Two brothers who torched a Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem have been sentenced in Jerusalem District Court to 2 ½ years in prison.
“Lehava” extremist members Nachman Twito, 18 and his brother Shlomo, 22, were sentenced today (Wednesday, July 22) after their conviction on charges of vandalizing and setting a classroom on fire at the Jewish-Arab Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School.
Nachman was sentenced to two years in prison and a 10 month suspended sentence. He also was ordered to pay the school NIS 15,000 in damages. Shlomo was sentenced to two years in prison and received an 8 month suspended sentence. He was ordered to pay the school NIS 10,000 in damages.
The brothers, both residents of Beitar Illit, were arrested on December 7, 2014 and confessed to having torched the country’s largest integrated school on November 29. They also spray-painted graffiti in Hebrew on the walls inside the school: “Kahane was right,” “Enough with assimilation,” “Death to Arabs,” and “You can’t coexist with a cancer.”
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said in a statement that the two brothers and a third accomplice still on trial – Yitzchak Gabai – attacked the school “because Jews and Arabs learn together at the school, and the goal was to put opposition to coexistence and assimilation in the public eye.”
