Assailant to compensate R. Yehuda Glick

R. Glick; Photo credit: Tomer Neuberg/Flash90

Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 13:20 Jerusalem Magistrates Court Judge Miriam Kaslasi ruled that East Jerusalem resident Areen Za’anini will pay former Knesset Member Rabbi Yehuda Glick 50,000 NIS in compensation, plus 8,000 NIS for attorney’s fees and over 4,000 NIS for court fees.
Za’anini assaulted R. Glick when he came to console the bereaved family of Iyad al-Hallak in the Wadi Joz neighborhood of Jerusalem on June 4, 2020. Approximately two months after the attack, Za’anini was convicted of assault and causing actual damage and sentenced to five month’s imprisonment. On November 29, 2020 R. Glick filed a civil suit for compensation.
The bill of indictment describes the attack: When Rabbi Glick arrived at the mourners’ house, the defendant grabbed him and removed him by force from the house and then “[the defendant and others] threw the complainant to the ground and rolled him down the approximately twenty-five steps of the entry staircase to the mourners’ house. The complainant, who was sprawled on the ground, attempted to get up. However the defendant and others in the group beat him and kicked him in the head and the rest of his body.”
When Rabbi Glick got up and continued to walk down the street, the defendant and the rest of the group followed him and “near the fire station they again beat the complainant in the head and the rest of his body, kicked him, and knocked him to the ground again. As the complainant was sprawled on the ground, they continued to kick him hard in his head and the rest of his body.”
Additionally, the bill of indictment mentions that during the incident the defendant incited the others in the group to attack and injure the complainant. Also, during the assault, various members of the group called out that the complainant is a Jew, that he “storms Al-Aqsa”, that he “beats women”, and that he “turns youths into the police”.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher is representing R. Glick: “We are pleased with the judge’s decision to impose payment of compensation on the assailant. Every assailant and harasser must know that he will pay out of his pocket for attacking Jews. We hope that this penalty will deter potential assailants, who will think twice before daring to carry out any attack whatsoever.”
Former Knesset Member Rabbi Yehuda Glick responded: “The court set the sum of the compensation in the civil suit, which I filed with the assistance of Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher. It’s a drop in the ocean compared to the suffering and the humiliation I experienced.
“However, I am not the subject. The message must be conveyed to all sectors of Israeli society in general and the Arab sector in particular that violence does not pay and that as a society we must completely denounce all violent conduct and we must create a deterrence factor against anyone considering violence.
“As an aside, I am pleased to announce that thanks to the KEDEM Program, one of the youths who participated in the assault has chosen a different path. I met with him and his family. They apologized and committed themselves to eradicating violence and hate. At this meeting we parted with a handshake,” R. Glick concluded.

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