Settler cleared of murder charge

An Israeli was acquitted of attempted murder charges over his involvement in the attempted lynching of a Palestinian youth on the eve of the disengagement in 2005. But Shimshon Citrin, who lives in the Nahniel settlement in the West Bank, was convicted Sunday in Beersheba District Court on several other counts: causing injury, aggravated assault, causing a disturbance, making threats and entering a restricted area. He was 18 years old at the time of the assault.Citrin and another suspect were arrested after television crews documented the attempted lynching of Hilal Majaida, 18.The incident took place after right-wing extremists took over an abandoned building in Muasi, a Palestinian area adjacent to Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. The extremists and Palestinians hurled rocks at one another.The court was convinced that Citrin had in fact hurled rocks at Majaida while the latter was lying injured on the ground, but the judges wrote that “we don’t believe that this intent was the intent to kill.”