Palestinian teen indicted for East Jerusalem stabbing

19-year-old A-Tur resident accused of attacking Jewish seminary student earlier this month

By ToI Staff 25 August 2016, 4:14 pm

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Rescue personnel attend the scene of a stabbing attack in the A-Tur neighborhood of East Jerusalem on August 11, 2016 (United Hatzalah)

A 19-year-old Palestinian was indicted in Jerusalem District Court on Thursday for allegedly stabbing a young ultra-Orthodox man in East Jerusalem earlier this month.

Ahmad Na’im A’shayer, a resident of A-Tur, was charged with attacking the victim, reportedly a Jewish seminary student, outside a grocery store near the Mount of Olives cemetery.

According to the charge sheet, A’shayer was empty-handed when he approached the student, but picked up a “sharpened wooden plank” that was on the ground nearby, and stabbed his victim with it.

The student sustained light-to-moderate injuries. He fled, flagged down a vehicle and traveled to a nearby Border Police station. He was taken to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus, but has since been released.

A’shayer was arrested some days later.

Since October, 35 Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in a wave of Palestinian stabbing, car-ramming, and shooting attacks. At least 214 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in the same period, some two-thirds of them while carrying out attacks against Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, mostly in the West Bank, the IDF says.

Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.