Screenshot of May 12 attack; Video credit: Courtesy of photographer
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Thursday, June 10, 2021, 12:05 On May 7, near Clock Tower Square in Yaffo, an Arab motorcyclist brutally attacked Sh., a Jewish youth, who was on his way to the beach. Sh. was evacuated to the hospital with bruises and still suffers from pain. There is a case open against the assailant over an attack on a man and his son which occurred in the same area of Yaffo five days later. Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher has demanded that the assailant be penalized to the full extent of the law.
Sh. described the attack: “I went into a surf shop to change into scuba diving clothes. At the entrance to the store, while I was still changing clothes, an Arab youth passed in a car. When he noticed me, he turned around and got out of his car holding a motorcycle helmet in his hand.
“When he reached me, he muttered at me, ‘What are you doing like this next to a mosque?” and hit me in the face with his helmet. I told him, ‘I’ll call the police,’ but he wasn’t deterred and switched to kicking. When I saw that he wasn’t backing down, I ran back to the surf shop and waited there until he left.
“I’m shocked by the fact that I was attacked in Center City Yaffo, a place I have walked around many times and I have never encountered an incident such as this, in which a man walking down the street is attacked for no reason. The feeling is that there is no one to protect you, and you must protect yourself.”
Sh. and a friend who was with him photographed the motorcyclist before he left.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is assisting numerous injured parties as victims of nationalistically motivated attacks: “The assailant is a serial attacker, to whom every Jew constitutes a target for an antisemitic attack. We hope that his serious acts will be reflected in the indictment filed against him. We expect the police to treat these assaults as terror attacks and to grant the necessary authorization to the victims of terror.”
Five days after Sh. was attacked, a man and his son were attacked in the same area while driving their car. The Arab motorcyclist blocked their path and beat the father with his helmet. Friends who joined him sprayed them and their two dogs with pepper spray. The motorcyclist also shouted at them, “You are Jews. You don’t belong here,” and then fled.