The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Wednesday sentenced a man convicted of throwing a pig's head at a mosque to nine months in prison.

Shimon Ben-Haim was convicted of throwing the pig's head into the courtyard of Hassan Bek mosque, in Tel Aviv-Jaffa during the period of disengagement from the Gaza Strip. His girlfriend Victoria Shteiman was charged as an accessory to the crime and was sentenced to two months in jail.

In August 2005, the suspect tied a keffiyeh to a pig's head and wrote the words "Prophet Mohammed" on it. Ben-Haim also drew a crescent moon - an Islamic symbol - on each side of the keffiyeh.

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After arriving at the mosque in a taxi, Ben Haim got out and threw a bag containing the head over a fence and into the mosque's courtyard. Shortly thereafter, both Ben Haim and Shteiman made separate phone calls to Channel 10 TV to report the incident.

During the week preceding the incident, Ben Haim had placed a phone call to Jaffa's Abulafia restaurant as well as to a court of Islamic Law, telling them of his plans to throw the pig's head.

The court charged Ben Haim with religious desecration and Shteiman with accessory to the crime of religious desecration. In addition to their prison terms, an 11 month suspended sentence is under discussion for Ben Haim, and a three month suspended sentence for Shteiman.

Judge Daniel Be'eri wrote in the verdict that their acts "presented a real danger to the relations between the different groups in Israel."

Be'eri ordered Israel Prison Services to provide the two with proper security, out of concern that Muslim inmates might try to harm them.

MK Taleb a-Sana (United Arab List) criticized what he said was a light punishment, and said it displayed negligence in relation to the severity of the crime, and conceals a potential confrontation.