Nassim Hamada, an Arab resident of the Zur Baher neighborhood of Jerusalem, was sentenced Sunday morning to ten and a half months in prison for praising a terrorist attack and other crimes.
The sentence was the result of a plea deal on dozens of charges of incitement, conspiracy to support and assist in terrorist attacks, and other charges.
Hamada was indicted for posted on his Facebook page messages that called for and supported terrorist attacks. Hamada admitted praising terror attacks in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and expressed his desire to see more terror attacks in which Israeli civilians and security officials would be killed.
In one of his postings, for example, Hamada wrote in October 2014 of his approval of a hit and run terror attack at a Jerusalem Light Rail train station. A baby girl, Chaya Zisel Braun, was killed and eight people were injured in the Octover 22, 2014 attack, after a terrorist hit them with his car outside the Givat Hatachmoshet (Ammunition Hill) Light Rail stop.
Hamada wrote of that attack that “the martyr has run down dogs at the train station.”
In March of this year, he reposted his original message, adding that “we haven't had a car terror attack for awhile. But it will come – just be patient and shout 'Allah Akhbar.'” In a separate post praising rockets attacks against Israelis, he said the rockets were “the way to oppose Zionism.”
In a statement, Judge Eitan Kornhauser said Sunday that after considering all the facts, “this is after all the defendant's first run-in with the law. I find that the plea arrangement is a proper sentence in a case like this.”