Jewish construction worker punished for ‘fighting for his life’

Jewish construction worker says he’s on house arrest after being beaten in unprovoked attack by Arabs.

By World Israel News Staff

A Jewish construction worker who said he was the victim of antisemitic violence at a construction site in central Israel told Hebrew language media on Monday that he is being unfairly blamed by the police for the brawl, while the Arab perpetrators go unpunished.

Speaking to Radio 103FM, Hyman, one of the two Jewish construction workers attacked in Ra’anana last week, said he was being penalized for “fighting for my life.”

According to Hyman’s account, he and a Jewish colleague, Eden, were prevented from entering an elevator at the site by an Arab construction worker. “From there it escalated into a fight of 50 against two,” he said.

By his estimation, a mob of some 50 men beat him and the other Jewish man at the site using “hammers, tools, iron bars, anything they could get in their hands to murder [us],” he recalled. He said that he heard the men yelling in Arabic to encourage others to attack “the Jews.”

A foreman at the site eventually brandished a gun, which caused the attack to stop and the mob to disperse. Some Hebrew language reports indicate that the foreman fired into the air.

Hyman and Eden were wounded in the incident and taken to a local hospital. Because they were injured, they did not immediately file a complaint with the police – rather, Hyman says, the Arabs at the site reached the police first with their version of events.

After being released from the hospital, Hyman said the police informed him he was under house arrest, pending the results of the investigation. He said that he is the only person who is currently facing potential legal trouble for his involvement in the brawl.

“As far as I know, most of the Arabs who were there are still working at the site, the site asked six workers [not to return] and everyone else is there.”

Describing the brawl as “traumatizing,” Hyman said he had been in fear for his life during the incident and only fought back to defend himself.

“How does it make sense for a person to be attacked by an angry mob who wants to kill him, and he is the one who gets arrested for being targeted by the perpetrator?”

“It does not make sense, it just does not make sense. I came to file a complaint and I was told I couldn’t, that the matter was already under investigation. Eden fought with [the police] and managed to file a complaint.”

A manager at the site confirmed Hyman’s version of events to Radio 103FM, saying that the event was not triggered by any wrongdoing or aggression on the part of the Jewish victims.

Adding that the men were not motivated by clan loyalty which would cause them to engage in such a disproportionately unfair fight, with tens of men against just two, he said “the only thing that united them was Arabs who could beat Jews.”

“If someone had not been there with a gun, we would probably have been at the funeral today,” he said.