Sur Bahir woman sentenced to 16 years in prison for Old City attack
The court also sentenced the woman, Sarouk Dawisat, to pay NIS 80,000 compensation to the two men she attacked, one of whom she stabbed.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBUpdated: DECEMBER 26, 2016 02:27Knife [Illustrative](photo credit: INGIMAGE)
A woman from the capital’s southeastern Sur Bahir neighborhood was sentenced on Sunday to 16 years in prison for attempted murder with nationalistic motivations when she stabbed a Jewish man in the Old City on October 7, 2015.The Jerusalem District Court also sentenced the woman, Sarouk Dawisat, to pay NIS 80,000 compensation to the two men she attacked.Dawisat had posted her intentions to perpetrate a terrorist attack on Facebook shortly before she took action.In one post, she wrote she wanted to be a “martyr,” and, “Our greatest hope is to be a martyr for God.”Days before her attack she wrote another post which said she would remain loyal to “Palestine” and to the blood of martyrs, “as long as blood streams through my veins,” as well as, “May we all die. Congratulations to whoever dies a martyr.”Dawisat left her home with a 30-centimeter kitchen knife.Shortly after leaving the house, she also purchased a 10-centimeter Phillips screwdriver.She took a bus to the Damascus Gate and made her way onto the Temple Mount.In the Old City, she also bought an additional knife, of 15 centimeters in length.When Dawisat spotted two Jewish men in the on Hagai Street near the Lions’ Gate, she took out her knife and stabbed one of them in the left shoulder and in the head. The second Jewish man responded by trying to hit and fend her off with his laptop computer.Next, the wounded man took out a gun and shot Dawisat multiple times. Despite his shooting her, she continued to try to attack the men until security personnel arrived and overpowered her.The stabbed man suffered moderate wounds.The court noted that Dawisat was young woman with her life ahead of her and that she grew up in an oppressive family and in a rundown neighborhood. However, the court gave her an extended sentence since she expressed no remorse for her actions and had significantly wounded one of the men.