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.
Wednesday, December 7, 2022, 11:36 On Wednesday, December 7, the Jerusalem District Court sentenced two of the terrorists who brutally attacked Eli Rozen in the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood of Jerusalem in April 2021, shortly before Operation Guardian of the Walls. The terrorists were convicted of aggravated assault in an act of terror. One of the terrorists was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment and required to pay Rozen 7,500 NIS in compensation. The other terrorist was sentenced to 52 months’ imprisonment and required to pay 15,000 NIS in. Their families aggressively cursed and attacked Eli Rozen immediately after the hearing.
Honenu Attorney Ophir Steiner, who is representing Rozen and accompanied him to the hearing, described the incident: “I accompanied the victim outside and we discussed the hearing. On our way to his motorcycle, the families of the attackers started to follow and curse us. Eli ignored them, mounted his motorcycle, and wanted to start his ride. But, as one can see in the video clip, they entered the street and came after him while they cursed him. They backed off and stopped following us only when they noticed that I was recording the incident.”
Steiner also spoke about the sentencing: “This very lenient sentencing is not in line with the current direction of stiffening sentences in cases of incidents that occurred at the time of Operation Guardian of the Walls, which the Supreme Court has also accepted. The Supreme Court explicitly stated that the central consideration with regard to these incidents is ‘protecting the public’. Lenient penalties send a message of powerlessness and damage security. And here, look at the incident that occurred immediately after we left the courtroom. The terrorists’ families saw the leniency of the penalties and immediately went into attack mode. We will demand that the office of the State Attorney appeal the penalties, in the hopes that the Supreme Court will intervene and continue in the direction of harsher sentences.”
Eli Rozen was attacked in the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood on April 23, 2021, during Arab rioting in Jerusalem. Rozen finished prayers at the Tomb of Shimon HaTzadik and started to walk to his home in the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood, past dozens of rioters. They completely surrounded him, and then punched him, kicked him, beat him with wooden clubs, threw large rocks and other objects at him, and used an electric shocker on him. Rozen suffered bruises, swelling, cuts, and three broken vertebrae. His attackers posted video clips of the incident on social media.