Please click here for a list of posts relating to cases in which Honenu provided legal counsel to victims of antisemitic attacks in Jerusalem and here for a list of posts relating to the May 2021 Arab rioting throughout Israel.
Avia in hospital; Photo credit: Tzur Anteman
Thursday, March 9, 2023, 15:01 The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Omar Jabar and Yusef Jabar, two of the terrorists who brutally attacked Avia and Shahar Anteman immediately after their engagement in May 2021, to six and nine years’ imprisonment. Omar Jabar was also convicted of hurling Molotov cocktails at an Egged bus near Ma’aleh Adumim. Ashraf Jabar was present at the attack on the Anteman couple but did not take part. He was sentenced to 45 months’ imprisonment for hurling Molotov cocktails at the bus and rioting. (May 2021, particularly during Operation Guardian of the Walls, was a time of widespread Arab rioting throughout Israel.)
In November 2022, the Jerusalem District Court accepted an appeal by the Office of the State Attorney concerning two other terrorists in the case and added two years to Nawaf al-Hawe’s seven-year sentence, and one year to Rami Salah al-Din’s five-year sentence. Also, Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher filed a 1,950,000 NIS civil suit against Abu al-Hawe and Salah al-Din on the Antemans’ behalf at the Jerusalem District Court in February.
Anteman proposal; Photo courtesy of the photographer
The attack occurred in May 2021. Avia proposed to Shahar in Beit HaHoshen, overlooking the Temple Mount, and then they headed toward Beit Orot. On their way, their car was blocked by other cars. At the A-Tor Intersection, dozens of Arab rioters threw rocks at them. Avia got out of the car and was beaten, pelted with rocks, and then stabbed in the back. Shahar escaped on foot and hid behind a parked car until the police arrived. The couple met up again in Beit Orot. Avia was evacuated, injured and bleeding, to Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital. He suffered a head injury, stab wounds to his back, and a punctured lung. Because of prolonged hospitalization and outpatient treatments, the couple postponed their engagement party.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the Antemans, stated, “The sentencing shows an improvement in the penalization of terrorists, but is not at all the maximum allowed by law. The District Court followed the Supreme Court ruling on an appeal of the penalization of other defendants in the case. However, the District Court ruling does not consider that the Supreme Court is not handing down maximum penalties. It seems that according to the Supreme Court ruling, the appropriate penalty is more than six or even nine years in the case of a terrorist who carried out several attacks of this kind. In general, there is a need for significantly stiffer penalties that reflect the maximum penalty by law, 25 years for every terror crime of this sort. In order to deter terror and increase the security of Israeli citizens, there is an urgent need to increase the penalties for terrorists to the maximum allowed by law.”