An Israeli court fined a Jewish settler and sentenced him to community service for the beating and kicking death of an 11-year-old Palestinian boy. The boy's father accused the court of issuing a "license to kill."

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Nahum Korman, 36, to six months of community service and a $17,500 fine for the killing of Hilmi Shusha in the West Bank in October 1996.

Judge Ruth Or said she was not sending Korman to jail because the Supreme Court had convicted him only of "manslaughter by negligence."

Palestinians described Korman's sentence as an example of a justice system that favors Israelis over Palestinians.

Korman was acquitted by Or at his initial trial, but the Supreme Court later overturned the verdict. While Korman does not face any additional jail time, he spent nine months in jail after his arrest.

The sentence was agreed upon by the prosecution and the defense, although Korman insists he did not touch the boy.

At the time of the boy's death, Korman was a security officer at a Jewish settlement near Bethlehem. He drove into a nearby Palestinian village looking for Palestinians who had been throwing rocks at passing Israeli cars.

The prosecution said that Korman beat and kicked the child, knocked him down, put his foot on the boy's neck and struck him with a pistol.

The boy suffered a head injury and a fractured spinal cord and died the next day in a hospital.