Please click here for a list of posts relating to cases in which Honenu provided legal counsel to victims of antisemitic attacks in Jerusalem.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher; Photo credit: Honenu
Monday, March 24, 2025, 15:09 In April 2024, a terrorist, who is a minor, hurled a Molotov cocktail at the home of a Jewish family in Jerusalem. He was arrested, and the Jerusalem District Court sentenced him to 18 months’ imprisonment, despite a demand from the State Attorney’s office for a three-year sentence. The State Attorney’s office appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. However, one week ago, they withdrew the appeal on the recommendation of the Supreme Court justices. Immediately afterward, the Prison Service parole board announced that they had reduced the terrorist’s sentence by one third. He is expected to be released in three weeks. Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher wrote to the State Attorney’s office demanding the cancellation of the decision, and they announced that they would petition against the decision.
In his letter to the State Attorney’s office, Attorney Bleicher described the attack: “On April 3, 2024, the terrorist and his friends threw several Molotov cocktails at my clients’ home in East Jerusalem. One of the Molotov cocktails hit the home and burst into flames very close to a window in the room in which my client and his wife were sitting. The other members of the family, the children, awoke in a panic as their parents ran to extinguish the fire and call security forces. The family, the parents and the children, were terrified and felt that their lives were threatened. The effects of the attack on the family are obvious even now.”
Attorney Bleicher underscored that releasing the terrorist would be detrimental to the security of terror victims: “This attempt to set a house on fire with the residents inside was a life-threatening attack. This arson attack is one of a long string of attempted murders of Jews. My clients have not yet recovered from the attempt to murder them and they are already faced with the threat of their released attacker returning to their neighborhood. Although the terrorist had already received a lenient sentence, the parole board decided to further lighten his penalty. This greatly harms my clients’ – terror victims – sense of security, and the public’s trust in the law enforcement system. I demand an urgent appeal of the parole board’s decision and a delay in releasing the terrorist.”