Last week, the IDF Judea Military Court exonerated terrorist Hamza Faiz, who had tried to murder Nirit Zamora, a resident of the Beit Hagai settlement. Why? The panel of judges decided the knife Faiz had used was too short and he had only stabbed Zamora once.
Faiz had gone from Hebron to a shopping center at the Gush Etzion junction. He stabbed Zamora in the back, near her spine, yelling, "Allahu akhbar." The blade stuck in her body and the knife broke off at the handle, which was the only thing that prevented him from stabbing her repeatedly. Zamora, a mother of eight, was seriously wounded and is still enduring a painful recovery process.
You feel compelled to rub your eyes in disbelief when you read the court ruling: "The blade broke off and the defendant was not able to stab the plaintiff additional times, but this fact is not sufficient to indicate that he intended to do so. Not only that, in a statement to the police, when he was asked how many times he intended to stab her, he answered simply, 'Once.'"
The judges also wrote that the fact that the terrorist fled could indicate that he no longer desired to stab his victim. They also said he was in financial trouble and had amassed debts, and this should also be taken into account. Can you believe it?
The panel of judges, which included Lt. Col. Zvi Heilbrun, Lt. Col. Etti Adar, and Maj. Haim Balilty, only convicted the terrorist on a count of intention to commit a terrorist act.
They made sure to add that "he didn't know that a knife could kill," and that if he had really wanted to kill Zamora, he would have used a bigger knife. They also noted that given the location of her injury and the force used, no intention to commit murder could be proved because the terrorist wasn't experienced enough. Zamora, who still has nightmares about the attack, was forced to listen to this ruling.
No decision could be more infuriating. This will only encourage more terrorists to set out to murder Jews. As if the boons and the salaries the Palestinian Authority pays them aren't enough, now the court lays out for them in detail how they can get off easy and avoid charges of murder or attempted murder.
When a terrorist stabs a Jewish woman while shouting "Allahu Akhbar," he clearly is not intending to engage in some tolerant conversation about the peace process; he intends to kill her. It's simple. Whether he managed to carry out his plan and whether he used an effective enough weapon are minor matters and should have little bearing on the final ruling.
The entire political echelon in Israel, and particularly the defense minister, need to react strongly to this ruling. The military court judges have slid down a dangerous, slippery slope when it comes to addressing lone-wolf terrorist attacks. This ruling does to the war on terrorism precisely what the terrorist did to Nirit Zamora – stabs it in the back.
