Palestinian gets life for killing Israeli farmer in botched robbery

The Lod District court on Thursday sentenced a West Bank Palestinian man to life in prison for beating to death Israeli farmer David Bar-Kapara two years ago.

Mujahad Dar Asi, 25, was charged with murder for the 2015 killing of 70-year-old vineyard owner Bar-Kapara, his former employer.

Last month, the court found his cousin Alaa Dar Asi guilty of manslaughter for taking part in the killing, and sentenced him to 18 years behind bars. Prosecutors agreed to downgrade Alaa’s charges from murder to manslaughter after authorities determined that the cousins had attacked Bar-Kapara while trying to rob him, and did not intend to kill him in a terror attack.

Though police and the Shin Bet security service have determined the cousins set out to rob Bar-Kapara because they believed he was wealthy, his family insist it was a terror attack.

According to the indictment, on the morning of June 24, 2015, the Asi cousins confronted Bar-Kapara on his property near Pedaya, in central Israel, and demanded he hand over money, under the assumption that the vineyard owner was carrying large amounts of cash.

When they realized Bar-Kapara had no money, the pair beat him badly. Nearby farmers who witnessed the attack called police and paramedics, and Bar-Kapara was rushed to a nearby hospital with serious injuries, but died several hours later.

The cousins, from the Hebron-area village of Beit Lakiya, were in Israel illegally at the time of the killing.

Bar-Kapara’s family members said Thursday they would continue to work to have him recognized as a terror victim.

“The truth is that two Palestinian illegals who were known to the police and security services… murdered an elderly Jewish man without stealing a thing,” they said, according to Channel 10 news.

“We will continue to fight for our father’s honor until the incident is recognized as a nationalistic [terrorist] attack,” they said.

Bar-Kapar’s family also slammed the court’s 18-year sentence for Alaa Dar Asi as too lenient, saying it sent “a problematic message that seriously harms deterrence against criminal and nationalistic attacks.”