Israeli, 21, convicted of assaulting Palestinians, soldier
David Or Shachar of the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin charged with several anti-Arab attacks, including stone-throwing at Palestinian truck
An Israeli right-wing activist was convicted on Tuesday of attacking an IDF soldier and two Palestinians, and carrying out two other anti-Arab attacks.
David Or Shachar, 21, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin, confessed to his actions in the Jerusalem District Court and expressed regret.
According to the conviction, in October 2013, Shachar — along with two other Israeli teens — attacked a Palestinian man standing outside Bat Ayin with clubs and pepper spray.
They proceeded to hit an IDF soldier who intervened to protect the Palestinian man, prompting condemnation from the army and the temporary withdrawal of military presence from the settlement.
Shachar was also convicted of aggravated assault, attacking a public official, and damaging property for hurling stones at a Palestinian truck in 2013, and uprooting some 35 olive trees on Palestinian land in 2014, according to the Walla news website.
“David Or regrets and is sorry for his actions,” said his attorney, Amit Bar, according to Walla. “He stopped this behavior a year before the police uncovered it, such that his arrest and revelations about these incidents came a long time after he decided to change his ways.”
The sentence will be handed down in March 2016, according to the Maariv daily.
Indictments against Jewish extremists for attacking Palestinians and others have been rare, and convictions even rarer. Critics charge that there exists a double standard regarding Jewish attackers, an accusation recently highlighted by the slow pace of an investigation into the deadly July firebombing of a Palestinian family, which has yet to produce any indictments.