Please click here for a list of posts relating to cases in which Honenu provided legal counsel to victims of antisemitic attacks in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Lior’s destroyed car; Photo credit: Beit Orot
Tuesday, July 11, 2023, 16:20 Today (Tuesday) the Jerusalem District Court sentenced Mohamed Abu Ghanam, the terrorist who set Rabbi Dov Lior’s car on fire in the Beit Orot neighborhood of Jerusalem in July 2022, to 38 months’ imprisonment. The terrorist was also fined 5,000 NIS. In April 2023, Judge Miriam Lomp convicted Abu Ghanam of arson, manufacturing weapons, racially motivated malicious vehicular vandalism, and other racially motivated crimes.
In the sentencing, Jerusalem District Court Judge Miriam Lomp noted that the attack was malicious and racially motivated: “The acts were not carried out on a momentary whim, but rather premeditated, the results of early planning. Although the defendant could have stopped at any stage, he continued. The defendant was racially motivated and showed hatred and hostility toward a population or segments thereof for having a particular ethnic-nationalistic background. The defendant was aware that the cars belonged to Jews because they were in the ‘Beit Orot’ neighborhood, a Jewish neighborhood, and because there were holy books in the parking lot, which according to the defendant belong to religious people.”
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who represented Rabbi Lior as a victim of terror, stated, “We are pleased that the terrorist was sentenced to several years’ imprisonment. The sentencing sends an important message regarding the need for significant penalization of terrorists, including terrorists with psychological issues. Consideration of a terrorist’s personal status must not take precedence over the war on terror.”