Stone-Thrower Who Killed Father and Toddler Gets Two Life Sentences
Solemn Moment: Jewish settlers gather for funeral of Asher Palmer and his son, Yonathan, whose car was hit by stone-throwing Palestinians on the occupied West Bank in 2011. Image by getty images
A Palestinian man convicted of the murder of an Israeli man and his infant son in a rock-throwing incident was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences and another 58-year sentence.
Waal al-Araja, a Palestinian security officer, was sentenced Tuesday by the Ofer Military Court for the killing of dual Israeli-American citizen Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan in September 2011.
Palmer’s car overturned after a rock crashed through the windshield. Police originally called the crash on Route 60 near Kiryat Arba an accident, but later found a large bloodstained rock in the car and deemed it a terror attack.
Al-Araja admitted during the trial that he threw the rocks, but said he did not intend to kill anyone. The judges said in their verdict earlier this month that Al-Araja understood the harm that throwing rocks could cause and that he intended to harm his victims.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
