Sexually assaulted woman recognized as a terror victim

Jewish student was robbed and beaten by Palestinian teens in Jerusalem, but 9 years passed before their motive was determined

The Defense Ministry announced Tuesday it would recognize a victim of a 2008 sexual assault by Palestinian teens as a victim of terror.

The woman, a 25-year-old Jewish college student at the time of the assault in February 2008, was surrounded by the teens at a public park near Jerusalem’s Hinnom Valley, just outside the Old City walls.

The teens, all minors, surrounded her, beat her until her nose was broken, robbed her, held her down by force and sexually assaulted her.

The woman was not immediately recognized as a victim of terror because investigators did not at first believe the attack was politically or “nationalistically” motivated.

An inquiry by the head of the Israel Police investigations arm, Deputy Commissioner Meni Yitzhaki, eventually determined that the motive for the attack was the fact that the victim was Jewish.

Since 1970, Israel’s Compensation Law offers significant funds and rehabilitation help to victims of terror attacks, but obtaining recognition as a terror victim requires “reasonable” proof that an attack’s “primary intent was to harm a person due to their national-ethnic origins.”