The Jerusalem Magistrates Court sentenced a West Bank settler to one and a half years in prison on Sunday, after he was convicted of kidnapping and attacking a Palestinian minor on two occasions and killing his young goat.

The settler, Tzvi Struk – a resident of the Aish Kodesh settlement in Gush Shiloh – will also pay the minor NIS 50,000 in compensation.

Open gallery view Tzvi Struk Credit: Emil Salman

According to the verdict, in 2007 Struk, together with another unidentified individual approached some Palestinians from Kfar Kusra on an all-terrain vehicle and fired in the air. Following that, Struk and his friend snatched a 15-year old Palestinian teenager and hit him all over his body. Struk and his friend bound the complainant's hands behind his back, covered his face, sat him between them in the all-terrain vehicle and drove off. During the ride, the complainant was beaten and lost consciousness. When he eventually woke up he was wet.

The verdict was given before Judge Amnon Cohen at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court on Sunday. The judge wrote that "I cannot help but express deep contempt and shock from the serious wounds this minor was fated to." He added that "any punishment that does not include an element of an active prison term would miss the message that needs to come out of the court in light of the severity of the actions made by the accused."

Struk's mother, Orit, who is among the leading figures of the Jewish settlement in Hebron, said in response that "the verdict grants victory to lying Arabs who are waging a national war against the Jewish farmers. The judge turned a farmer, father to three children, into a scapegoat in battle."

