State indicts Palestinian for arson attack on Jerusalem events center

Mohanid Kawasme, 27 of Hebron, was charged with arson, resisting arrest, entering Israel illegally, impersonating someone else and forging documents.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Updated: AUGUST 17, 2015 00:34
Gavel [Illustrative] (photo credit: INIMAGE)
Gavel [Illustrative]
(photo credit: INIMAGE)
The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office on Sunday filed an indictment against Mohanid Kawasme with the Jerusalem District Court for the August 9 arson attack on the View banquet hall in the capital’s Talpiot neighborhood.
Kawasme, 27, of Hebron, was charged with arson, resisting arrest, entering Israel illegally, impersonating someone else and forging documents.
According to the indictment, Kawasme ignited a fire on an oil tank area being used for storage next to the hall in order to take revenge for having been fired three months earlier.
The fire allegedly caused hundreds of thousands of shekels of damage to the contents of the storage area.
One of the hall’s employees noticed the fire and called for the fire department who rushed to the scene in time to extinguish the fire before it spread to nearby buildings, said the indictment.
Next, the indictment said police located Kawasme at a different events center in Jerusalem, Artemisia, where he was working after being fired from View. When Kawasme saw the police approaching him, he attempted to flee, but the police succeeded in apprehending him.
The indictment also accused Kawasme of having purchased a forged identity card in 2012, which he then used on dozens of occasions to illegally enter Israel.
The background to Kawasme’s hiring and firing involved his forged ID.
Kawasme was only hired by View when he presented his documentation for having the legal right to travel to and work in Israel, said the indictment.
He was fired later, noted the indictment, when View learned that Kawasme was not in the country legally.
The state requested to keep Kawasme in police custody until his trial ends.


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