Two Bnei Brak residents indicted for racist assault on Arab Israeli taxi driver

Defendants accused of punching victim, a resident of Tira, throwing stones at him and his vehicle, telling him Arabs don’t deserve respect

By ToI Staff 22 June 2020, 12:34 am

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Screen capture from video of Arab Israeli taxi driver Ismail Basis who claims he was assaulted by two men from Bnei Brak because of his race. (Ynet)

Two residents of Bnei Brak were charged Sunday with carrying out a racist assault an Arab Israeli taxi driver earlier this year.

According to the indictment filed at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, the defendants punched the victim, threw stones at him and his vehicle and stole his cell phone, the Ynet website reported.

One of the defendants allegedly told Ismail Basis, a resident of the Arab Israeli city of Tira in the central region of the country, that because he is an Arab he deserves no respect.

Basis described to the Ynet website how he was suspicious of the passengers as soon as the journey began.

“As soon as the got into the taxi they began to ask me strange questions and I felt that they intended to harm me,” he told Ynet. “They attacked me must because I am an Arab. I was nearly staring death in the face. It is a good thing I managed to get out of their hands otherwise I would no longer be alive. I didn’t expect that there would ever be an indictment but it is good that they will be punished.”

The incident began when Basis picked up three passengers on January 24 at the junction of Jabotinsky and Arlozorov Streets in Ramat Gan, the neighboring city to the predominantly ultra-Orthodox Bnei Brak. According to the indictment, all three were drunk at the time, the report said.

One of the passengers made derogatory comments about Basis being Arab, but when he asked them to show some respect another passenger said he doesn’t deserve any and began jostling his shoulder.

Basis tried to photograph the passengers, but one took his phone and threw it onto the floor of the vehicle. Then they began to hit him so he stopped the car and asked them to get out. When they refused he left the car moved away, the indictment said. The defendants then allegedly began throwing rocks at the vehicle and when Basis came back to stop them, began throwing stones at him too, injuring him in nose.

He then alerted police who arrived and arrested two of the men. The third has not been identified, the Ynet report said.