Arab teen indicted for stabbing soldier

Stabbing allegedly a revenge attack after defendant angered by Arab, CNN news reports on Palestinians.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
Light rail attack suspect in court 370 (photo credit: Melanie Lidman)
Light rail attack suspect in court 370
(photo credit: Melanie Lidman)
The Jerusalem district attorney filed an indictment on Thursday in the Jerusalem District Court charging an 18-year-old east Jerusalem youth with attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed a soldier on the capital’s light train network earlier this month.
The defendant, Muhammad Shuman from the Beit Hanina neighborhood, was also charged with possession of a knife and obstruction of justice.
The soldier, 19-year-old Yehudit Aharon, was stabbed several times in the upper body while traveling to her base on the Jerusalem Light Rail on March 15. She was transferred in a serious condition to Shaare Zedek Hospital and was released last Thursday. The stab wounds missed her heart by a few centimeters, which doctors said was “a miracle.”
According to the indictment, for three years before the attack, Shuman had watched Arab TV news reports about the Palestinians, including on Hamas’s Al-Aksa television channel and on CNN, and felt angry about the current situation and the IDF’s treatment of Palestinians at security checkpoints.
He allegedly took a folding knife with him when he left his home in Beit Hanina early on the day of the attack, intending to go to school for a test. However, when he got to school he decided he didn’t want to take the test, and at 10:20 a.m. he boarded a light rail train at the Shuafat Center station, where he saw the female soldier, the indictment charges.
He decided to “do something” about his anger regarding the Palestinians by stabbing and killing the soldier, the indictment continues.
As the train approached the Beit Hanina station, he allegedly got up, took out his knife and stabbed the soldier in an attempt to murder her. According to the indictment, the soldier tried to protect herself, but Shuman stabbed her repeatedly.
Shuman allegedly fled the train, but when he got home he decided to travel to Ramallah and boarded a bus. He threw his knife out of the bus window so it could not be used to connect him with the stabbing, the indictment says.
The soldier suffered cuts to her right hand, as well as stab wounds and fractures to her solar plexus. She was rushed to Shaare Zedek’s cardiac intensive care unit, where she required ventilation, a lung drain and stitches for her hand.
Alongside the indictment, the district attorney filed a request that Shuman be remanded in custody for the duration of the legal proceedings against him.
Melanie Lidman contributed to this report.