Court Reduces ‘Unfair’ Sentence of Arab Rock Throwers

Three High Court judges knocked three months off the sentences of six Arab teens who were convicted of throwing rocks and firebombs at Israeli vehicles traversing Road 6 last year – because other teens who did the same thing got less time in prison. “Not that we believe that all perpetrators of a crime deserve the same sentence, and that this group’s punishment should not differ from that of others,” the judges said in their decision. “The effect of an individual’s actions determine the relevant punishment.”

The six offenders were sentenced to terms of between 12 and 33 months each for their activities. The six stood on a bridge overlooking Road 6, a main north-south highway, and threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli vehicles on the road below. B’derech nes, no one was injured by their actions.

That fact, the judges said, should have nothing to do with reducing their sentence – but the fact that others who did the same thing, with the same result, got lesser sentences, weighed on their decision. “We do find that there are good reasons for reducing the sentence in question, in order to ease the gap between this punishment and others that have been meted out to their peers,” they said.