Police: Darfurian hotel worker attacked in Eilat

Migrants in TA tell ‘Post’ that attacks and vandalism are almost nightly event, but cops say no complaints have been lodged.

By BEN HARTMAN
Aftrican migrants pack after night in TA park_370 (photo credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
Aftrican migrants pack after night in TA park_370
(photo credit: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
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.