Israeli court jails Arab attackers of Jewish extremist

An Israeli court on Thursday sentenced to jail five Israeli Arabs for their role in the killing of a Jewish soldier that went on a shooting spree against Arabs eight years ago, in a decision that ignited rage among the Arab community. In 2005, Israeli soldier Eden Natan-Zada opened fire with an army-issued rifle in a bus that was heading to the northern Arab town of Shefaram. He killed four people and wounded 12 others before the passengers disarmed and cuffed him. Video footage showed that after he was cuffed he was beaten by a mob until he died. Natan-Zada, who was a supporter of the far-right extremist Kahanist movement and a resident of settlement Tapuah in the occupied West Bank, allegedly acted in opposition to the Israeli government's disengagement plan from Gaza that took place two weeks later. On Thursday, the Haifa District Court sentenced three of the defendants to two years in prison for attempted manslaughter, and other two to prison terms of between 18 and 20 months. Hundreds of Shefaram residents and other Israeli Arabs rallied outside the court during the reading of the sentence. Jamil Safuri, who is with the Shefaram Popular Committee, told Xinhua that the sentence illustrates the severe discrimination against the Arab minority in Israel, which constitute 20 percent of the country's population. "Jewish terrorists who kill Arabs get light penalties, sometimes even only probations," he said. "Instead of prosecuting us, the police should have defended the people of Shefaram from cases like this," Safuri added.