Settlers, including one under US sanctions, indicted over assault on lost Bedouin travelers
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The State Attorney’s Office indicts two settlers from the illegal West Bank outpost of Givat Ronen on charges of terrorism, aggravated bodily harm, and damaging property motivated by racism, among other charges, a rare move reflecting increased international pressure to hold extremists accountable for attacks on Palestinians.
The indictment was filed over an incident in Givat Ronen in August in which five Arab Israeli citizens were attacked, threatened and verbally abused by the two suspects after they mistakenly drove into the illegal settlement.
David Hasdai, a known settler extremist sanctioned by the US in February, was indicted on charges of perpetrating an act of terrorism, aggravated bodily harm, arson, and damaging a vehicle and damaging property on racist motives.
Yaakov Goelman is charged with causing deliberate damage to property with racist motivation, and blackmail through threats with racist motivation.
On August 9, Lamis al-Jaer, a resident of the Bedouin town of Rahat in southern Israel, mistakenly drove into Givat Ronen in the northern West Bank with her 2-year-old daughter and three other female relatives in the car.
Hasdai and others chased after the vehicle and began pelting al-Jaer’s car with rocks and stones smashing the windscreen and injuring the women inside the vehicle, according to the indictment. They eventually escaped from the car and ran away on foot, until they were rescued by Israeli security forces.
Their car was set ablaze by the settlers, while Goelman shouted at the women “You must be from Gaza” and “You were happy on October 7.” He then stole one of the women’s phones, called her grandmother, and threatened to kill her granddaughter, the indictment says.
Indictments over settler violence are rare, especially when involving Palestinian victims. In July, the High Court of Justice noted that out of 231 open or completed police investigations into settler violence in the Judea district in the Southern West Bank, not one indictment has been filed since November last year.
