Bat Yam man sentenced to 12.5 years for 2021 mob assault on Arab driver
Prosecution sought 20-year term for Netanel Binyamin for beating of Saeed Mousa; defense intends to appeal guilty verdict from last year, seek acquittal
A Jewish Israeli resident of Bat Yam was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison on Monday for his role in the brutal assault of an Arab motorist driving through the coastal city during inter-communal violence that erupted over two years ago.
Netanel Binyamin, 27, was one of several people to have been found guilty of the May 2021 attack on Saeed Mousa, who was pulled from his car by a mob that proceeded to beat him, leaving him seriously injured.
Prosecutors had sought at least 20 years behind bars for Binyamin, who was convicted last September of a terrorist act of attempted murder, intentionally damaging a car, theft, and rioting that resulted in damage. For the latter three charges, it was determined that he acted with a racist motive.
Tel Aviv District Court Judge Gilya Ravid wrote in her ruling, “There can be no doubt that the case before us…is at a high level of seriousness.”
She said a Jewish mob attacked Mousa just because he was an Arab and the incident therefore “deserves all condemnation and denunciation” along with “a serious and deterring punishment.”
But, she noted, the court also took into consideration that it was not a planned attempt at murder.
Following the sentencing, Binyamin’s defense team said it intended to appeal the conviction to see him acquitted.
Prosecutors accused Binyamin of being one of the dozens of rioters who attacked Mousa, striking him 10 times on the head and kicking him in the neck as he lay on the ground.
He briefly left the scene after passersby defended Mousa, then returned to kick him in the face and threw a bottle at his head with the intention of killing him, according to the charge sheet. Binyamin and additional rioters also vandalized the victim’s car.
Binyamin was also charged with encouraging attacks on Arab-owned businesses in Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, and, along with others, of smashing store windows and ransacking a restaurant before attacking Mousa, who was on his way to the beach at the time.
Mousa suffered fractures to his nose, eye sockets, and teeth, deep cuts to his face and head that caused hemorrhaging.
The unprovoked beating of Mousa, which shocked the public after it was captured on live television, occurred while Israel was at war with the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip in what was dubbed IDF Operation Guardian of the Walls. The 11-day war ignited an unprecedented wave of internecine Jewish-Arab violence in cities around the country.
The Times of Israel Community.