Five years after the Bat Yam promenade lynching attempt during Operation Guardian of the Walls, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled Thursday on seven defendants accused of attacking Said Musa from Ramla. Judge Sarit Zemer found that most of them acted out of nationalist and racist motives and convicted them of severe offenses, including a terrorist act of aggravated intentional injury. She wrote that the victim was forced to fight for his life against a raging mob that attacked him repeatedly and brutally, “only because he was Arab.”
The indictment, based on the events of May 12, 2021, said that social media activity preceded the violence, with calls to harm Arabs and Arab-owned businesses on the Bat Yam promenade. Dozens of people came to the area, vandalized and looted shops, and later attacked Musa after identifying him as Arab. According to the prosecution, the crowd chased his car, dragged him out, and beat him with fists, kicks, batons, a stun device, and even a scooter, causing serious injuries, including fractures to his face, eye sockets, and teeth.
The prosecution said the attacks were committed in a clear nationalist and racist context amid the fighting at the time, and presented extensive evidence from security cameras, street cameras, media footage, and civilian recordings. The defendants denied racist or ideological motives, with some claiming they believed at the time they were stopping a car-ramming attack and that Musa was a terrorist. Others said they had arrived by chance, were not part of any prior plan, or did not act together. Some admitted certain acts seen on video but said they reacted spontaneously. They also raised claims of selective enforcement and due process violations.
Zemer rejected most of those defenses and said the visual evidence was decisive. She wrote that it reflected the events “as they truly happened” and showed “a brutal attack on the complainant solely because he was identified as Arab.” She added that when defendants try to impose a reading that departs materially from what the footage plainly shows, they must provide a solid, clear, and convincing basis, which most did not.
In the verdict, David Butiarr was convicted of a terrorist act of aggravated intentional injury and theft, but acquitted of theft with racist intent. Moshe Mansur was convicted of the terrorist offense, and Maor Mugrabi was convicted of the same charge but acquitted of riot. Asher Itgab was acquitted of the terror offense but convicted of aggravated intentional injury. Yitzhak Goita was acquitted of the terror offense but convicted of three incitement-to-terror offenses, four incitement-to-racism offenses, and malicious damage to a vehicle with racist motive. Tamir Sarur and Yitzhak Saban were also convicted of terrorist acts of aggravated intentional injury. Sentences for six other defendants have already been imposed, including 12 years and six months for the main defendant, Netanel Benjamin, for attempted murder under terrorist circumstances.
