New video exposes severity of Eritrean man’s ‘lynching’
Mobile phone footage shows vicious beating of Haftom Zarhum, mistaken for a terrorist, as crowd chants ‘Am Yisrael Chai’
Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.
Previously unseen footage of Sunday’s brutal beating of an Eritrean man, mistaken by Israeli security forces for a terrorist during an attack at the Beersheba bus station, aired Thursday on Channel 10.
Haftom Zarhum, 29-year-old Eritrean, died in the hospital after he was shot by security guard, who thought he had just taken part in a terror attack. While writhing on the floor, he was repeatedly beaten by an enraged mob.
Zarhum was shot during an attack on the Central Bus Station in which a 21-year-old Israeli Bedouin stabbed a soldier, then opened fire on a crowd. Omri Levi, 19, was killed and 11 others injured in the attack. Zarhum died later at the hospital; pathologists determined the cause of death was internal bleeding from a gunshot wound, not the repeated blows to the head he subsequently suffered.
The newly released footage of Zarhum’s beating shows a number of people — including two soldiers — repeatedly kicking him in the head as a bus driver tries to protect him.
At one point one an off-duty soldier runs up to Zarhum and kicks him in the face as he flails in a pool of his own blood. The soldier can then be seen repeatedly stomping on Zarhum’s head. The soldier only stops when a security guard pushes him away.
Some in the crowd can be heard shouting “kill him, kill him” and “die already, son of a bitch.” Toward the end of the clip some start chanting “Am Yisrael Chai,” Hebrew for “The people of Israel live.”
The graphic video was posted on the Channel 10 website.
Four suspects in the beating, including two members of the Israel Prison Service, were arrested by police Wednesday for aggravated assault.
The four were released on bail Thursday and have been banned from making contact with one another.
The head of the Israel Prison Service condemned the alleged actions of its employees, saying that “violence contradicts the values of the organization.”
The IDF said Monday that the military police was taking part in the investigation of the incident.
Some 2,000 people attended a memorial event for Zarhum in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
