The Lod District Court today (Monday) acquitted David Hasdai, one of the defendants accused of assaulting four women and a toddler from the Bedouin community at the Givat Ronen outpost in the Samaria region.
Hasdai, 30 years old, married and a father, resident of Givat Ronen, was accused of participating in an attempted lynching about a year ago, allegedly motivated by racism and under circumstances defined as a terrorist act. Since the incident, Hasdai had been held in custody—for an entire year.
At the time Hasdai was included in former President Joe Biden's admin sanction list, but the sanctions against him were rescinded by the Trump administration. Hasdai is still facing sanctions by other countries, including Canada and Australia.
After his arrest, about fifty members of the coalition, including many ministers and representatives of all the parties in the government, penned a letter to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant demanding that Hasdai and another man recently placed under administrative arrest at his order be immediately released, but when they received a letter from the Defense Minister, "which included a security review on the essential need for administrative detentions, which are carried out sparingly, we decided to withdraw our signature from the document calling for the release of the administrative detainees. We trust the decision of the Minister of Defense, which was made in light of the recommendations of the Shin Bet, and based solely on security considerations. As elected officials, we have a responsibility to calm the spirits," the MKs wrote.
In her acquittal decision, Judge Efrat Fink detailed several investigative failures in the case, including: the investigating unit's decision not to conduct a proper suspect lineup, instead showing the complainants only a single photo; the fact that, due to a technical issue, the confrontation between the defendant and the complainants was not recorded; denial of the defendant’s right to consult with an attorney before the confrontation; and the conducting of a joint phone call between the investigating unit and the three complainants regarding the identification of the suspect.
Attorney Adi Keidar from the Honenu organization, representing Hasdai, welcomed the court's decision. “After a year of struggle, during which the defendant was behind bars, the court has issued a courageous ruling acquitting him of all the serious charges brought against him in the indictment.”
“We welcome the verdict, but at the same time, it is critical to study carefully the severe flaws—if not outright crimes—committed by the Israeli police and the Shin Bet. In the end, the police failed to properly investigate the case and essentially led or pressured the complainants into identifying the suspect through a flawed and inadmissible procedure. The court rejected this entirely, leading to his full acquittal,” he concluded.