One of the victims; Photo credit: Kobi Shira
Tuesday, June 13, 2023, 14:05 Last week, two Arabs assaulted a Jew in Elad after he rebuked them for damaging his neighbor’s parked car. (See video clips below.) After the neighbor came down from his apartment, the Arabs assaulted him as well. While the victims were in the hospital, the assailants filed complaints against them with the police. Honenu Attorney Ophir Steiner, who is representing the victims, wrote a letter to the police. He demanded that after thoroughly investigating the assailants; they close the case opened over the false complaint against the injured victims.
Attorney Steiner described the attack in his letter: “My client returned home to Elad with his wife and children. When he reached the entrance to his building, he noticed that a utility vehicle from the ‘Soregdor’ Company had damaged his neighbor’s car. He phoned his neighbor to tell him about the damage. Shortly thereafter, the neighbor, the car’s owner, came down to the parking lot. The neighbor turned to [a worker] in the utility vehicle and asked him for personal information so that he could take care of the damage to his car, but he refused. Then, the car owner asked the driver of the vehicle for his ID details, but he refused and vulgarly cursed and insulted my client. The car owner attempted to explain to the driver that he was obligated to give his personal information, but he replied, ‘You’re a Jew. You’re nothing to me,’ and added, ‘If you don’t get the f— out of here, I’ll break your bones.’ Immediately afterward, the driver lunged at the car owner and punched him in the face. The driver continued to viciously punch my client as he tried to push him back. Then, [the worker] approached the car owner and also beat him. While the worker continued to beat the car owner, the driver went to his vehicle, took out a yellow metal rod, returned to the car owner, and beat him with it.”
Further describing the incident, Attorney Steiner writes, “My client, who had been standing for the entire time on the side, feared for the life of his friend [the car owner] and so, approached him and the assailants in order to separate them. His frightened wife and children were standing nearby the entire time. As soon as he approached, the driver punched him so hard in the face, he was knocked backward. He tried to approach again, despite his wife’s shouts and pleas, but was hit again by the assailants and knocked back. Then, neighbors from adjacent buildings who heard the commotion came out. They attempted to separate the assailants threatening the car owner to leave the site. The car owner continued to assert his right to receive their [the assailants’] ID information. Despite the neighbors’ attempts to separate the sides, the assailants beat the neighbor [of the car owner] several more times, even using the metal rod. The assault stopped only after several police officers arrived on the scene. As a result of the attack, the car owner lost consciousness and his neighbor suffered a beating, mainly to his face. Both were transported by ambulance to the hospital for medical treatment.”
The letter continued: “On Thursday, the car’s owner and his neighbor went to the Rosh HaAyin Police Station to file a complaint against the assailants. There, to their shock, they discovered the assailants had preceded them and filed a complaint against them while they were still in the hospital. Consequently, the investigators at the police station clarified for them they were suspects, files would be opened, and they would be interrogated under warning on suspicion of assault. So, still bruised and in pain, the Jewish victims were treated by police station officers as suspects. Their fingerprints were taken, processed as usual when opening a criminal file, and then taken to interrogation under warning. According to the assailants’ absurd testimonies, the victims had arrived at the site specifically to assault the worker and the driver. The interrogators shouted the testimonies at the victims during their interrogations,” wrote Attorney Steiner.
Attorney Steiner’s letter highlighted the attack as being nationalistic and called for the police to take action, “Unfortunately, this was an attempt by violent assailants to cover up a racially motivated brutal assault. They even filed their complaint before the victims, who were hospitalized at the time. The Israel Police are expected to compare the assailants’ baseless testimonies with the rest of the evidence in the case and pay special attention to the testimonies of the victims who barely escaped with their lives. There must be a thorough investigation into these violent assailants—the driver and the worker—and they must be put on trial for their acts. I also demand that the case against my clients be closed for lack of guilt. All that they did was defend themselves.”
The assault; Video credit: Kol Mah Shekoreh b’Elad
The assault; Video credit: Elad Online