Arab teens beat ultra-Orthodox Jews, force them to praise Hamas

The teens also coerced the ultra-Orthodox Jews into reciting a Muslim passage and condemning Prime Minister Netanyahu.

By UDI SHAHAM
Updated: JANUARY 15, 2018 02:05
East Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood, October 21 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
East Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood, October 21
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The Jerusalem District Prosecution filed an indictment on Sunday against 19-year-old Ahmad Faroukh for a racist-motivated assault over an incident in his neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem two weeks ago.
Early on the morning of Saturday December 30, Faroukh and a friend spotted two haredi Jews on their way to ritual immersion in the Shiloah spring in the neighborhood. Faroukh’s friend then stood up and hit one of them on the head, and the Jews fled the scene.
When they returned from the spring to the Western Wall, Faroukh and his friend blocked their way “in order to attack and humiliate them together because they are Jews,” the indictment document reads.
Faroukh’s friend then asked one of the men about his peyot (sidelocks) and then took one sidelock from each of them, and tied them together, despite their constant appeal to stop it, in light of the restriction on untying anything on Shabbat.
Then the friend complained over the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Police, and Faroukh translated it into Hebrew and forced them to repeat it. They also praised Hamas and made the two haredim repeat their praise as well.
Faroukh then told the two that they were planning to abduct them and started pulling one of the two, but soon stopped.
While filming the event with his phone, Faroukh’s friend forced the two to say the Shehadah – the Muslim testimony stating that there is no God but Allah, and that Muhammad is his messenger.
After following their orders, the two managed to escape.
The indictment document states that during incident Faroukh kept punching and hitting the two, and at some point forced them to kiss his hands.
The Jerusalem District Prosecution said in the indictment that Faroukh was acting with racist motives and with hostile and violent intentions to humiliate the two – “only because [of their] color, race, and ethnic-national affiliation,” the indictment reads.