The state prosecution has charged two Israeli-Arabs who ran down and killed a nine year old girl on Yom Kippur with manslaughter. Asad Nasim Shibli (20) and Muhammad Mamon Shibli (21), from the village of Arab a-Shibli, entered neighboring Kfar Tavor as Yom Kippur began, driving an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) at high speed. They drove through a crowd that had gathered outside the synagogue and ran over Tal Zino, a nine year old girl, killing her.
The charge sheet shows that the two planned their action in advance. In early September, two or three weeks before Yom Kippur, the driver drove his ATV wildly near the Kfar Tavor gas station. When a uniformed Border Police volunteer castigated him for this, he answered: "Wait and see what we'll do to you on Yom Kippur." He then made a rude gesture at the volunteer and drove off wildly.
The prosecution initially intended to charge the driver with murder but leftist reactions led it to change the charges to manslaughter. Arabs and news media said that charges of murder for a driving "accident" were unprecedented and would never have been filed against Jews.
Kfar Tavor residents quoted in news reports after the incident accused the driver of the ATV of killing Tal on purpose. Asad Shibli reportedly ignored numerous requests to leave the area before killing the girl who had been riding her bicycle.
When a Border Police volunteer castigated him for this, he answered: "Wait and see what we'll do to you on Yom Kippur."
Eyewitnesses said that Shibli and his friend had been driving at approximately 120 kph down a street full of children. Shibli and the other youth on the ATV came up with various excuses for their murderous actions, and claimed that they were not aware that Yom Kippur had begun.
One witness derided the police for refusing to define the incident as a terrorist attack, saying that if a Jewish driver had done what Shibli did in an Arab village, he would be charged with racially based murder.
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