VIDEO: Security footage captures Jewish brothers assaulting Arab man in Jerusalem

Police investigating attack as possible hate crime; suspects say the acted in self-defense.

By BEN HARTMAN
Arab worker attacked by Jewish brothers
Three brothers from the Jerusalem area were brought before a judge in the capitol on Tuesday, following their arrest on Monday night on suspicion of violently assaulting a local Arab man in what is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
The brothers, aged 21, 28, and 31, stand accused of assaulting the Arab man, a laborer who was working on Yehuda Hamaccabi street in the city. Two of the brothers allegedly pulled up next to a group of Arab laborers and an argument began between the two sides. The brothers then left the scene and returned with a third brother, and the Arab men began to flee the scene, but one of them was cornered in a nearby store and beaten.
The victim, who was lightly hurt, submitted a police report and then went for treatment at a local health clinic.
Jerusalem Police Spokesman Asi Aharoni said that the three men don't deny assaulting the man, but say that they acted in self-defense.
"Not sure how it can be self-defense since they chased after him and attacked him," Aharoni said, but added that the incident is still under investigation. He said that police are probing all possible motives and have not determined if it was racially-motivated or simply an argument that became violent, without any nationalist or racist component.
News of the arrest followed rioting and clashing between Palestinian youths and police in the Old City of Jerusalem during the Sukkot holidays, as well as the discovery of a suspected 'price tag' nationalist attack in the West Bank village of Aqraba, where a local mosque was torched and right-wing graffiti found sprayed on a wall.


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