Israel's Supreme Court has harshened the sentences against two brothers convicted of setting fire to the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Bilingual School.
Shlomo and Nahman Tuito, along with accomplice Yitzhak Gabbai, scrawled graffiti and set fire to the Bilingual School in November of 2014 to protest the Jewish-Arab coexistence promoted by the school.
The brother were convicted in April as part of a plea bargain and in July were sentenced, respectively, to two and 2.5 years in prison for the arson.
However, the Supreme Court on Sunday increased the sentences to 38 months for Nahman and 32 months for Shlomo.
Judge Zvi Zilbertal ruled that the earlier sentences imposed on the two brothers were too light, asserting, "The defendants sought to take from students, parents, and the teaching staff the sense of security in an institution which is meant to be a safe space, especially when security disturbances are engulfing the whole country."
"The acts they perpetrated were done to increase the tension and incite hatred," he added. "The sow fear and lack of security among the public and hurt the values of tolerance, equality and coexistence."
Judge Elyakim Rubinstein also criticized the Jerusalem District Court's decision to commute the punishment, arguing, "The parents who choose the Bilingual School walk in a unique path to fight for the values of coexistence - who else but the Jewish people, whose history is filled with persecution because we are Jews, should be sensitive to others?"
"What will a little six or seven-year-old boy think when he sees message of racism and malice combined in arson and graffiti?" Rubinstein blasted. "Hence, the severity [of the action] and hence the harshening [of the sentence]."