Police charge 9 Jewish teens in assault of Arab
08/28/2012 13:37
Youth were "looking for Arabs to beat up" according to indictment in Jerusalem beating; all but one defendant are minors.
Zion Sq. beating suspect in J'lem District Court Photo: Melanie Lidman
Indictments were brought in two Jerusalem courts on Tuesday against the nine
suspects connected with the mob attack against an Arab teenager two weeks ago in
the city center.
The charges include assault and battery, racial
incitement and inciting violence.
Eight of the suspects are minors, and
two of those are girls. The only adult is 19- year-old Shimon Siman-Tov, a
Jerusalem resident.
Eight were indicted in the District Court and one was
indicted in the Magistrate’s Court.
The State Attorney’s Office had
requested that all of the suspects be remanded until the end of court
proceedings.
However, the courts released seven of the suspects to full
house arrest; only two remained in detention.
According to the indictment
against Siman Tov, around 60 youth sat in central Jerusalem’s Hatulot Square on
Thursday night, August 16, and started harassing Arab youths in the area,
telling them they could not sit there. The Jewish youths also chanted “Muhammed
is dead!” and “Death to Arabs.”
At around 11:30 p.m., some 30 people in
the group moved toward Zion Square with the goal of “beating up Arabs,”
according to the indictment. The group saw one Arab they did not know and
attempted to catch him, but he was able to flee. A few minutes later, four Arabs
passed by and the group started attacking them. The Arabs began to flee, but 17-
year-old Jamal Julani fell as he was running and was immediately surrounded by
the Jewish teens.
The attackers beat Julani unconscious to the point
where he had no pulse. Paramedics who arrived on the scene used CPR and
defibrillators for more than 10 minutes before his pulse returned, and evacuated
him in critical but stable condition to Hadassah University Medical Center in
Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, where he is still recuperating.
“There are still
details that will clear my brother of guilt,” a relative of one of the minors
said outside the courtroom on Tuesday.
R.B., the 15-year-old girl who
police claim is the central suspect and allegedly encouraged the rest of the
group to attack Arabs, was also released to house arrest.
Her lawyer,
David Halevi, said she was in a “difficult” emotional state.
“This was
the first time she was in jail, someone with no history of crime and nothing
similar to this,” said Halevi.