Kfar Kassem Arab Worked With Islamists, Planned Yerushalayim Stabbing

An indictment has been handed down against an Arab resident of the town of Kfar Kassem, which lies right next to Rosh Ha’ayin. The indictment against Ahmad Sarsour, 20, accuses him of conspiring with Islamists abroad to raise money for Jihadist organizations, and for planning to carry out a stabbing attack in Yerushalayim.

According to the indictment, Sarsour contacted Jihadist activists via social media channels and discussed the situation in Syria, and how he could assist Islamists fighting there. He expressed a desire to go to Syria and help out personally. On several occasions he sent donations to the groups. He also worked with an al-Qaeda activist to plot the murder of a Dutch political official after the controversy that erupted in the wake of caricatures of Mohammed.

In recent years, Sarsour had raised money in order to purchase weapons, the indictment said. In another charge, the indictment says that he had planned a stabbing attack in Yerushalayim, and he traveled to the mosques on Har HaBayis, where he planned to pray and then carry out the attack. He was talked out of the action by an acquaintance. Police arrested him in October in his home in Kfar Kassem, and when he saw them approaching, he tried to delete the social media channels he had been using to speak to Islamists, police said.