Arab who plotted to kill Ovadia Yosef sentenced
Jerusalem Magistrates Court sentences Moussa Darwish to a 12-year prison term for having planned to assassinate Shas’ spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Judges: Murderous plan would have jeopardized Israel’s security as it would have prompted revenge attacks against Arabs in Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Magistrates Court on Thursday sentenced a Palestinian man to a 12-year prison term for having planned to assassinate Ovadia Yosef, Shas’ spiritual leader Rabbi
Moussa Darwish, 22, a resident of the village of Isawiah, located north of Jerusalem, was convicted in September in the framework of a plea bargain in which he admitted that he planned to murder the prominent rabbi.
The judges wrote in their ruling that Darwish’s murderous plan would have jeopardized Israel’s security, as it would have prompted revenge attacks against Arabs in Jerusalem.
In 2004 Darwish suggested to a fellow Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine member that they open fire at Yosef while riding a motorcycle, and in December of the same year the two drove to Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul neighborhood as preparation for the assassination.
In the beginning of 2005 Darwish and his accomplice were supposed to receive ammunition from a fellow terrorist at the Shuafat checkpoint, but IDF presence in the area botched the transfer of bullets, and Darwish’s plan was foiled.
The affair was cleared for publication in April 2005, at which time it was reported that the Shin Bet arrested three Arab-Israeli residents of north Jerusalem for suspicion of plotting to kill Yosef.
Salah Hamouri, 20, and Muatztaf Sheikh, 25, were arrested along with Darwish.
