Entrance to Givat Assaf; Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Monday, August 19, 2024, 8:00 One week ago, a demonstration was held at the Givat Assaf Junction in the Binyamin region protesting the murder of Yehonatan Deutsch, Hy”d, in a Jordan Valley terror attack the previous day. An Arab driver swerved, drove into the group of protesters, seriously injured a Jewish youth, and then fled the scene. He was detained a short time later. However, the police claimed that the incident was a traffic accident and released him. Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the injured youth, wrote a letter to the GOC of the Central Command, Major-General Avi Bluth, and other security authorities demanding that they arrest the terrorist.
In his letter, Attorney Bleicher described the attack: “After the vicious murder of Yehonatan Deutsch, Hy”d, a number of local residents went out to demonstrate at Givat Assaf Junction [near Beit El]. At some point, the soldiers ordered my client and other protesters to cross the road. As they were crossing the road, my client suddenly noticed a car driving extremely fast in his direction. The driver saw my client and made eye contact with him and a friend who was standing next to him. The driver accelerated in a zigzag pattern toward my client, who attempted to evade the car. The driver directly hit my client, who was thrown into the air and landed hard on the road. Despite the injury and calls from soldiers who ran after him with weapons drawn, the driver did not stop and continued to drove wildly even though people were standing at the side of the road and cars were parked on the shoulders. Farther down the road, security forces set up road blocks and apprehended the driver, who was taken in for interrogation.”
Attorney Bleicher continued with criticism of how the police handled the attack: “To our great shock, we were informed now, after writing letters to the investigating authorities, that the incident was classified by the police as an accident, despite explicit testimony from my client and his friend who made eye contact with the driver as they attempted to escape injury while the terrorist was charging directly at my client with the aim of murdering him. The case was transferred to the traffic police, and the terrorist was immediately released. This is a failure. There are security cameras at the scene and the attack was recorded. From a conversation with the injured youth and two of his friends who were present at the scene, it appears that this was definitely an intentional car-ramming. Being as this is the situation, it seems that a serious failure by the police has occurred, and a terrorist has been released, undeterred, possibly to continue carrying out his acts. I demand that the video clips of the incident and also the eyewitness testimonies that were given to the Binyamin Police be immediately examined. The terrorist must be immediately arrested.”
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher issued a statement: “This was a serious attack. The injured youth and his friends clearly saw the terrorist take aim at them and accelerate towards them. The youth was thrown into the air and seriously injured. It is not clear why the police are claiming that this was an accident. Apparently, they are trying to calm tempers. This attempt endangers all of us. Currently, a terrorist who is liable to carry out more attacks is going about freely. We call on the security forces to arrest the terrorist.”