The defendant acted out of a nationalist and ideological motive
- The nature of the Molotov cocktail throwing at homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, the circumstances of the shooting, as well as the timing of the acts, necessitate that the defendant acted out of nationalist and ideological motives.
The defendant threw Molotov cocktails in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, an Arab neighborhood located in East Jerusalem, on a predominantly Arab street, and at homes inhabited by Arab residents. The defendant did not provide any other explanation for the reason for choosing these targets for throwing Molotov cocktails. No dispute was presented between the defendant and any of the victims at whose homes Molotov cocktails were thrown, and no other logical reason was described as to why the defendant threw Molotov cocktails specifically at the homes of Arabs in the East Jerusalem neighborhood, other than because of the Arab nationality of his victiMs. It is therefore impossible to avoid the conclusion that the targets of the attack were arbitrary, and that the Molotov cocktails were thrown at them only because of their location in an Arab neighborhood and the fact that their residents were Arabs.
In this regard, I will refer to Shimon's statement in his interrogations with the police, that the defendant intended to enter an area where Arabs were present, and in his words: "that he wanted to enter for its own sake... You have the mamilla, right? You've got downstairs... Arabs..." (Interrogation transcript, November 14, 2023, P/67A, page 39, lines 989-997).
Although Shimon stated in his statement that he did not know whether the defendant intended to throw at Arabs and in a place of Arabs (ibid., p. 38, line 959), and even though Shimon later replied that both Jews and Arabs lived on the street in question (ibid., p. 44, line 1131), it still emerges from his aforementioned statements that the Arab identity of the local residents served as a factor in the defendant's choice of this place as a target for his actions.
- The timing of the acts - in the early morning hours of October 10, 2023, less than three days after the Simchat Torah attack, on October 7, 2023 - also indicates the motive for carrying them out. In the absence of any other explanation for the arbitrary throwing of Molotov cocktails at Arab homes in an East Jerusalem neighborhood, the impression is growing that the choice to throw Molotov cocktails at Arab homes in East Jerusalem was influenced by the attack and was made in response to it.
This impression also emerges from Shimon's statements in his police interrogations, according to which the events in Israel and around the world were behind the defendant's decision to throw Molotov cocktails in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Shimon said that the defendant spoke about the war and the situation in the world in the context of the acts, and in his own words: "He said to me, look at what is going on in the world... I told him yes, what will we do" (transcript of the interrogation, November 14, 2023, P/67A, page 44, lines 1109-1113), and also: "He talked to me about the war... He told me he wanted to buy bottles of beer, I told him why?... He told me not to worry" (transcript of the interrogation dated November 19, 2023, P/69A, page 10, lines 260-268; see also below on p. 11, line 281). In the confrontation between Shimon and the defendant on November 19, 2023, Shimon claimed, in the presence of the defendant, and in response to the question: "Did he tell you why he wanted to throw the Molotov cocktails?": "Due to the situation... Stay... With the Arabs... I have sprinkled the war" (P/29B, page 17, lines 433-444).