Arab Israeli attacked by West Bank mob rejects far-right MK’s claim her car wasn’t Israeli
Husband of victim calls on Otzma Yehudit MK to apologize for justifying attack at Givat Ronen settlement outpost; Democrats MK calls incident ‘attempting lynching’
One of five Arab Israeli women attacked on Friday after accidentally driving into an illegal West Bank outpost told Channel 12 that the car she was driving had an Israeli license plate, contradicting a claim made by a far-right lawmaker in the Knesset on Sunday.
“The car was an Israeli vehicle. They even saw our ID cards,” recounted Lamis al-Jaer on Sunday, calling her attackers “terrorists.”
She and three of her relatives who were in the car, along with her 2-year-old daughter, showed the attackers the identification documents, carried by all Israeli citizens, without being asked, she said.
“And still they held a gun to our heads and the head of a little girl. He said to her— he was heartless— ‘Cry, cry more, I want to see you cry, cry more.’ What is that, ‘cry more’ to a little girl? Even if he wants to do that, he should see a child and stop! It’s a red line,” said al-Jaer.
The five women, residents of the Bedouin town of Rahat in southern Israel, were attacked on Friday, and their car set on fire, after they accidentally drove into the illegal West Bank outpost of Givat Ronen.
Two of the passengers sustained head and hand injuries when they were pelted with rocks after making the wrong turn. They fled on foot and managed to make it to Israeli troops, who administered medical treatment.
“They burned the car — we were in the car, do you understand?” al-Jaer said on Sunday. “A normal person can’t understand, why they would do that to us. We didn’t do anything to them. Someone who asks for directions — they deserve this?”
The interview came after far-right MK Limor Son Har-Melech of Otzma Yehudit appeared to justify the attack during a Knesset meeting.
התקיפה האלימה בשומרון: כך נראו אתמול אחת הנשים והילדה בת ה-3 מרהט, שהותקפו ע"י מתנחלים לאחר שטעו בדרך ונכנסו למאחז גבעת רונן@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/T9D94sLvlS
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) August 10, 2024
MK Gilad Kariv of the left-wing Democrats party raised the topic, calling the incident “an attempted lynching on the part of the residents of the outpost.”
“You have no idea what happened there,” Har-Melech said, interrupting Kariv.
“If I have no idea, it’s because until now, there haven’t been any arrests, despite the serious reports,” Kariv responded.
ערביות ישראליות טעו בדרך – והותקפו בידי מתנחלים: רכבן הוצת ונרגם באבנים, הן נמלטו ופונו לקבלת טיפול רפואי בבית החולים
הכתבה המלאה | https://t.co/kUwMWFGd6S pic.twitter.com/3xBv0KRGGU
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) August 9, 2024
“We’re not talking about an Israeli family here,” Har-Melech said, claiming that the victims had been traveling in a car without an Israeli license plate, and saying there could be “no compromises” in such a situation.
“Something innocent like this could be a spying incident, could be information-gathering. You can’t ignore that,” she said.
Lamis al-Jaer, presented with Har-Melech’s statement, responded on Sunday, “No, no, on my life, no.”
On Sunday, President Isaac Herzog said in a statement that he had met with al-Jaer’s father, Adnan, and condemned the incident, saying he was “horrified” to hear what happened.
“We are all brothers and sisters, citizens of the State of Israel and we all deserve equal and proper treatment, without fear and violence. I wish to support you at this time and wish them a full recovery,” he told the elder al-Jaer, according to the statement.
“This was a serious incident, this cannot be allowed to happen to us,” the father responded. “I appreciate and thank you for this conversation.”
Radwan al-Jaer, Lamis’ husband, called on Har-Melech to “apologize for her false words,” adding, “It’s shameful that there are people like that, who sit in the Knesset and defend racists,” according to the Ynet news site.
“We were close to the war [in Gaza]. We didn’t hurt any Jews, rather, we helped and we saved people’s lives, in a life-threatening situation,” he added, in an apparent reference to non-Jewish Israelis who fought terrorists during Hamas’s October 7 massacre. It was not clear whether he was referring to actions by members of the family, or perhaps Israeli Arabs in general.
Speaking to Channel 12 on Sunday, Lamis al-Jaer said she did not think something like this would happen to her, as an Israeli citizen. “I always say, ‘Good that I’m an Israeli citizen,’ I love it, I love to be in the Israeli state,” she said.
Al-Jaer said her daughter, who is 2 and a half, hasn’t been eating or sleeping well since the attack, adding that she hopes her daughter “will start talking again, even just talking.”
MK Zvi Sukkot, of the Religious Zionism party, who, like Har-Melech, is considered far-right and is associated with radical settler movements, told Ynet, “This is a very serious incident. I hope the police investigate it.
“I don’t like to use the word ‘terrorism’ in these cases— it’s a very bad event. It’s a serious crime,” he added.
The incident occurred at Givat Ronen, a small hilltop outpost in the northern West Bank near the village of Burin, an area that has seen repeated clashes between extremist settlers and Palestinians. Israeli settlers are suspected of carrying out the attack.
As of Sunday, no suspects were reported to have been detained.
