The Haifa District Court in Israel today sentenced Ahmed Hindawi, a 23-year-old Arab-Israeli policeman, to 16 and a half years in prison for raping and sodomizing a 70-year-old Holocaust survivor:
Hindawi had been driving along a highway north of Haifa, he noticed the victim walking along the side of the road. He stopped the car and demanded she enter the vehicle. The victim refused and crossed over to the other side of the road. Hindawi then exited his car and grabbed her, throwing her over the railing on the side of the road. The woman tried to push Hindawi off, but he struck her on the head until she released her grip on the railing. He then pulled her into a thorny bush and raped her.
Hindawi then urinated on her in order to humiliate her, and left her there with injuries all over her body.
His victim, who had rebuilt her life in Israel after surviving the Holocaust, is now a mental and physical wreck, according to the judge.
Hindawi’s short sentence – 16 years – was apparently based on the fact he had made a full confession and pleaded guilty. Nevertheless this utterly despicable crime surely deserved a life sentence. (There is no death penalty in Israel.)