David Hasdai, a known extremist settler who was on a US sanctions list, was acquitted of terrorism charges and racially motivated crimes by the Lod Central District Court earlier this week over his role in a violent attack.
Hasdai had been indicted over an incident in which four Arab-Israeli women and a baby were severely assaulted after mistakenly driving into an illegal settlement outpost in the West Bank a year ago. He was acquitted due to problems the women had in correctly identifying him, as well as errors by the police in the investigative process.
Judge Efrat Fink nevertheless determined that there was no question the women had been severely assaulted and injured by Jewish rioters after entering the outpost, in an incident she said could have ended in their being killed.
She also said that there was no question Hasdai had been present at the beginning of the incident when the women mistakenly entered the outpost, since he acknowledged having spoken with them (the women testified he shouted threateningly at them).
Yaakov Goelman, another defendant, was convicted after pleading guilty to lesser charges than in the original indictment for chasing after the women, seizing their possessions, including their phones, and calling one of the women’s mothers and telling her that he was going to kill her daughter. Goelman received a sentence of eight months of community service on charges of blackmail and property damage.
Hasdai was held in police custody for nearly a year after being indicted, but was released after the court acquitted him on Monday. Eight suspects were initially questioned after the assault, but only Hasdai and Goelman were indicted.
The incident, which took place on August 9, 2024, generated severe condemnation at the time, with President Isaac Herzog speaking out strongly against the attack shortly after it occurred.
After the women mistakenly entered the notoriously radical illegal outpost of Givat Ronen in the northern West Bank, 20 Jewish extremists, many of whom were masked, chased after their car, bombarded the vehicle with rocks; sprayed them with teargas; set their car on fire while the women were still inside; screamed that they were going to kill them; psychologically tortured them; and caused them severe physical injuries and psychological trauma.
During the incident, one woman sustained a fractured shoulder, a fractured finger, injuries to her back, injuries to her feet, severe psychological trauma, fear of leaving her home and insomnia, according to the indictment.
The second woman sustained injuries to her head, a fractured ankle, “massive bleeding from her head,” loss of consciousness, severe pain in numerous parts of her body, dizziness, vomiting, insomnia, and grade three burns and other injuries to her feet.
A third woman sustained broken ribs, injuries and severe bruising to her hips and thigh, as well as other injuries to one of her knees, her feet, back and chest. The fourth woman sustained injuries to her feet, burning in her eyes, and was left with psychological trauma. The two-year-old child suffered some cuts, as well as burns to the soles of their feet.
“The five [women] barely managed to escape the mob and their burning vehicle, after they had been injured by the hail of stones and rocks, were covered in soot from the arson of their vehicle, and in fear for their lives,” wrote Fink in her ruling.
“This was a violent, severe and unimaginable incident, in which Jews attacked five Arab women, almost killing them, just because they were Arabs, and one can only imagine how those rioters would have felt if Jews had been harmed in the same way, just because of their identity,” the judge continued.
“The trauma and damage remain etched in the hearts, bodies, and minds of the complainants to this day, and will certainly remain with them [for a long time].”
Fink added that the women’s account of the incident itself was “totally reliable,” and said that Hasdai’s acquittal was not a result of a conclusion that they had not given a reliable account, but rather “a result of evidentiary difficulties in the identification process and linking the defendant to the violent event they experienced.”
The confusing, traumatic nature of the incident and the large number of assailants made it impossible to rule with the certainty needed for a criminal conviction that Hasdai has been one of the assailants who participated in the violent part of the assault.
Fink criticized the police for improperly conducting parts of the investigation, in particular aspects of the process to identify the assailants, as well as failing to go to the scene of the crime, among other failings.
“The verdict gives rise to real difficulties, in that no one has been held accountable for the serious acts committed against the complainants, and there is no doubt that this verdict will cause additional psychological burden on them,” wrote Fink in conclusion.
Attorney Adi Kedar, of the right-wing legal aid organization Honenu, which represented Hasdai, welcomed the court’s decision. “After a year of struggle in which the defendant was behind bars, the court issued a courageous verdict in which it acquitted the defendant of everything attributed to him in the serious indictment filed against him.”