Police arrest two youths for attack on Arab teacher

Teenagers from yeshiva allegedly threw rocks at car of two teachers in Jerusalem; police expected to make further arrests.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, MELANIE LIDMAN, BEN HARTMAN
Handcuffed 300 R (photo credit: Reuters/Benoit Tessier)
Handcuffed 300 R
(photo credit: Reuters/Benoit Tessier)
Police on Sunday arrested two teenage boys in suspicion of assaulting two teachers in Jerusalem last week in what is suspected to be a racially motivated attack.
The teenagers, who handed themselves in on Sunday, are suspected of throwing rocks at the teacher's car. Additional arrests are expected, police say.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court released a 16- year-old Jewish boy to house arrest after he was arrested in connection with the attack against two teachers on Wednesday.
According to police, a number of teenagers from a yeshiva high school in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood attacked two female teachers, one of whom is Arab, in the late afternoon on Wednesday.
The teenagers apparently threw rocks at the car and broke the windshield, screamed obscenities, and spat at the two teachers.
Police arrested the 16- year-old after conducting an investigation, and expect additional arrests.
On Thursday morning, Judge Yaron Mientkavich denied the police’s request to keep him in custody due to his young age. He will be released to house arrest on Friday.
Police chief Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino condemned the attacks on Thursday.
“This is a criminal and despicable phenomenon,” Danino said, adding that police have arrested suspects in the attacks “and they will face our investigation and the full severity of the law. This is our answer to all of these examples of racism and this is the way we must work to eradicate them.”
Danino added that police have given these cases top priority and that they will not let them pass quietly.
Wednesday’s incident is the latest in a series of racially motivated attacks against Arabs. Last week, a group of Jewish teenage girls verbally attacked an Arab woman at a light rail stop in Kiryat Moshe. One girl was arrested and two additional girls turned themselves in and subsequently filed a complaint with police, claiming the Arab woman started the altercation.
Anti-racism coalition Bright Tag will hold a rally on Sunday near the Prime Minister’s Residence to denounce the recent spate of racist attacks.