The Arab truck driver who ran down 18 people and killed one last month has been charged with terrorism.
The indictment was served this morning in the Tel Aviv District Court against Isa Islam, 23, of Kafr Kasm, an Israeli-Arab city near Rosh HaAyin. Islam is already charged with one count of murder and several counts of attempted murder.
The attack occurred on May 15 - which Arabs in Israel and the PA mark, often with violence, as the "Day of Catastrophe" because of the State of Israel's establishment on that date. Islam, a truck driver, went on a rampage in which he crashed his vehicle into a bus and several cars over the course of about a mile in southern Tel Aviv. His wild run ended just outside the gates of an elementary school.
Islam claimed that he lost control of his truck because of a flat tire, and that he did not have any Arab nationalist motives. At least one eyewitness, however, said he made eye contact with the driver and saw clearly that it was pre-meditated. Some witnesses said they heard him yell "Allahu Akhbar,” a Jihad cry. A journalist covering the event said cynically, “I never saw a mile-long accident before…” It took the Prosecution nearly four weeks to determine that the attack was, in fact, pre-meditated and motivated by terrorism. This careful, lengthy examination of the events points to this accusation being based on facts not known to the general public.
Killed in the terrorist rampage was Aviv Morag, 29, of Givatayim, who was to have been married next month.