Mixed School Firebombers Hit With Jerusalem Civil Suit

Jewish and Arab students working on a project together at the Max Rayne Hand In Hand Jerusalem School.

By JTA November 4, 2015

The municipality of Jerusalem has filed a civil lawsuit against three men convicted of an arson attack on a joint Arab-Jewish school in Jerusalem.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday seeks more than half a million shekel, or about $130,000 in damages, which includes costs for repairing the building as well as paying for psychological treatment for the children in the wake of the attack.

A fire was set in the classroom of the joint Arab-Jewish Max Rayne Hand In Hand Jerusalem School on Nov. 29, 2014

“Death to Arabs” and “There is no coexistence with cancer” were among the anti-Arab epithets spray-painted on the school walls.

Brothers Nahman and Shlomo Twitto , ages 18 and 22, were convicted as part of a plea bargain in April and sentenced to two and two-and-a-half years in prison, as well as some financial reparations. Yitzhak Gabai, 22, was convicted in September and has not yet been sentenced. They are all active members of the Lehava organization, which works to prevent marriages and co-existence programs between Jews and Arabs.

The Hand In Hand Jerusalem School is Israel’s largest joint Arab-Jewish school and the only such primary and high school in the city. Five Hand in Hand schools are located throughout the country.

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