Khalil Jabarin also ordered to pay NIS 1,250,000 in compensation to family of victim; widow Miriam Fuld says life sentence suitable for attacker’s ‘abominable’ act
A West Bank military court sentenced a Palestinian teenager to life in prison Tuesday for the murder of Israeli-American Ari Fuld in a 2018 stabbing terror attack at the West Bank’s Gush Etzion Junction.
The Judea Military Court also ordered 17-year-old Khalil Jabarin to pay NIS 1,250,000 ($365,128) to Fuld’s family as compensation.
The court earlier this year convicted Jabarin of one count of intentionally causing death - the military court’s equivalent of murder - and three counts of attempted murder.
The court earlier this year convicted Jabarin of one count of intentionally causing death - the military court’s equivalent of murder - and three counts of attempted murder.
In a statement after the sentencing, Fuld’s wife Miriam said the sentence matched the “abominable” act.
“I felt that the judges heard us and then got to know the man that Ari was,” she said.
Before the hearing, Miriam Fuld told reporters, “Ari is our hero. He learned to protect the country and the Jewish people, on social media, in army reserve duty, in advocacy, and we expect the court to protect him as he protected the land of Israel. Only a life sentence is suitable for such an abominable act.”
Fuld’s mother, Mary Fuld, said, “As a mother, there are no consolations. As an Israeli citizen, there is justice and that is what we expect. Justice.”
His brother Eitan Fuld said: “In a just world that man would be sentenced to death. The absolute minimum is that he should not see the light of day. The man that destroyed a family needs to sit behind bars until his last day.”
Jabarin stabbed Fuld, a father of four, multiple times in the back and neck as he was standing outside a supermarket near the Gush Etzion Junction in the central West Bank.
After he was stabbed, Fuld pursued and shot his assailant, who was attempting to attack a shop employee, possibly saving her life. He then collapsed and was rushed to a hospital, but succumbed to his wounds.
In January 2019, Israeli security forces demolished Jabarin’s home in Yatta, near Hebron, carrying out the controversial policy that the IDF says helps deter future terror attacks.
In Jabarin’s case, it appeared as though his family had attempted to prevent him from carrying out the attack. The IDF said Jabarin’s mother had gone to the Meitar checkpoint in the southern West Bank and warned soldiers, at approximately the same time the stabbing took place, that her son planned to commit an attack.
Jabarin, who was shot by Fuld and another armed civilian at the scene, was taken to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in moderate condition with multiple gunshot wounds, hospital officials said at the time. He was indicted a month later.
Fuld, 43, was born in New York and later moved to the West Bank settlement of Efrat.
A well-known Israel advocate and right-wing activist, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Distinction - the third-highest award that can be granted by the Israel Police.
(Courtesy of Times of Israel)