Police arrested a sixth Jewish teenage suspect on Sunday morning in connection
with last Thursday’s beating of an Arab man.
Twenty-eight-year-old
Ibrahim Abu Ta’ah suffered a broken leg and other injuries while walking a
coworker home from a club in the early hours of Thursday morning, after a group
of teenagers attacked him in order to “protect” the Jewish girl he was
accompanying. Police expect additional arrests.
On Sunday
afternoon, four of the suspects, all Jerusalem residents between the ages of 14
and 16, were remanded at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court until
Tuesday. A fifth suspect was remanded Saturday night until Monday. The
youths and their family refused to speak to the media at the
courtroom.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben- Ruby said the suspects
arrested so far have admitted they were involved in the attack and told police
investigators that they thought “the Arab was abusing the Jewish
girl.”
Ehud Kaatani, a lawyer for one of the youths, dismissed the
police’s claims that the motives were racist.
“There is absolutely no
connection to nationalistic reasons,” Kaatani said outside the courtroom. “They
are not part of one of those gangs that goes around Jerusalem looking for Arabs
to beat up. This was a completely spontaneous action,” he said.
Kaatani
said the incident was a result of “kids drinking alcohol and fighting among
themselves.” The lawyer said his client as well as the other youth claim that
Abu Ta’ah provoked them.
According to police, after they left the club,
Abu Ta’ah was accompanying two Jewish co-workers to one of their apartments in
the Katamonim. The group, who work together at the Mamilla Hotel, were on Rabbi
Tzadok Street when they passed a group of about six or seven teenagers sitting
on the side of the road. Abu Ta’ah told the media that one of his companions
told him, “Ibrahim, just ignore them.” According to Abu Ta’ah, after the group
heard his Arabic name they attacked him, beating his leg with a metal rod and
punching him with their bare hands.
Abu Ta’ah was evacuated to Shaare
Zedek Medical Center with a broken leg and underwent surgery on
Sunday.
The attack against Abu Ta’ah comes exactly three weeks after the
brutal beating of 17-year-old Jamal Julani in Zion Square, when the Ras el-Amud
teenager was attacked by a group of a dozen Jewish youths chanting racist
slogans. Eight youths and one adult were indicted in connection with the attack.