'Israeli society is infected with racism,' Tibi says after assault on Druse soldier

"The extreme right wing has moral responsibility for the attack," wrote Tibi, Channel 2 reported on Sunday.

Druse IDF soldier Razzi Houseysa in hospital after beating (photo credit: AMIR HOUSEYSA)
Druse IDF soldier Razzi Houseysa in hospital after beating
(photo credit: AMIR HOUSEYSA)
Speaking about the Druse soldier who was attacked over the weekend for speaking Arabic, Ta’al MK Ahmed Tibi said that “Israeli society is infected with the virus of racism.”
“The extreme Right has moral responsibility for the attack,” Tibi said, Channel 2 reported on Sunday.
Razzi Houseysa, a soldier serving in the IDF’s Golani unit, was attacked on Thursday night in a nightclub for what he says was speaking Arabic.
Yinon Magal, a former journalist and Bayit Yehudi candidate for the Knesset, responded to Tibi, saying mockingly, “Arab society is very tolerant of Jews.”
“Those who glorify martyrs should be the last to preach to us,” Channel 2 quoted Magal as saying in reference to Tibi.
Houseysa, from Daliat al-Carmel, went on Thursday night to the Ultrasound nightclub at Kibbutz Yagur. The party at the nightclub was for soldiers only and Houseysa was granted entrance when he presented proof of his service. After Houseysa left the party, he and his friends went to the parking lot. There, he said, a group of youths attacked him with rocks and punched him until he lost consciousness.
He woke up at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
Houseysa’s cousin, Amir, told Ma’ariv Online that “his only sin is that he spoke with his friend in Arabic. It cost him a fractured face, surgery, and the pain is unbearable.”
Houseysa had not quarreled with anyone at the club, he said, and the party went without incident. The attackers escaped, Amir said.
Members of the right-wing Zionist organization Im Tirtzu visited the Druse soldier at the hospital on Sunday. “The Druse community is a cornerstone of Israeli society and is on the forefront of its protection,” said Im Tirzu CEO Matan Peleg.
“We stand alongside those who have tied their fate with that of the Jewish people,” he added.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.