Conclusion
- The version given by Shimon to the police about the circumstances that preceded the Sheikh Jarrah incident, the preparation made by the defendant for this incident - the acquisition of fuel and beer bottles, and the walk in preparation for the incident - fits well with the documentation in the videos of Sheikh Jarrah and the gas station, with the identification of Shimon in these videos by Shimon, Rabbi Peretz and Idan, and with the identification of the defendant in the aforementioned videos by Shimon, Rabbi Peretz and other witnesses. The testimony of the Honda driver about filling up the fuel at the gas station at Shimon's request, the large number of conversations recorded between Shimon and the defendant on the day of the incident in Sheikh Jarrah, the findings at the scene - the beer bottle containing residual fuel, and the backpack seized at the meeting - which contained remnants of fuel - all of these are consistent with Shimon's descriptions of the circumstances that preceded the Sheikh Jarrah incident in his interrogations with the police, and support the version he gave.
Identification of the Defendant
The documentation in the security camera footage
- Security camera footage documented Molotov cocktail throwing in all the incidents that are the subject of the indictment. The quality of the videos is uneven. All of the videos have segments in which one can get an impression of good documentation and a relatively sharp and clear picture (video of Jarrah's speech - 03:41:48; the postal video - 03:56:11; the Bank Leumi video - 03:48:48; 03:53:23; the video of Mercantile Bank - 04:06:21; the court video - 04:24:53, 04:36:18). With an unprofessional eye, I will already note that there is a great similarity between the man documented in these segments and the defendant. The rest of the videos are of lower quality, whether due to lack of lighting or sufficient sharpness or due to the distance of the camera from the documented character. In most of the sections, one can get the impression that this is a man, wearing dark clothes and a hoodie, wearing a jacket and carrying a backpack with clear characteristics (see below in paragraphs 67-74).
- The defendant was identified by Shimon during his interrogations with the police in the clip from the Sheikh Jarrah video and in the gas station video. The defendant was also identified by Rabbi Mordechai Peretz, the supervisor of the yeshiva where the defendant studied, in a segment from the Sheikh Jarrah video and in a segment from the Bank Leumi video. Three other witnesses - two of his friends and his employer - identified the defendant in their interrogations with the police in excerpts from the various videos. I will review the identification by each of these witnesses.
Testimony of Shimon Cohen
- In his interrogations with the police, Shimon identified the defendant and himself with certainty as the characters documented in the Sheikh Jarrah video. In his first interrogation with the police on 8 November 2023, Shimon maintained his right to remain silent, but after he was shown an excerpt from a video of Sikh Jarrah, he confirmed that at the time of the incident he was walking with the defendant in the streets, saying: "... We all went for a walk at the Western Wall" (P/66, line 37).
In his second interrogation with the police on 13 November 2023, when he was shown clips from the video of Sikh Jarrah, Shimon identified himself and the defendant as the two characters documented in the video (P/67A, p. 9, lines 207-208; p. 16, line 397). Shimon also identified the defendant as the person who was filmed in the security camera throwing Molotov cocktails in Sheikh Jarrah after the two separated (P/67A, p. 15, line 378).
- In his interrogation with the police on 15 November 2023, Shimon also identified himself and the defendant in the gas station video (P/69A, 21, line 553).
It is worth noting that the footage of the two men in the gas station video is of very good quality, the area documented is illuminated and the image is sharp. In the gas station video, the similarity between the men documented and the defendant and Shimon is evident even to those who do not have prior acquaintance with the two. It is also important to clarify the similarities between the two men documented in the gas station video and the two men documented in the Sheikh Jarrah video - and in particular the similarity in the body structure of the two men in both videos - with one man being shorter and thinner than the other. In any case, the identification in the gas station video sheds light on the identification in the video of the Jarrah speech.
- Against the background of the detailed version given by Shimon in his interrogation with the police - regarding the preparations for the Sheikh Jarrah incident - the purchase of fuel and beer bottles, preparations in advance with appropriate clothes, the joint walk of the defendant and Shimon towards the destination, as well as the defendant's return to the yeshiva in the early morning, and in view of the correspondence between the version given by Shimon and the documentation in the videos of Sheikh Jarrah and the gas station, I am convinced that Shimon's identification of the defendant in the excerpts from the videos of Sheikh Jarrah and at the gas station is credible. and has the power to establish the identity of the defendant.
Testimony of Rabbi Mordechai Peretz
- Rabbi Mordechai Peretz served as a mashgiach in the yeshiva, and according to him, he had been acquainted with the defendant for about eight months, since the defendant was admitted to the yeshiva and began to sleep in the boarding rooms of the yeshiva (p. 20 of the minutes of the hearing of December 22, 2024, lines 10-15, 23-24).
In his testimony in court, Rabbi Peretz identified the defendant with a high level of certainty in two of the security camera footage. Regarding the video of Shih Jarrah, Rabbi Peretz testified that the man on the right of the two men documented in the video is "very similar" to the defendant in terms of "height and facial features" (page 24 of the transcript of the hearing of December 22, 2024, line 12). Rabbi Peretz estimated that he identified the defendant in this video with a level of "80 percent" certainty. 85, maybe 90" (page 30 of the minutes of the hearing of December 22, 2024, line 11).