Police charge 9 Jewish teens in assault of Arab

Youth were "looking for Arabs to beat up" according to indictment in Jerusalem beating; all but one defendant are minors.

By MELANIE LIDMAN
Zion Square beating suspect in J'lem District Court 370 (photo credit: Melanie Lidman)
Zion Square beating suspect in J'lem District Court 370
(photo credit: Melanie Lidman)
Indictments were brought in two Jerusalem courts on Tuesday against the nine suspects connected with the mob attack against an Arab teenager two weeks ago in the city center.
The charges include assault and battery, racial incitement and inciting violence.
Eight of the suspects are minors, and two of those are girls. The only adult is 19- year-old Shimon Siman-Tov, a Jerusalem resident.
Eight were indicted in the District Court and one was indicted in the Magistrate’s Court.
The State Attorney’s Office had requested that all of the suspects be remanded until the end of court proceedings.
However, the courts released seven of the suspects to full house arrest; only two remained in detention.
According to the indictment against Siman Tov, around 60 youth sat in central Jerusalem’s Hatulot Square on Thursday night, August 16, and started harassing Arab youths in the area, telling them they could not sit there. The Jewish youths also chanted “Muhammed is dead!” and “Death to Arabs.”
At around 11:30 p.m., some 30 people in the group moved toward Zion Square with the goal of “beating up Arabs,” according to the indictment. The group saw one Arab they did not know and attempted to catch him, but he was able to flee. A few minutes later, four Arabs passed by and the group started attacking them. The Arabs began to flee, but 17- year-old Jamal Julani fell as he was running and was immediately surrounded by the Jewish teens.
The attackers beat Julani unconscious to the point where he had no pulse. Paramedics who arrived on the scene used CPR and defibrillators for more than 10 minutes before his pulse returned, and evacuated him in critical but stable condition to Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, where he is still recuperating.
“There are still details that will clear my brother of guilt,” a relative of one of the minors said outside the courtroom on Tuesday.
R.B., the 15-year-old girl who police claim is the central suspect and allegedly encouraged the rest of the group to attack Arabs, was also released to house arrest.
Her lawyer, David Halevi, said she was in a “difficult” emotional state.
“This was the first time she was in jail, someone with no history of crime and nothing similar to this,” said Halevi.