‘I’m traumatized’ – Arab woman, mistaken for Jew, brutally beaten in Jerusalem

The attack occurred near Mamilla Mall, outside the Old City.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A young Arab woman who was mistakenly identified as a Jew was physically assaulted in eastern Jerusalem last week, the victim told the Hebrew-language Walla news site.

The woman, who does not want to be identified by name, said she was walking near Mamilla Mall outside the Old City when she was approached by a group of Arab men.

She told Walla that the attack occurred around 9:30 p.m., after she left work and was waiting for a taxi to take her home to her neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem.

“Suddenly, three young Arabs, [who appeared to be] in their 20s, approached me and tried talking to me. They asked ‘Are you Jewish?’ I answered them ‘What’s up?’ in Arabic, so they’d understand I’m not Jewish,” the woman told Walla.

Despite her reply in Arabic, the men rushed at her, began beating her, and threw her to the sidewalk. The victim said she tried to fight back, that one of the attackers was physically imposing and she felt that her “fist did not affect him at all.”

At the time of the assault, she was on the phone with her mother, who started recording the call when she suddenly heard her daughter crying out for help.

In the recording of the call published by Walla, the victim is heard repeatedly saying in Arabic that she’s not Jewish and begging the attackers to leave her alone.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the assault, the victim said, was that no passerby stopped to help her.

“I tried to scream for someone to help me,” she said, noting that “there were five Arabs nearby who just watched and did nothing.”

The victim called police immediately after the assault. Security forces were unable to find the attackers.

Although the victim suffered cuts and bruising, she was not seriously injured in the assault. But the incident has caused her significant mental distress, she told Walla.

“I’m traumatized,” the woman said. “My heart hurts. I want [the assailants] to be arrested and put in jail.”