Jewish settler sentenced over arson attack

A Jewish settler was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for arson, the longest sentence handed by an Israeli court over "price tag attacks."

The defendant, Benjamin Richter, was sentenced by the District Court of Lod to 12 months of probation on top of the 3-year sentence and ordered to pay nearly 4,000 U.S. dollars fine.

Richter was found guilty of conspiring to conduct a hate crime, arson and vandalism over racist motivations, who set fire with two others to vehicles in the Palestinian village of Farata in November, causing great damages.

Last month, Richter's accomplices, Yehuda Landsberg and Yehuda Savir, were sentenced to prison terms of two and a half years.

Landsberg and Savir admitted to their part of the attack, whereas Richter did not cooperate in the investigation. The two signed a plea deal and provided evidence against Richter in exchanged for reduced sentences.

Price tag attacks are acts of vandalism perpetrated towards Palestinians but also against churches and mosques, by far--right Israeli settlers, usually in response to the evacuation of settlements.

In 2013, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli authorities would fight the "price tag" attacks with all means. However, the number of convictions on price tag acts is still low.

According to police figures presented at the Knesset (parliament) Internal Affairs Committee in 2013, there have been 788 price tag attacks between January 2012 and June 2013. Over this period 276 arrests were made and 154 indictments have been filed.

In February 2014, an Israeli youth, who set fire to Palestinian property in 2012, was sentenced to six months of community service in the first sentence handed over a price tag attack.

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