Young terror victim: It's a shame terrorist didn't get a life sentence
After being sentenced to 12 years in prison for stabbing Naor Ben-Ezra and another 21-year-old victim, Naor speaks out about his disappointment that the punishment was not as harsh as he expected.
Manasra was sentenced to 12 years in prison earlier the same evening. The Jerusalem District Court also ordered him to pay NIS 100,000 to Ben-Ezra and NIS 80,000 in compensation to his second victim, 21-year-old Yosef Ben-Shalom who was also injured in the attack. Moreover, the court sentenced him to two years suspended sentence.
“It is a shame that the terrorist did not receive a life sentence,” Naor commented later on Monday evening, too emotional to speak in the courtroom itself.
Also present in the courtroom as the sentence was being handed down was his father Shai, who also expressed his disappointment in the punishment meted out against the minor who critically wounded his son.
“While the prosecutor did get the punishment he requested (for the terrorist), he requested half of the maximum,” Shai said. “From Naor’s point of view, the attack completely destroyed his adolescence, his Bar-Mitzvah and sent his family into serious disarray.
“We adults hope that the punishment will be a deterrence but Naor experienced the daily difficulties. Every time he takes off a shirt he has to deal with it. This is now a chapter that has concluded for him and he needs to continue his life.”
Shai also reflected on the twisted results of Palestinian incitement on children. "I hope the court learns the lesson so cases like this do not happen again. To see a child who is my son's age trying to stab him is very painful and upsetting, it feels like there's no one you can trust. Children are supposed to play and eat candy, not murder."
The attack made international headlines when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas publicly accused Israel of “executing” Manasra “in cold blood,” while he was in fact alive and being treated for serious wounds at an Israeli hospital. After photos emerged of the boy recovering at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted Abbas for “incitement.”
