[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

A Jew heading to the Kosel was attacked by an Arab male using a bat. The victim was hospitalized in an intensive care unit with serious injuries. Police however did not hesitate to question the victim during Shavuos as a suspect, acting on the Arab’s story that it was the Jew who attacked him.

A group of Jews were heading to the Kosel on erev Shavuos and one of them was attacked near Dung Gate. As they headed down from Har Tzion one of them stopped to relieve himself before entering the Old City. The group continued without him. An Arab male, reportedly in his 30s attacked the Jew using a baseball bat. The group ran back to assist their friend when they heard the shouts. A number of Arabs what occurred and headed to assist the attacker; some armed with pocketknives. The hospitalized victim was struck across his head with the bat.

The wounded male was transported to the trauma unit of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital with a fractured skull and internal bleeding. He was placed in an ICU and may have to undergo neurosurgery. This is another of the attacks police do not report and does not appear in the newspaper, simply as if nothing occurred.

It is explained as the young man was relieving himself the Arab male ran over to him and shouted it was private property, then beginning to choke him. He told police the victim entered his private property, denying he struck without provocation.

Despite his serious injuries police have decided to believe the story of the Arab attacker, questioning the victim in the ICU as a suspect in the case, not a victim. It appears the video taken by some of the Jewish youths is insufficient to show police the Arab male delivered the first blow against an unarmed man.

Honenu officials, which are representing the victims views the actions of police as grossly inappropriate. “It is unacceptable that in every confrontation between Jews and Arabs police automatically side with the Arab version” the Honenu statement reads.

Attorney Itamar Ben-Givir adds that if the situation was reversed the media would be obsessing over the beating to an innocent Arab by a Jew but in this case it is not even media worthy. He questions the silence of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who are so quick to denounced price tag attacks involving mere property damage. Ben-Givir calls on police to file a criminal indictment against the Arab attacker.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)