Supreme Court rejects appeal against terror convictions of extremist settlers
Justices uphold ruling that ‘price tag’ vandalism attacks against Palestinians were carried out as part of terror organization
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The Supreme Court on Sunday rejected an appeal by five West Bank settlers who were convicted of attacks on Palestinians but were seeking to overturn a ruling that said their actions were carried out as part of a terror organization.
Three members of the group, brothers from the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Nahliel, were convicted under a plea bargain and in 2018 sentenced to five, four and-a-half and two and-a-half years in prison, respectively. As a result of the plea bargain, the other two members of the group, also from the West Bank, were convicted in 2019 and later sentenced to one and four years in prison.
None of the names of those involved have been published as they were minors or Israel Defense Forces soldiers when the offenses were carried out in 2015.
One of the brothers and one of the other defendants were each found guilty of being members of a terror organization, marking the first time that Jewish suspects had ever been convicted of that offense over the perpetration of so-called price tag attacks — assaults carried out against Palestinians and their property ostensibly in retaliation for actions and policies deemed hostile to the settlement enterprise.
The Supreme Court rejected the appeal, which sought to negate the terror aspect of the convictions, and ruled that “since the appellants operated in a systematic and continuous pattern, with a clear ideological motive, equipped with the appropriate tools for the nature of the planned attack, and acted with a division of roles in the act, they must be convicted of membership in a terrorist organization.”
The justices clarified that the “uniqueness of a terrorist organization is reflected, inter alia, in that the motives of its members are ideological, and their aim is not purely delinquent, but aimed at achieving a goal of policy change.”
The five appellants were convicted of attacks including tossing Molotov cocktails and tear gas grenades into residential buildings while people were inside, though the occupants were able to escape unharmed. In other attacks, the settlers also damaged vehicles and tagged buildings with graffiti. The Shin Bet security service arrested the cell in April 2016.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.