‘I was sure they were going to kill me,’ says Jewish man attacked by Arabs in Jerusalem

Running inside a pizza restaurant in the Beit Safafa neighborhood, the victim screamed, “Help! Help! They’re trying to kill us!”

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A Jewish Israeli man who was brutally attacked by Arab residents of Jerusalem in Israel’s capital on Friday evening recounted his harrowing experience on Channel 20 News Sunday morning.

Identifying himself by only his first name, Israel said he’d taken a walk after Shabbat dinner with a friend when the pair were thrust into what felt like a life or death situation.

“It was pure fear,” he told Channel 20 News. “I was sure they were going to kill me.”

Israel and his friend left the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood around one in the morning and were walking through the industrial Talpiot area when several “Arabs came from behind us.”

At first, Israel and his friend ignored the group, until “we saw that they crossed from the other side of the street to [our side], so we understood that they came to mess with us.”

One of the Arab men started yelling at Israel and his friend, then began throwing rocks at them.

The two ran onto a side street, but found that the man was still following them. After hiding out in a gas station for a few minutes, the friends decided to try to come back the way they’d originally come, but that proved to be a mistake.

As they returned to the main road, “a car stopped alongside us, and more [men] got out of the vehicle.”

Forming a larger group, the men chased Israel and his friend, with one hurling a large rock directly at Israel’s head.

Israel managed to block the rock with his arms, but it signaled to him that the attack had escalated. He was now in fear for his life.

Running inside a pizza restaurant in the Beit Safafa neighborhood, Israel screamed, “Help! Help! They’re trying to kill us!”

The group of men were unfazed by the prospect of attacking the two Jews in a well-lit public place, and ran into the restaurant after Israel.

“They caught up with me and beat me up, my whole body, head, arms, legs, everything,” Israel told Channel 20 News.

Eventually, a bystander at the pizza restaurant managed to force back the attackers and called the police.

Israel was taken to the emergency room for his injuries.

He told Channel 20 News that the police had found the attackers but were unable to arrest them due to “not having the right legal tools at their disposal.”

He said that most of the incident should have been recorded by security cameras along the street and at the pizza restaurant.

The police told Israel that they would check the cameras for evidence on Sunday.