Please click here for a list of posts relating to cases in which Honenu provided legal counsel to victims of antisemitic attacks in Jerusalem.
Tal Yoshvaev; Photo credit: Honenu
Monday, January 17, 2022, 15:36 Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher wrote a letter to the Jerusalem District Commander, Major-General Doron Turgeman, on behalf of Shimon HaTzadik resident Tal Yoshvaev, demanding increased security for the neighborhood. Yoshvaev’s car has been torched eight times and the entire neighborhood suffers from Arab violence. The demand follows a recent attack on Yoshvaev and the letter is summarized below.
Last week, one day after his car was completely torched, my client was attacked by a large group of threatening assailants in broad daylight when he went to throw out garbage. They cursed my client, and one assailant shoved him as another tried to take his cell phone by force. Other assailants gathered and pushed him into a wall as they incessantly cursed and humiliated him. A taxi driver passing by stopped, cursed my client, and then got out of his car and tried to kick my client.
The suspects are known to the police and some of them have been detained numerous times. This situation is intolerable. Jewish families living in Jerusalem are suffering repeated acts of terror, including attempted murder by arson. The Israel Police bears responsibility for the safety and security of my client, his wife and their two young children. To the best of my client’s knowledge, and according to examination of security camera recordings, the terrorists who attacked my client and other residents of Shimon HaTzadik belong to a specific group and live in the neighborhood. In order to ensure the safety of my client’s family, the entire group must be thoroughly investigated and others must be deterred from carrying out attacks.
A report of all of the terror attacks on the Yoshvaev family since Operation Guardian of the Walls (May 2021) until today was attached to the letter. The sixteen attacks include eight car torchings, two Molotov cocktail attacks, an array of fireworks launched at the family’s yard, and many instances of bottles of paint thrown at the family’s car.
Bleicher: “We are here fighting because we know that after vehicular arson and the attempts to torch Yoshvaev’s house – and several days ago he [Tal] was attacked – the possibility that a terrorist will try to murder him or his family is too likely.
“It is very important that the police get involved here. If Jews flee the area and leave the neighborhood, that will encourage acts of terror. The only way to fight terror is for the Israel Police and the State of Israel to unite and ensure that Jews can live here safely. Those who disrupt the security of the area are the ones who must pay the price, not citizens loyal to the State of Israel and to the law.”
In December 2021, Honenu Attorney Ofir Steiner sent a letter to the Investigations and Intelligence Department of the Shalem Police Station on behalf of Yoshvaev, expressing the demand to return a suspect of vehicular arson to remand in light of a declaration that he made of his desire to die as a shahid (martyr). The suspect was released to house arrest after being held in remand for several days. For more details, click here.