Thursday, September 05, 2019
Arabs attack haredi youths at Jaffa Gate
Last Monday, two haredi youths were attacked by Arabs on the promenade leading to the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem, when the attackers threw rocks at them and shouted scorn at them.
Advocate Chaim Bleicher from the Honeinu legal aid organization that represents one of the youths contacted the police after police at the station told one of the men who was attacked that chances were the suspects would not be apprehended.
"My client and his friend, dressed in hasidic attire, were walking toward the Western Wall. While passing, my client and his friend on the promenade near the Jaffa Gate encountered two minority rioters who began to throw a number of rocks at them while laughing," Bleicher wrote.
The harassment of the haredi youth was described: "Some of the rocks hit my client and caused him shoulder injury. The rioters' actions stopped only after my client and his friend sped up and mingled with another group of people walking."
The lawyer said the injured youth contacted him after the incident and asked to consult him. In response, he recommended arriving at a nearby police station to file an orderly complaint.
He also added that, according to the young man's testimony, he could identify the faces of the attackers. However, when the young man arrived at the police station and asked the investigator for access to the crime victim's site where he could track the case's progress, he was told that he was not required to receive the number in question since the suspects would not be caught and the case would be closed anyway.
In his letter to police chiefs, Attorney Bleicher attacked the approach taken by the police officer. "First, I would like to request an immediate change in approach and serious attention to a most grave incident, which unfortunately is part of a difficult phenomenon reminiscent of the dark days of exile. What's more, my client's basic right to access the site is independent of the chance of catching the rioters."
Bleicher said the incident had distinctly anti-Semitic overtones and that it recalls dark days when Jews were attacked for their Jewish identity.
The youth described the assault: "I went with my friend on the Jaffa Gate promenade in the morning. We encountered two Arabs who started throwing rocks at us. I got hit in the back and shoulder that hurt for a few hours. I called Honeinu's attorney and he told me to complain to the police. Hopefully they'll catch the terrorists."
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