Teen charged with racist assault for attacking Arab in Jerusalem
Yehiel Weissenstern and 2 others allegedly attacked a man who was walking with Jewish female coworker outside the Mahane Yehuda market
A Jewish Israeli teenager was charged Sunday with committing a racist aggravated assault against Arab man in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market.
According to the indictment, Yehiel Weissenstern, 18, along with two other men, saw an Arab man walking with a Jewish female coworker along Jerusalem’s Agrippas street, which borders the market, on the evening of September 4.
After questioning the couple and ascertaining that the man was Arab and the woman was Jewish, the defendant, who resides in the predominantly ultra-Orthodox city of Modiin Illit, and the two others allegedly hurled abuse at the man, drew a knife on him, and threatened to “fuck him up.”
The victim tried to explain that he and the woman were simply coworkers, but the defendant and the other two men began hitting the Arab man, who tried to flee.
They allegedly chased him, surrounded him and told him that he could no longer work in the market. Then they began punching him, and after he fell to the ground the defendant began kicking him.
Eventually a passer-by intervened to help the victim.
The prosecution requested that the defendant remain in custody until the trial is completed. The other two assailants have not yet been detained.
Recent months have seen a series of reports of Arab men being attacked on suspicion that they were carrying on romantic relations with Jewish women.
