Western Wall security guard convicted of murder

The Jerusalem District Court convicted former Western Wall security guard Hadi Kabalan of premeditated murder Wednesday for the fatal shooting of Doron Ben Shlush in June 2013.

Kabalan originally claimed Ben Shlush had shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, and insisted he had shot the 46-year-old Jewish man because he believed him to be an Islamist terrorist.

However, state prosecutors presented evidence that Kabalan had an altercation with the victim earlier in the day, invalidating the claim that he may have confused him for a terrorist.

The court found Kabalan’s statements to be without credibility, and rejected his claims.

According to the indictment filed shortly after the shooting, Ben Shlush uttered racist slurs against Kabalan, who was working as a security guard at the Western Wall Plaza at the time.

“These are our dogs, they work for us, we brought them here from Syria,” Ben Shlush told his friend, referring to Kabalan and another guard, the Hebrew-language media outlet NRG reported.

Kabalan and the other guard on duty at the time are Druze.

Ben Shlush was shot 14 times in the public bathroom at the Western Wall plaza, near the guard post where Kabalan was stationed.

Ben Shlush was a familiar figure at the Western Wall area, according to locals, with some describing him as a mentally unstable but apparently harmless individual.

Haviv Rettig Gur contributed to this report.