Monday, November 14, 2022, 11:42 This week, the Military Court in Yehuda sentenced Salah el-Amor, the terrorist who set a synagogue on fire at Mitzpeh Ziv, an overlook near Ma’aleh Hever in the Southern Har Hevron region in January 2022. El-Amor was sentenced in a plea bargain to 18 months’ imprisonment and fined 12,000 NIS. Mitzpeh Ziv was built in memory of two Israeli guards, Yehuda Ben Yosef and Yo’av Doron, z”l, who were killed by “friendly fire” after an error in identification in 2003.
The judges wrote in their sentence that the terrorist came with his friends to Mitzpeh Ziv with the aim of setting the synagogue on fire to drive the Jewish residents away from the site. The terrorist set boards and a tire on fire and placed them at the door to the synagogue. As a result, one wall and a bookcase holding many holy books were burnt.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the residents of Mitzpeh Ziv, responded to the decision and said, “This was an extremely severe incident of arson, one of many repeated incidents at the site, which is a memorial, a synagogue, and a beit midrash in memory of Yo’av Doron and Yehuda Ben Yosef, z”l, who gave their lives for the sake of settling the Land of Israel. In accordance with the circumstances and the evidence, the penalty of a prison sentence and a fine is reasonable. We thank the Yehuda Brigade, the police, all of the security forces who apprehended the terrorist, and also the Military Advocate General who fought for the arrest and penalization of the terrorist despite the difficulties in the case. We will act together with the defense forces so that they will continue apprehending terrorists, work toward increasing the stringency of penalties, and improving deterrence.”