Natanel Kellerman, Aharon Sadigorski and Yehiel Lacks in court in Be'er Sheva yesterday
Three Settler Youth Indicted For Hate Crimes Against Palestinians
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Three settler youths were indicted yesterday for allegedly committing hate crimes against Palestinians. Natanel Kellerman, Aharon Sadigorski and Yehiel Lacks allegedly set a Palestinian-owned car on fire and sprayed graffiti near Dahariya, south of Hebron.
The allegedly three drove out of the settlement of Maon with rocks, a toy weapon, a bottle with flammable liquid, a crowbar, pocket knives, disposable gloves, matches, spray paint and nails, Ha’aretz reported.
They then allegedly entered the Arab village of Dahariya, set a car on fire and sprayed graffiti on walls. They then went to the Arab village of Samoa, where police were waiting for them.
Kellerman, Sadigorski and Lacks tried to escape, but the escape attempt failed.
Lacks allegedly attacked a police officer after the escape attempt was foiled.
A fourth settler may have been in the car with Kellerman, Sadigorski and Lacks and did manage to escape while Kellerman, Sadigorski and Lacks were being arrested.
"These price tag actions against innocent people and their property, who were chosen only because they are Arab, were meant to convey various messages in violent and offensive ways - to the Palestinian public, the Arabs in Israel and the Jewish population - as to the right and proper way to handle various incidents in Israel concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict.…The perpetrators of the price tag actions hoped to cause agitation and disquiet in the Judea and Samaria areas, and in residential areas populated by Arabs in Israel, and lead to agitation in these and other areas in a manner that might lead to disruption of law and order by the Arab and Palestinian population in Israel and in Judea and Samaria, which would compel the police and security forces to divert larger resources to restore law and order in these areas," the indictment reportedly reads.
The indictment cites no video, forensic, or eyewitnesses evidence pointing to the defendants' involvement in the crimes.
However, details in the indictment reportedly indicate that a GPS-type device which monitors location was attached to the car, which was parked for a month in Kiryat Arba. The minute the car was started, detectives followed it. The car was also bugged, but the audio quality of the recordings it made was poor.
Undercover agents also spoke to the suspects to get them to reveal details of the crimes.
Sadigorski spoke to those agents about hate crimes, but reportedly did not admit to setting that specific car on fire.
“From reading the indictment and the request to prolong the house arrest, one can learn that there is a problem with the evidence, and that the indictment was submitted in order to improve the image of the police after their failures to solve price tag events,” the defendants' attorney, Adi Keidar of the right-wing legal aid organization Hanenu told Ha’aretz.