The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court has found an Israeli settler not criminally responsible for an April assault on a French Catholic nun near King David’s Tomb, accepting psychiatric evidence that he was in a psychotic state at the time. The court ordered his admission to a psychiatric hospital for up to six years.
The ruling was handed down on August 26 by Judge Ophir Tischler.
Yona Simcha Schreiber, 36, from the West Bank settlement of Peduel, had been charged in May with assault causing actual injury motivated by hostility towards a religious group and with common assault.
Prosecutors said he recognised the woman by her habit, ran at her, pushed her to the ground and kicked her.
A passer-by who intervened was also assaulted. The charge carried a potential sentence of up to six years.
The court based its decision on an assessment by the district psychiatrist, who diagnosed Schreiber with schizophrenia and found he had been psychotic for years with no insight into his condition. The prosecution accepted that finding and requested an acquittal on grounds of lack of criminal responsibility, according to reports by the public broadcaster Kan and the newspaper Makor Rishon.
Tischler ruled that the evidence established Schreiber had carried out the acts set out in the indictment, with the exception of the mental element. He said the defendant was covered by the insanity defence under section 34H of Israel’s Penal Law.
The attack took place on April 28 on Mount Zion, outside Jerusalem’s Old City, near the site known to Jews as King David’s Tomb and to Christians as the Cenacle, traditionally associated with the Last Supper.
CCTV showed a man wearing a kippah and ritual tassels approaching the nun from behind, shoving her so that she struck a stone block, walking away and then returning to kick her as she lay on the ground.
Police later released images of bruising on the right side of her face. The indictment said she suffered a bloody head wound and dizziness.
NEW: An Israeli settler who attacked a French Catholic nun near King David's Tomb in Jerusalem was acquitted after a court accepted he was "in a psychotic state during the assault."
Prosecutors said he targeted her because she was identifiable as a Christian nun and charged him… pic.twitter.com/kQ8wo4umkc
— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 26, 2026
The victim, aged 48, is a researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research (ÉBAF) in Jerusalem. She did not speak publicly about the assault.
The school’s director, Father Olivier Poquillon, described it as an unprovoked act of sectarian violence and called for a firm official response.
Israel Police arrested Schreiber the following day and said they treated racially or religiously motivated violence against clergy with “utmost seriousness”.
The French consulate demanded that the perpetrator be brought to justice.
Israel’s foreign ministry condemned what it called an abject attack and said the country remained firmly committed to protecting freedom of religion and worship for all faiths.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem said the incident formed part of “a troubling pattern of rising hostility toward the Christian community and its symbols”.
Schreiber had remained in custody since April 29. The court’s order replaces a criminal sentence with compulsory psychiatric hospitalisation, backdated to August 24.
