Shechem Arab Gets Jail Sentence for Aiding Barkan Terrorist

A Shomron military court on Sunday imposed a 20 month jail sentence on Abdullah Fouad Mustafa Mahmoud, who was found guilty of assisting Ashraf Nalaweh, the terrorist who carried out the terror attack at the Barkan Industrial Zone a year ago. Along with the jail sentence, he was given an 18 month suspended sentence, and ordered to pay a fine of NIS 3,000.

Ashraf Nalaweh is the terrorist who last October murdered Ziv Hajabi, Hy”d, and Kim Levengard Yechezkel, Hy”d, in a terror attack in the Barkan industrial zone near Ariel. In the attack, Nalaweh murdered Hajabi and Yechezkel in the offices of Alon Metal Works in the Barkan Industrial Zone, where he worked. Nalaweh arrived for work in the morning, carrying with him an assault rifle hidden under his clothing. As a regular employee with a work permit, he was admitted to the grounds of the industrial zone without too much scrutiny, security officials said. He then rampaged through the company’s offices, shooting at will, and killing his two victims.

After the attack, Nalaweh escaped, and was at large for over a month, hiding out in various places. One of those was a mosque in Shechem, of which Mahmoud was the caretaker. Nalaweh told Mahmoud he was on the run, but not why he was wanted, and the latter offered the terrorist the opportunity to hide out at the mosque. Later, Mahmoud found out why Nalaweh was running, but he continued assisting him. He allowed the terrorist to use his phone, furnished him with a computer for online access, and transported a letter written by Nalaweh to his sister, who lived in Shechem. He also sought assistance to erase the recordings of the security cameras of the mosque, in order to remove any evidence of Nalaweh’s taking shelter there.

The court said that “the defendant assisted the terrorist to carry out two cruel murders. We cannot ignore the fact that the assistance was given on an ongoing basis, and not just as a one-time event. The defendant knew that Nalaweh murdered two Israelis and did not find it proper to halt the assistance. He also knew that the terrorist was armed, and thus remained a danger.”

Attorney Chaim Bleicher of the Honenu organization, which has been representing the families of the victims in the various trials surrounding the attacks, said that the decision “shows a positive trend which seeks to punish individuals for all assistance they render to terrorists. Punishments for terrorists and their accomplices must be increased, and a clear message must be given that anyone who participates in terror acts in any way will receive a heavy punishment.”