill a Palestinian

June 23, 2022 at 2:10 pm

Tel Aviv District Court [Wikicommons]

The Tel Aviv District Court yesterday issued a reduced sentence against an Israeli Jewish man who confessed to having participated in a violent attack against a Palestinian citizen of Israel and attempted to kill him in an ethnically motivated hate crime last year.

Jacob Cohen, 31, confessed to participating in the violent attack against Saeed Issa and attempting to kill him during a wave of violent hate crimes that erupted against Arab citizens of Israel during Israel’s violent aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Cohen confessed to having kicked Issa, throwing a glass at him, kicking his car and trying to hit him with his fist.

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The court sentenced him to only 15 months in prison, taking into consideration his incarceration since his arrest 13 months ago, he will be released in two months.

The court’s decision to issue a reduced sentence came in spite of the prosecution’s request for a prison sentence of four to seven years.

Judge Benny Sagi considered that although the defendant had been indicted, his involvement was “marginal”.

Highlighting the leniency of the sentence, critics pointed out that Palestinian stone throwers can be jailed for two years irrelevant of whether they have maimed or even made contact with an Israeli citizen.