Police find Negev man naked, chained to wall
Bedouin rescued outside unrecognized village, says his family shackled him to building 'for years' due to his 'condition'
Police on Tuesday discovered a naked man chained to a wall near the unrecognized Bedouin village of Al-Fura’a in the Negev.
An officer patrolling the area surrounding the Tel Arad archaeological site, just off of Route 80, heard cries from inside one of the buildings. Upon inspection, he found a man tied to a wall with iron chains, police said in a statement.
When he was released, the man told the officer he had been tied up there “for years,” according to the statement.
The man, who was not identified, was immediately taken to a hospital for medical and psychological evaluations.
Police alerted social services to the situation, and will continue to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
The man told police he was tied up by members of his family due to his “condition” after relatives said he had been throwing rocks at local children.
The statement did not detail the man’s condition.
Israeli media reported that the 43-year-old man’s face was covered in dirt and his hair and beard appeared as if they had not been cut in years.
Later on Tuesday, police said two members of the man’s family were detained in connection to his imprisonment, but were later released on “restrictive conditions” after questioning.
Social services was in contact with the family, and the investigation into the incident was ongoing, a police statement from Tuesday evening said.
Around 230,000 Bedouins live in Israel’s south, including 90,000 in “unrecognized” towns and villages, according to official data. Mental illness in Israel’s Bedouin communities is widely stigmatized and Arabic-speaking mental health professionals are significantly underrepresented in the Arab sector.
Many Bedouins in unrecognized areas live in extreme poverty with no access to electricity or running water.
AFP contributed to this report.