Last update - 00:00 20/08/2007
Man sentenced to 14 years in prison for killing man in street brawl
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent
A Tel Aviv court on Monday sentenced a man to 14 years imprisonment and two years suspended sentence for a murder committed two years ago in a park in Bat Yam.
The defendant, Avi Elimeleh, 27, was convicted of stabbing 22-year-old Kfir Dvora to death during a brawl that broke out between two groups of men in the park.
In his closing statements, the judge blasted the "knife subculture" in Israel and added that this incident, like many others in recent years, is a case of fighting that breaks out between two gangs of violent youths, and not a situation where "innocent kids" get involved in a dispute and get stabbed along the way.
Dvora reportedly arrived drunk at the scene of the stabbing and began quarreling with Elimeleh and his friends, in response to an earlier incident in which a member of Dvora's group was humiliated by a friend of Elimeleh.
As the indictment reads, Dvora hurled a brick at Elimelech in an attempt to "restore his friend's honor." The brick missed its intended target, striking Elimeleh's mother and injuring her.
At this point, Elimelech ran towards Dvora with the knife drawn and stabbed him to death.
Elimeleh's attorneys wish to appeal the verdict and the sentence, saying that the stabbing was committed in self-defense.
The victim's mother, Sara Dvora, testified in court that "the sentence is harsh but for me it is not enough. I hope he [Elimeleh] rots in prison."
Dvora recently took part in a protest movement held by mothers of murder victims which seeks to stem the wave of violence in Israeli society.