Please click here for a list of posts relating to cases in which Honenu provided legal counsel to victims of antisemitic attacks in Jerusalem.
Tnufa bus (illustrative purposes only); Photo credit: Ranbar, Wikimedia Commons
Wednesday, June 29, 2022, 15:32 In mid-June, an Arab bus driver attacked a young Hareidi man and tried to run him over in front of his wife and four-month-old daughter. He filed a complaint with the police, who refused to take testimony from his wife and many other eyewitnesses. When an eyewitness tried to file a complaint he was told that the case had been closed. The case was reopened only after the eyewitness insisted. In light of the negligence of the police, Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the victim, wrote a letter, summarized below, to the Israel Police and the officer in charge of public complaints demanding that they expedite the investigation, locate video documentation of the attack, and detain the dangerous driver.
Honenu Attorney Bleicher also gave a statement about the attack: “This was a violent, life-threatening incident. The bus driver is regularly entrusted with the lives of many citizens. It is impossible to understand and impossible to accept how the police have handled the investigation of such a serious case. We wrote to the police demanding that the dangerous driver be detained and put on trial for aggravated assault and attempted murder.”
Summary of the letter:
The incident occurred in Jerusalem, as the young family was returning from a family celebration. They were waiting at the “Shefa Chayim – Doresh Tov” bus station as a large family loaded their baggage into the storage compartment of a “Tnufa” bus. Suddenly, the bus driver shouted and screamed abusively at the family, “Why is it taking you so long to load your things?” My client, who could not remain indifferent, approached the bus and asked the driver why he was yelling at a family with children.
In response, the driver cursed my client in Hebrew and Arabic. My client tried to photograph the number of the bus with his cell phone. Then the driver got out of the bus and slapped his face hard six times. My client’s wife tried to pull him toward her, away from the violent driver. In response, the driver pushed my client and almost caused the baby carriage, which was next to him, to overturn. My client’s four-month-old daughter was in the carriage. The carriage would have overturned if my client had not grabbed it and leveled it at the last moment.
At this stage, the bus driver decided to flee the scene. He returned to the bus and started driving, intending to injure whoever was in his path. My client started to call the police and stood in front of the bus to prevent the driver from escaping. The driver, without hesitation, started to drive toward my client while accelerating. My client was thrown to the side of the street when the bus hit him.
My client was enraged and tried to stand in front of the bus again so that the driver would stop. The driver accelerated more. My client managed to jump aside at the last moment and save himself from death. My client’s wife, who was watching from behind, was certain that the bus had run over my client and that he was already dead, which drove her to hysterics. A police car arrived after a quarter of an hour.
My client and his wife took the details of many eyewitnesses and went to your station to file a complaint. My client filed a complaint and emphasized the feeling that the violent driver had genuinely attempted to murder him. After he gave his testimony, his wife also requested to file a complaint. However, she was told, most strangely, that because of the lateness of the hour, they would settle for her husband’s testimony. They refused to take her testimony.
One of the eyewitnesses went to the Beit Shemesh Police Station to give testimony in the case and was told by the investigations officer that the investigative case had already been closed. The officer agreed to reopen the case and take testimony about the serious attack only after the eyewitness pleaded with him.