Nir Hasson Hasidic Jews attack Palestinian teens in Jerusalem; police arrest Arab who called for help
haaretz.com
Two
Palestinian boys aged 16 and 18 were assaulted in Jerusalem on
Wednesday by Jews believed to belong to a sect of the Bratslav Hasids,
yet police called to the scene for help arrested a Palestinian who had
called for help rather than any of the Jewish suspects.
A Palestinian
acquaintance of the boys called police, which arrived on the scene on
the street where the leader of the Shuvu Banim Hasidic sect, convicted sex offender Rabbi Eliezer Berland, lives. Upon arrival, police canceled a call for an ambulance.
The incident was the
latest of a list of violent assaults involving the rabbi’s followers.
They have assaulted worshippers at a synagogue in the Jerusalem
neighborhood of Mea She’arim and a Palestinian passersby near Damascus
Gate.
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The youths who were
hurt on Wednesday said that they had been walking down the street when a
number of youths cursed at them and yelled at them to go away. When
they tried to leave they were smacked and kicked. A Haredi adult helped
extricate the youths from the area.
The
two boys phoned Kamal Jabarin, a youth counselor for the city and
brother of one of the assaulted teens. Jabarin tried to help get them
out of the area, but the assailants followed close behind, shouting
curses at them.
Jabarin
then phoned the police, who came to the scene and questioned the
victims. Two police commando forces arriving on the scene shouted at the
victims that they shouldn’t have been in the area and ordered a medic
to cancel a call for an ambulance that had been made because one of the
youths who had been assaulted wasn’t feeling well.
When Jabarin intervened to ask why the ambulance call was canceled, the policemen ordered him placed under arrest.
“He asked why should
they even be there and began to humiliate us,” Jabarin said. “I told him
why are you taking the responsibility of canceling the ambulance, and
then he pushed me up against the wall, and handcuffed me saying I was
under arrest for attacking a police officer.”
Jabarin
was held for four hours and a case was opened against him alleging he
had interfered with police work, despite the fact that he had been the
one to call them to the scene.
In a video taken by Jabarin a policeman can be heard saying, “There are two youths here who came here as a provocation.”
In response, the Israel Police
said: "The case is presented in a manner that transgresses the truth
and distorts reality. The police arrived at the scene following a police
report about an attack and found several young men clashing. The
officers separated them and kept them apart, while Kamal Jabarin
'inflamed' the atmosphere and refused to obey orders."
The
police statement continued: "Police asked Jabarin to identify himself,
but he did not comply, telling the police, 'Why, who are you? I won't
show you my ID.' At this point, the police had to detain him because of
his behavior, but he resisted arrest and physically assaulted the
officers. This situation could have been avoided if Jabarin had behaved
as expected from a law-abiding normative person, instead of waving his
belt, cursing, trying to escalate the incident, resisting arrest and
attacking the officers."
In September, Jewish groups attacked Palestinian youths in Jerusalem in three separate attacks. A large group of Orthodox Jews near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem assaulted several Palestinians, while four Palestinian students were assaulted
in Gonenim Park in the Katamon neighborhood by Jewish youths, who
allegedly used a taser on some of their victims. Also in September, a
Palestinian bus driver was assaulted in the Orthodox settlement of Betar
Ilit on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
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