The Tel Aviv District Court rejected unanimously on Monday an appeal by two
youths, including a former IDF soldier, convicted of failing to prevent the
brutal attack that killed Arik Karp three years ago.
Karp was brutally
beaten and kicked to death in August 2009 on the Tel Baruch Beach in northern
Tel Aviv, by a gang of intoxicated youths from Jaljulya.
Or Levy, a
former IDF soldier, and Fadi Jaber were convicted alongside two others last
March of failing to prevent the killing, by standing by and not calling for help
or for police as Karp was beaten repeatedly.
Both Levy and Jaber appealed
against community service sentences handed down by the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s
Court last July.
Levy received three months of community service and a
seven-month suspended sentence, while Jaber was sentenced to six months of
community service and a suspended sentence of nine months.
In rejecting
the appeal, judges Dvora Berliner, George Kara and Miriam Sokolov said the
magistrate’s court had been “merciful” in not sentencing Levy and Jaber to
prison time.
“The entire incident is one of the most difficult that
Israeli society has ever encountered,” the judges said.
According to the
indictment, the group from Jaljulya, along with Or Levy, met up at Tel Baruch
beach on the night of the killing, where they drank alcohol. Karp, together with
his wife, Sara, and his daughter, Anataliya, arrived at the beach at about the
same time and sat down on a bench.
Shortly afterwards, three of the
Jaljuliya men beat Karp to death, while the rest of the group, including Levy,
looked on.
Last July, the three Jaljulya youths – including a minor –
convicted of Karp’s manslaughter were sentenced to 26 years in prison and
ordered to pay Karp’s family NIS 100,000 in compensation.
A week later,
the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ruled that Levy, Jaber and two others – Fuad
Mussa and Mahmoud Ades – would not be sentenced to prison terms but would
receive community service sentences.
In appealing the sentence, Levy’s
defense counsel, attorney Nir Alfasa, argued that the magistrate’s court had
failed to take into account that Levy had not taken part in the violence against
Karp. Alfasa contended that the amended indictment alleged that Levy had shouted
out to Karp’s killers to stop the attack.
It was precisely Levy, Alfasa
argued, who was at a physical disadvantage in relation to the male attackers,
who “responded in the face of the violence.”
Jaber’s defense lawyer,
attorney Moshe Yochai, argued among other things that Jaber had planned to study
at the Technion in Haifa but that opportunity was ruined as a result of the
incident, which had harmed him and his image. Although Jaber was not the victim,
Yochai said, he had not wanted the incident to happen and had expressed
remorse.
In rejecting the appeal, however, the judges said that Jaber and
Levy had stood by while the Karp family had been attacked by a “bunch of drunken
thugs.”
“[Jaber and Levy] stood by, watching the proceedings before them
and took the minimal possible actions to prevent the attack from continuing, and
in retrospect, to prevent the death of [Karp],” the judges said.
Levy and
Jaber’s conduct indicated their “moral attitudes – or perhaps, their amoral
attitudes – to the terrible incident that happened,” the judges
added.
After the brutal attack, the judges noted, the appellants,
together with the rest of the gang, got into their cars and left, to continue
drinking and enjoying themselves.
“Their behavior reflects a complete
lack of sensitivity, it erased all traces of humanity or human dignity,” the
judges said, adding that all the defendants had acted as a group, and that Levy
and Jaber had been part of a group activity.
In the final analysis, the
judges said, “the disgust that every human being should express towards the
appellants’ behavior should be expressed in punishing them.”
“We say
openly, that if the lower court had imposed prison terms [on the appellants], we
doubt we would have intervened,” the judges concluded.