2 Jewish men arrested for assaulting Arab municipal worker in Jerusalem
Suspects believed to be part of group that attacked victim at Mahane Yehuda market
Two young Jewish men were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an Arab man who works for the Jerusalem Municipality in a nationalistically motivated attack, the Israel Police said.
Police said in a statement that around 2 a.m. Friday they received a report about a municipality sanitation worker who was attacked while cleaning the street in the area of the Mahane Yehuda Market.
Cops arrived and, after reviewing images from surveillance cameras, swiftly arrested the two men nearby, one aged 18 from the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood of the capital and the other aged 20 from the Mevo Modi’im community near Modiin.
The worker didn’t require medical treatment, police said.
Video circulating on social media showed three men punching and kicking the worker, who was using a hose to clean the pavement at the entrance to the market. In the background a small crowd of onlookers can be seen watching, but without intervening. The worker falls to his knees under the blows and, as the assailants flee, an armed IDF soldier is seen approaching the worker, apparently to assist him. Another municipal worker also arrives to help just as the clip ends.
The incident came amid tensions over a war in the Gaza Strip that erupted when the Hamas terror group launched a massive assault on Israel, raining rockets on the country to cover an incursion in the south by 2,500 gunman. The terrorists slaughtered over 1,400 people, the vast majority of them civilians of all ages.
Israel has responded with intensive strikes on Gaza ahead of an expected ground operation and has declared its intention of eradicating the terror group that rules the Strip.
הלילה צעירים יהודים ביצעו לינץ ותקפו עובד תבראוה בעיריית ירושלים בשוק מחנה יהודה. מאוחר יותר @IL_police עצרה שני חשודים, שתקפו באלימות את העובד בעת עבודתו על רקע לאומני. שני החשודים שנעצרו ע״י השוטרים, נלקחו לחקירה בתחנת לב הבירה של מחוז ירושלים. בהמשך היום יובאו החשודים בבקשה… pic.twitter.com/NnqRXQOttz
— Yanal Jabarin | ينال جبارين (@JbareenYanal) October 20, 2023
The area around Mahane Yehuda Market has seen a number of nationalist assaults by Jewish extremists on Arabs in recent years.
In September, two Jewish men were were sentenced to prison for stabbing and seriously injuring an Arab restaurant worker in the market in May 2021 during a previous conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
In August 2022 several people beat an Arab worker in the market in a assault caught on video.
A year earlier, an Arab man was seriously injured in another stabbing attack in the area of the market.
