An Israeli court has sentenced seven Arabs citizens to prison terms of eight months to two years for their part in the lynching of a soldier who went on a deadly shooting spree in 2005.

A Haifa district court judge said Thursday that despite the soldier’s actions, a democracy could not tolerate vigilante justice and rejected an “eye for an eye” defense. Following the verdict, Israeli Arabs hurled stones toward police in protest of what they called unjust punishment.

Eden Natan-Zada was a Jewish extremist who went AWOL from his military unit in 2005 before embarking of a shooting spree on a bus in a northern Arab town. He killed four Arabs before running out of ammunition. An angry mob then beat him to death after he was arrested and in handcuffs.

on 13 June 2006, seven suspects in the lynching were arrested. The seventh suspect turned himself in to the police. The police said: “We’re responsible for maintaining the law, and you can’t take the law into your own hands. Even when it concerns a terrorist who murdered innocent people even though he made a heinous terrorist act”. Two suspects were subsequently released. There was general support for their arrest and even left-wing activist Yossi Beilin said: “Israel can’t put up with a lynch made on a handcuffed person even if his actions are heinous and unforgivable. It’s a combined interest of both Jews and Arabs that Israel won’t close its eyes to such behaviour”. The Arab Knesset members however demanded their release and called their arrest a crime.

On 7 June 2009, twelve Arab citizens were indicted over the lynching in the Haifa District Court. Seven were charged with attempted murder. In March 2010, Maher Talhami, their defense lawyer, stated that recently discovered aerial footage of the bus, recorded by an Israeli drone before, during and after the attack took place indicates that Israeli defense officials were aware of Natan-Zada’s intentions.

In July 2013, the seven defendants charged with attempted murder were acquitted of that charge, but four were convicted of attempted manslaughter. Two others were convicted of aggravated battery, and the seventh was exonerated entirely.

(AP – Studio B)