Stone throwers could be jailed for 10 years under new Israeli bill | World news | The Guardian

Justice minister moves to tackle protesters as Binyamin Netanyahu warns of an international campaign to ‘blacken’ Israel’s name

Protesters who throw stones at moving vehicles could be jailed for up to 10 years following the approval on Sunday of a bill by an Israeli ministerial legal committee.

The bill, which faces a series of parliament readings before coming into effect, would amend an existing law that allows stone throwers to be jailed for 20 years, but only if it can be proven they intended to inflict harm.

The new version would enable 10 years imprisonment for “throwing stones or other objects at travelling vehicles in a manner that could endanger the passenger’s safety” or harm the vehicle, the bill read.

The justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, of the far-right Jewish Home party, who presented the bill and heads the ministerial committee for legislation that approved it, noted that stone throwers were receiving “very soft punishments

compared to their crimes”, because intent was difficult to prove.