A Sudanese hotel worker was beaten by two patrons at a hotel in Eilat late
Saturday night, police confirmed on Tuesday, saying the alleged attackers were
in custody.
The Southern District police spokesman identified the two as
residents of Rishon Lezion in their 20s. He said they began arguing with
the employee, Abdullah Abuyah, 40, of Darfur after he refused to give them
towels intended for different guests.
The suspects claim Abuyah attacked
them.
The police account also differs dramatically from what Abuyah told
Ynet, which quoted him as saying there had been a sustained attack of some 10
minutes by seven men, who beat him all over his body and tried to throw him from
a 5th floor window.
He also said the attackers repeatedly yelled racial
epithets.
The police spokesman said investigators had seen no evidence to
suggest the attackers tried to throw Abuyah out a window or yelled
epithets.
The incident came to light after a guest staying at the hotel
wrote a post on Facebook claiming to have witnessed the attack, detailing the
“attempted lynch.” Police said there was no evidence to support her depiction of
the events.
African migrants in south Tel Aviv have spoken repeatedly of
attacks carried out after sunset nearly every night by Israeli youths who,
according to the migrants, drive up on scooters and attack them before peeling
away.
One migrant, a 26-year-old Eritrea native calling himself Mulue,
sat at an Eritrean-run Internet café on Hagana Street. Both he and the owner
said the establishment had been vandalized on Saturday night by a rock-throwing
Israeli teenager. Pointing at the shattered front window, Mulue said such
attacks happen almost every night.
Tel Aviv police last week announced
the arrest of nine youths and two adults who plotted and carried out attacks on
African migrants in south Tel Aviv in recent months, but a police spokeswoman
said she had not heard of any such attacks or vandalism in recent weeks, adding
that no complaints had been lodged with authorities.
She called on
members of the migrant community to come forward with such complaints at the
city’s Levinsky police station.