Car damage; Photo courtesy of the photographer
Tuesday, June 7, 2022, 10:02 For the second time, the Israel Police closed an investigative case against Arabs who attacked a Jewish driver in March 2022 without conducting a formal confrontation between the victim and his assailants. The attack occurred in the central region of Israel at the junction of Route 4 and the Maccabit Road (Route 471). The Jewish driver documented the incident, during which three Arabs attacked him, spit at him, attempted to run him off the road, and damaged his car. The police claim that the incident does not justify a criminal investigation. The case was closed once before and reopened following an appeal by Honenu.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher filed a second appeal in which he described what the victim had suffered: “On 8/3/22, on Route 4 at the Bar Ilan Interchange, my client was severely, brutally, and dangerously attacked by several Arabs. My client filed a complaint with the police, but they initially chose to close the case without an investigation. However, after an appeal was filed on behalf of my client, the case was reopened.
“Last week, my client was called to the Bnei Brak Police Station for a formal confrontation with the suspect/s. My client missed a day of work and took the trouble to come to the confrontation. However, after waiting at the station for an hour, he was told that the confrontation had been ‘postponed’ to a later date and was sent home ’empty-handed’. My client, who was not called back for a confrontation, received notification a few days ago that the case had been closed and that the circumstances of the matter do not justify a criminal investigation.
“This conduct of the police is scandalous. The police closed the case twice without carrying out a proper investigation. Simultaneously, the police are hassling my client, the victim of the crime, and are not being considerate of his time. The grounds for closing the case are scandalous in light of the severity of the incident and the failure to thoroughly investigate.
“The conduct of the police in this case is enough to encourage additional violent acts by the same groups of Islamic terrorists, who take advantage of every opportunity for violent acts on Jews. This impression that has formed must be urgently corrected.” Bleicher concluded by demanding that the investigation be reopened.
Bleicher also asked for the office of the State Attorney to transfer the case to the regional unit of investigations due to the severity of the attack and the current scandalous handling of the investigation. Additionally, Bleicher requested that the findings of the first appeal be sent to the authority that reviews the work of the police for examination of the handling of the case.
The first appeal, a segment of which is quoted below, includes more details of the attack:
“At approximately 19:00, my client was driving home. After he slowed down due to a traffic jam, a commercial vehicle with a trailer pushed its way to the front of the traffic jam, causing my client to brake suddenly. Several minutes later, the commercial vehicle tried to enter my client’s lane again, forcing him out of his lane and almost causing an accident with a car in another lane.
“At that moment, the commercial vehicle stopped, and three Arabs got out and kicked my client’s car, causing damage. My client managed to escape and continued driving. But then the Arabs’ car came up quickly from behind, and before my client could react, one of the suspects approached him, hit him, and tried to pull him out of his car so that they could severely beat him.
“Even after my client, now injured, escaped, the assailants chased him as they threw glass bottles and various other objects at him and spit at him, endangering him and causing great damage to his car. My client suffered severe pains in his arm as a result of his injuries.”
Documentation of the attack; Video courtesy of the videographer