Thursday, March 24, 2022, 13:21 Approximately one month ago, two Arabs attacked a Jewish youth in Hadera. As of now, the suspects have been released and the police have not yet indicted them. In light of the lack of progress in the investigation, Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher has written two letters to the Hadera Police. In the second letter, Bleicher asked the police to issue the victim confirmation of his complaint and authorization that he is a victim of terror. He also repeated his demand that the suspects be detained and prosecuted to the full extent of the law, as they should be in a terror attack case. In the first letter, summarized below, Bleicher described the attack and demanded a thorough investigation.
As my client, a Jewish youth, was riding his bicycle, at an intersection he suddenly noticed two youths dressed in black riding their bicycles in the opposite lane who had burst onto the street at a red light. They cycled directly towards him. The youth managed to evade them and tried to continue his ride. But to his horror he noticed that they had made a U-turn and were quickly following him. They caught up to him, cursed him with racial slurs in Hebrew and Arabic, and also explicitly threatened him with murder: “I will murder you, Yahud (Jew).”
Very quickly, the Arabs tried to physically injure him. My client noticed that the second cyclist was trying to take a knife out of his pocket, and with the intent of driving him away sprayed pepper spray in the air between them to prevent him from approaching. My client then continued to flee. One of the Arab cyclists continued to chase him, and then intentionally collided with him with great force.
From the force of the collision, my client was knocked off of his bicycle, which was thrown a great distance, and crashed onto the ground. Then the Arab cyclist came up to my client, while he was helplessly sprawled on the ground, took out a knife and brutally stabbed him in the back several times. When the other Arab cyclist arrived, he threw a large rock, which hit my client in the back.
The assailants fled the scene, and eyewitnesses summoned an ambulance. The injured victim was evacuated to the hospital. Police forces who arrived on the scene took the victim’s details and took initial testimony from him at the hospital. Later, the police summoned him for interrogation under warning, claiming that he had assaulted his attackers. This is a baseless claim, which the victim denied.
The victim suffered two puncture wounds to his lungs from the stabbing, and he still suffers from severe pain, disruptive sleep, and difficulty walking. There is a long rehabilitation process ahead of him. This was an extremely serious attack, which was spontaneously carried out against a Jew, by Arabs who revealed their racist motives.
This stabbing is unfortunately one of a wave of similar serious attacks that we have been witness to since the incidents in many cities throughout Israel at the time of ‘Operation Guardian of the Walls’. I demand a thorough and comprehensive investigation of the suspects. Recordings from security cameras and testimonies from eyewitnesses must be taken. The evidence must be transferred as soon as possible to the prosecution, and the suspects must be put on trial for racially motivated aggravated assault and making threats.