Car damage; Photo courtesy of the photographer
Thursday, June 23, 2022, 10:30 An investigative case against Arabs who attacked a Jewish driver in March 2022 has been reopened for the second time. The case was opened immediately after the attack, closed within a week, reopened several weeks later after an appeal, and then closed again in early June. The attack occurred in the central region of Israel at the junction of Route 4 and the Maccabit Road (Route 471). The victim documented the incident, during which three Arabs attacked him, spit at him, attempted to run him off the road, and damaged his car.
The victim was summoned to the police station for a formal confrontation between him and one of his assailants on Tuesday (June 21), which indicated that the case had been reopened. When the victim arrived at the police station he noticed a van similar to that of the assailants parked opposite the police station in a no-parking zone with a trailer that did not have a license plate.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the victim: “The situation in which my client has been left hanging for months while the Israel Police opens and closes the case as they wish is intolerable. My client is forced to cope with the effects of the attack every day. His attackers are going about freely and constitute a clear and present threat to the security of Israeli citizens. We demand that the Israel Police thoroughly investigate the attack and indict the assailants, for the sake of all Israeli citizens.”
Bleicher described the details of the attack in the appeal (summarized below) he filed after the case was closed for the first time:
On 8/3/2022, 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.
In early June, after the case was closed for a second time, Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher filed a second appeal: “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.
Documentation of the attack; Video courtesy of the videographer