In 2022 and 2023, charges for illegal assembly were filed only against the ultra-Orthodox community.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Israeli police have discriminated against ultra-Orthodox demonstrators for years, legal help group Honenu testified to the Knesset this week, saying that only members of the ultra-Orthodox community have been charged with illegal assembly, despite numerous instances of similarly unauthorized protests organized by non-Orthodox demonstrators.

In a Knesset debate over police handling of protests, Honenu presented a report that showed that ultra-Orthodox (haredi) demonstrators are targeted for charges of illegal assembly. In contrast, other protesters aren’t charged with any offense.

The Knesset discussion concerned the ways in which law enforcement handles public demonstrations and threats against public officials.

Israelis who have been demonstrating against the government on behalf of the hostages testified about claims of mistreatment at the hands of police.

MK Gilad Kariv asked, “I would like to know how many detentions and arrests of protesters have been carried out and how many police reports have been filed as sorted by place and protest.”

After families of hostages described their negative experiences with the police during protests, Attorney Menashe Yado from the Honenu legal aid organization declared, “In 2022 and 2023, charges for illegal assembly were filed only against the haredi community – the least protected demographic.’’

Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman responded, “I would like the police and prosecution to provide a breakdown of the data, as there are things here that should disturb everyone.”

He added, “If there were so many illegal assemblies and charges were filed against only one demographic, that is a serious issue.’’

Honenu is a legal advocacy group that seeks to protect the rights of settlers in Judea and Samaria.

According to Honenu’s report, despite the many months of daily protests last summer against the government’s judicial reform plan and the more recent anti-government demonstrations during the Gaza war, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox have been the only demographic to have been targeted with charges of illegal assembly.

Recently, the ultra-Orthodox community has faced a significant change, with ultra-Orthodox MKs giving their initial approval of a proposal that would draft at least a quarter of all yeshiva students into the army.

Moreover, that number could be increased to 50% in the coming years, which would mean some 6,000 additional annual recruits to the IDF.

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‘The news of the terrorist’s early release has severely damaged (their) sense of security and makes it difficult for them to fully recover.’

By World of Israel News Staff

Two victims who survived a terrorist shooting in East Jerusalem this year have said the release of their assailant as part of the hostage deal will impede their recovery.

Sixteen-year-old Ibrahim Sultan Zamer’s name is on a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners who may be freed in exchange for hostages taken by Hamas.

However, Yaakov Mozes, 48, and Moshe Hass, 50, who were shot multiple times at point-blank range on April 18 as they drove in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah demand that Zamer’s name be removed from this list.

After intensive surgeries and a long recovery period, both men are in stable condition but have said the potential release of Zamer may cause them emotional distress that will hinder their full recovery.

Although the two men have made significant progress in their ability to function, they are still going through rehabilitation.

After shooting the two men, Zamer fled the scene but was caught in Nablus and was set to stand trial for two counts of attempted murder.

Honenu, an organization that provides legal representation for activists and terror victims, has said they don’t know whether Zamer might have already been released in the 4th hostage exchange or whether his release is still pending.

Haim Bleicher, an attorney at Honenu, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding Zamer’s name be removed from the list.

“My clients were horrified to hear that this terrorist was on the list of candidates for release, even before he stood trial.”

The letter continued, “The news of the terrorist’s early release has severely damaged my clients’ sense of security and makes it difficult for them to fully recover and return to normal life. Furthermore, this is a terrorist who carried out a serious attack and is an immediate danger to the citizens of Israel.”

“It is not right for a terrorist who carried out an attack that miraculously did not end in murder, and while the wounds from that attack are still healing, and before the terrorist has even served a year in prison, to be released.”

The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond or comment on the request.

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Owners apologize in Hebrew, claiming the ad was run without their knowledge.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The IDF sealed and partly destroyed a pizzeria Thursday night in the Palestinian town of Huwara a day after it mocked a Holocaust survivor forced to pose with a Hamas terrorist last Saturday, by using her image in an ad.

In the original picture, publicized by the terrorists during their invasion of Gaza envelope communities that began the Iron Swords War, Esther Konio is shown sitting in a light housedress, grimacing and holding the rifle of a terrorist standing over her. She is making a “V” for victory sign with her fingers. The ad photoshopped her holding a pizza pie in her hand instead.

The 90-year-old lived on Kibbutz Nir Oz, on the Gazan border. Ynet reported, in contrast to other media outlets, that she was not taken into Gaza, but two of her grandchildren are missing and presumed among some 150 innocent elderly, babies, men and women who were kidnapped during the surprise attack.

Dozens of Jewish youth from the Israeli town of Yitzhar, north of the the village of Huwara which has been the site of several recent murderous terrorist attacks, came to demonstrate in front of the shop, demanding that it be “blown up.” Their call was echoed by Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan.

The Honenu legal organization immediately wrote to Central Command head Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs demanding that the restaurant be sealed due to its implicit support of the massive assault that has so far taken the lives of at least 1,400 men, women and children.

“It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of immediate enforcement, in way that will be of unequivocal deterrence, which is needed at this time against such phenomena,” lawyer Ofir Steiner of Honenu’s civil department wrote.

“They certainly must not be allowed to humiliate in such a terrible way the victims of the terrorist incident, whose families’ eyes have not yet dried from their tears,” he added.

The whole front of the eatery was destroyed, presumable to enable it to be sealed. Fuchs wrote in his order that “the Eiffel Bakery and Supermarket” was sealed because “the place is used for incitement activity and support for terror operations.” It is to remain closed for five months.

The owners posted an apology for the ad to Facebook in Hebrew, claiming that they were not its instigators.

“We are very sorry for the picture that was posted. It was of course done without our knowledge, someone tried to hurt us. We are against harming men and women and just want to earn a living with dignity and live in peace with everyone,” it read. “We are very sorry to the members of our family and others who were hurt.”

Honenu claimed that the pizzeria’s owner is not an innocent, as he had seriously injured a Jewish youth several years ago with a rock. He had never faced charges due to a lack of evidence.

The Ice news site reported that another pizzeria, in Silwad northeast of Ramallah, had come out with a similar campaign to advertise its delivery service.

Residents of Silwad later claimed that the pizzeria was demolished, while a third pizzeria which used Konio’s image has reportedly been sealed off by IDF forces in Birzeit, near Ramallah.

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17-year-old yeshiva student was allegedly handcuffed by his hands and feet for courtroom appearance, like a terrorist or suspect in violent crime, after being arrested for waving an Israeli flag in area frequented by Arabs.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

A young Zionist activist and social media influencer is suing the Israeli police, following what he says was maltreatment after being arrested for waving an Israeli flag in an Arab area in the nation’s capital.

Yedidia Epstein, a 17-year-old yeshiva student, organized a pro-Israel protest at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate in July 2023, on the heels of a car-ramming attack in Tel Aviv that left nine people injured.

Damascus Gate is in the Old City and a frequent gathering point for Arabs in Jerusalem, so police deemed the presence of right-wing activists in the area as being inherently provocative.

Within an hour of gathering at Damascus Gate with several dozen other people for a peaceful rally in which Israeli flags were raised, the gathering was broken up by police and Epstein was arrested, according to his attorney.

Elad Weisel, a member of the right-wing legal aid organization Honenu and the lawyer representing Epstein in his case, wrote in the court filing that his client was unnecessarily left handcuffed for hours.

He was also forced to sleep on the floor of the police station overnight, until a court hearing the next morning, Weisel claimed.

Both keeping a suspect restrained in handcuffs for hours and failing to provide them a mattress on which to sleep are violations of Israeli law regarding arrestees.

Weisel said that despite being a minor and accused of a minor crime – disrupting public order by waving the flag- Epstein was taken to court with both his hands and feet shackled, a procedure which is typically used only when the suspect poses a major threat to security or is suspected of a serious crime, such as murder.

“This is a serious and unnecessary violation of the rights of a minor. Outrageous conduct that is presumed to be a deliberate abuse of the Israel Police against a minor,” Weisel said in a press statement shortly after the filing.

“[Epstein] is an idealist and a social activist, who set himself the goal of working to restore the feeling of security at the Damascus Gate and not to accept the state of affairs in which the Israeli flag cannot be raised in such a central place standing in the heart of the capital of Israel.”

Epstein is seeking 42,000 shekels [$11,000] in compensation for the incident.

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The criminal case ended with almost no punishment for the perpetrators, so the family sued them instead.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A family has won 60,000 shekels in a civil suit against Palestinians who attacked them in the Old City of Jerusalem six years ago after the judge in the criminal case let them off with almost no punishment, Israel National News reported Tuesday.

On their return from prayer services at the Western Wall in September 2017, three male family members got into their car to drive away when an argument ensued with two Arabs who claimed that the Jewish worshippers had parked in a way that blocked the entrance to their store. The argument escalated into fisticuffs, with several Arabs throwing punches, kicking, and even one throwing a cup of boiling-hot coffee at their victims.

The men were bruised in the fight, and a Border Police unit arrested the two main assailants after being summoned to the site. Despite video evidence from street cameras, the case against them was closed in January 2018.

Honenu, the legal aid organization that helps Jewish victims of Arab assaults, then fought a years-long, successful battle to get the case reopened, only to see the court approve a sweet plea deal in March: One assailant received a two-month suspended sentence; the other was let off with 100 hours of community service.

The police defended their decision to offer the lenient deal, saying that it “fit the evidentiary difficulties and the passage of time from the commission of the crime.”

Honenu was angered by both the procedure and the slap on the wrist. They pointed out that the plea agreement had been made with the assailants’ legal representatives without notifying them as the victims’ lawyer, as required by law.

In addition, “the phenomenon of violence against Jews in Jerusalem is increasing all the time but the accused get off … without paying a price,” said Adv. Haim Bleicher, director of the Terror Victims Department. The decision was made to bring a civil suit “as the least we can do …. to deter others from repeating such actions.”

The Arab defendants never responded to the lawsuit, and when the time limit for a response passed, the court has ordered that they pay the full sum demanded in compensation – 60,000 shekels.

A satisfied Bleicher commented, “Civil lawsuits are the necessary supplement in the war on terror … especially where the criminal law is not adequately prosecuted.”

This tool, he continued, “gives back to the victims what they deserve for being harmed, but more than that, it deters those rioters who are forced to pay out of their own pockets to those whom they had tried to hurt. We will continue to make an effort to see that every rioter or terrorist who hurts Jews pays a heavy price.”

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National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demands police explain why collective punishment was permitted against residents of Israeli town.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Right-wing activists and politicians fumed Saturday night over what they called a “siege” laid against the Jewish village of Ateret by the IDF after some local Jews rioted in a nearby Arab village earlier that day.

“There’s a blockade here already for long hours,” said lawyer Nati Rom of the Honenu legal aid organization that helps nationalist Jews arrested by the authorities. “The Benjamin Region brigade commander is standing at the entrance, with security forces, the Shabak, with masked faces, are not allowing anyone in or out without checking each car very carefully, and they’re making mass arrests.”

“This is collective punishment that we didn’t see when we asked, for example, in the murderers’ village of Al Muayar, after more than 20 roadside bombs, that they blockade it.”

“They told us ‘We don’t have permission from the political echelon, the commanding officer doesn’t allow it.’ But here, there’s no problem to have collective punishment…. This can’t go on, it’s illegal, it must be stopped immediately,” he added.

As the police were also on the scene, sources close to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that the minister made it clear to the police chief and commander of the Judea and Samaria region that “he opposes all law-breaking, but it is still forbidden to punish an entire group. Just as it was not possible to close down [Jerusalem Arab neighborhood and hotbed of terrorists] Issawiya, it’s not clear why it was possible to do so in Ateret.”

Dozens of extreme right-wingers had clashed over the Sabbath with Palestinians near Umm Safa, a few kilometers from Ateret, then entered the village and set at least two houses and several vehicles on fire.

Israel’s top security echelon had condemned the violence, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant saying that he had given “a clear directive to our troops to maintain order and stability, and to prevent acts of violence perpetrated by civilians in the area.”

In a joint statement, IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, police chief Kobi Shabtai and Shabak head Ronen Bar said that the recent “violent attacks” against “innocent Palestinians” should be considered “in every way, nationalist terrorism, and we are obliged to fight them.”

Such violence, they maintained, “increases Palestinian terrorism and harms the State of Israel and the international legitimacy of Israel’s security forces to fight Palestinian terrorism.”

Dozens of mostly youthful Jews had also rampaged in a few Arab villages immediately following the burial Wednesday of the two of the four civilians, two of them minors, who had been murdered in a Palestinian terror attack in Eli the previous day.

Both religious and political leaders of the settler movement joined the condemnation while blasting those who paint all those who live in Judea and Samaria as violent.

Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, the Chief Rabbi of Samaria, said Sunday, “I protest the haste with which the heads of the security establishment condemned the settlers, and my words are especially directed at the media, which was quick to blame the ‘settlers.’ If a group of lawbreakers chooses to carry out prohibited actions, both according to the Torah and all human morality, this does not mean that the heroic settlers should be tarnished even an iota.”

He praised the residents of the region “who live under the shadow of constant terror and continue bravely to live regular lives, driving on the roads despite the shootings, Molotov cocktails, rocks and roadblocks they experience.”

His words echoed those of Gush Etzion Regional Council head and Yesha Council chairman Shlomo Ne’eman Saturday, who said, “For more than a year, terrorism has been rampant in our streets and most recently has been increasing, and has reached a peak…. In this reality, a small handful of Jews, out of desperation and frustration, have taken the law into their own hands. We should not mimic our barbarous enemy, go wild, and do indiscriminate harm. We have what the terrorists and their supporters don’t have – a sense of humanity.”

“The residents of Judea and Samaria are not violent and don’t take the law into their own hands,” he continued. “And those who are criminals, should be dealt with to the full extent of the law.”

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This is not the first time police have questioned the Jewish victim under caution instead of the Arab assailants.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A Jew who was beaten during Jerusalem Day festivities last month by Arabs and filed a complaint with the police was questioned on suspicion of attacking them instead, Israel National News reported Sunday.

The man, who had come to the capital’s Independence Park to celebrate the day the capital was unified during 1967’s Six Day War, was severely beaten by five or six Arab guards, said lawyer Ofir Steiner of Honenu, an NGO that offers legal assistance to Israeli Jews experiencing difficulty in receiving a fair judicial process after clashing with Arabs.

Guards had told him to leave an area of the park where a performance was being given, and he obeyed, explained Steiner in a letter to the police. The man then saw a group of guards running towards something and followed “from a distance,” Steiner emphasized, out of curiosity. One of the men grabbed him and then they all started punching him violently while shouting “Kill the Jew!” in Arabic.

The man tried to escape, to no avail, and was only saved when two Border Police officers arrived and had to physically break into the fight in order to release the victim from his assailants’ grip.

In the letter complaining of the authorities’ conduct, Steiner wrote that instead of arresting and questioning the Arab attackers after the man complained against them, the police subsequently interrogated the victim under warning. The Arabs had lied to the police, saying that he had attacked the whole group of them when they refused him entry several times, and they had had to respond to his violence.

“The version of the attackers has no basis or hold in reality,” Steiner charged, noting that the incident had not taken place anywhere near the complex where the event was being held, and flies in the face of the evidence the police already had in hand.

Their story, he continued, was only concocted “to cover up a racially motivated violent attack, by posing the investigation as if it were a case of one person’s word against another, or some kind of mutual altercation.”

“It is expected that the Israeli Police will compare the attackers’ far-fetched version with the rest of the evidence in the case and the victim’s version… complete the investigation of the violent attackers, and make sure that they will indeed be brought to justice for their actions,” Steiner added.

This is not the first time that Honenu has charged the police with blaming the Jewish victim of a nationalist Arab attack.

In January 2022, an Arab brutally assaulted a young Jewish man in the middle of Jerusalem, continuing to beat him even after he fell to the ground. When the police arrived, they arrested the victim while he was bleeding, and interrogated him under warning.

In May of that year, also in Jerusalem, an Arab deliberately hit a yeshiva student’s car, and then he yanked open the Jew’s door and started punching him, smashing his glasses. When the student went to the police station to file a complaint as the officers on the scene had recommended, he found himself being questioned under caution, fingerprinted and photographed.

In both cases the police responded to Honenu lawyers’ complaints by saying that the cases were “under investigation.”

Last June, a high school group was attacked in Lod by a mob of Arabs throwing rocks and the police had to escort the group to safety. Their tour guide was then arrested in the middle of that night and interrogated for several hours before being released under restrictive conditions, outraging Religious Zionism party head MK Bezalel Smotrich.

“Something very bad is happening to the Israel Police,” he said. “Again and again we hear how Jewish victims of crime are portrayed as those guilty of the offenses, in order to obtain artificial calm which will eventually explode in our faces.”

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Three policemen refused to say why they beat protesters, and a fourth said it was because they were yelling at tourists and blocking the way.

By Atara Beck, World Israel News

Approximately 150 Orthodox Jewish protesters attended a demonstration Sunday morning in the Old City of Jerusalem in response to a call by the city’s Deputy Mayor Arieh King and several rabbinical leaders, urging the public to “take a strong stance against a large-scale missionary event.”

The Pentecost 2023 event, King explained, was “set to include a worship service, a communion ceremony, and a united prayer initiative involving 100 million Christians worldwide.” Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl, former rabbinical head of the Old City, urged his followers to attend the protest.

A description of the event on its website demonstrates the goal of the organizers, which is not merely to pray for Israel and Jerusalem, but to make Jews into “believers.” It marks the launch of an aggressive, 10-year missionary campaign.

“On May 27th and 28th, 2023 a coalition of believers in Israel and the Nations, denominations, missions and prayer organizations are calling believers everywhere to set aside an hour to pray both for Jerusalem and the Jewish people and for the Gospel to go to the ends of the earth and communities of worshiping disciples to be raised up everywhere.

“To assist and bring focus to the prayer, we are partnering with different groups from Israel and the nations of the earth in a 26-hour broadcast with different key partners leading prayer from their part of the world. Crescendoing in several high points throughout the day including a broadcast from the Southern Steps of the Temple in Jerusalem at 10 a.m.-12 noon.

“At the very place that 3000 were added to the number of the gathering of believers on the Day of Pentecost, many of the organizations who are participating in the decade of activities responding to Jesus’ Great Apostolic Commission to Go and Make Disciples of all nations and who have set a goal of 2033 (the 2000th Anniversary of the death, resurrection, ascension and pouring out of the Spirit) for many discipleship goals. As well as a commissioning broadcast to raise intercession for Jerusalem at 6 p.m.-8 p.m.”

Prominent missionaries spotted at the event – held near the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site – included, among others, Chaim Malespin, director of the Aliyah Return Center; Asher Intrater, President of Revive Israel; Avi Mizrachi, Pastor of Adonai Roi Messianic Congregation; Ron Cantor of Tikkun International and God TV; and Lou Engle, Lou Engle Ministries and Vertical House of Prayer.

“Would it be conceivable that Jews would do this next to the Vatican? Could anyone imagine if Jews did this next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre?” King asked.

Meanwhile, protesters were screaming “Missionaries, Go Home,” and some tried blocking the entrance. Police responded violently.

Nine protesters were arrested, according to the Honenu legal aid organization.

World Israel News asked four different police why they beat the protesters. Three refused to answer, and a fourth said they were yelling at tourists and blocking the way.

Although the program was widely broadcast across multiple television networks across the globe and included reporters from the Christian Broadcasting Network, security at the entrance prohibited World Israel News from attending, insisting that “this is a private event. No journalists are allowed.”

A senior city official said they had no right to block a journalist – or, for that matter, any private person – from entering.

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“Even though it was carried out within the walls of the prison, this constitutes a terror attack for all intents and purposes,” argues the victim’s attorney.

By World Israel News Staff

An Arab prisoner sunk his teeth into the chest of a Jewish inmate earlier this month, causing severe infection, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The assailant was reportedly enraged when his cellmate at Damon Prison in northern Israel appeared to like right-wing Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir while watching the news.

“My client has been serving a sentence for traffic offenses for several months. In his cell, Jewish and Arab prisoners live together in peace,” said the victim’s attorney Haim Bleicher of the Honenu legal organization.

“A few days ago, the suspect from the village of Hura in the south was put in the cell of my client. On January 11, my client was watching the news on television. The news broadcast pictures of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and my client expressed joy while watching the news,” Bleicher said.

“At this point, my client noticed the suspect praying and immediately entered the bathroom. Suddenly… the suspect ran towards my client chanting ‘Allah Akbar’ and sank his teeth into his chest with great force. My client was shocked and at first, did not understand what was happening to him.

“It took my client a while to realize that the suspect was biting his chest and trying to dislodge the flesh. My client struggled for over a minute to free himself from the suspect’s jaws all the while groaning in pain, while the other inmates in the cell also tried to separate the suspect from my client,” the attorney explained.

Furthermore, “following the attack, my client was taken to the Carmel [Government] Hospital where he was diagnosed with bleeding and a severe infection in the chest and hematomas that cover a large area of his chest and even spread to his stomach.”

“Due to a lack of manpower at the Prison Service, my client was returned to his cell and taken to the hospital from time to time. My client is being treated with massive antibiotics and is being monitored for the need to insert a drain to pump the internal bleeding.”

Bleicher argues that the incident was a nationalistic attack.

“My client was told that the suspect committed a similar attack, by biting, against another Jew in Tzalmon prison and was then transferred to them.

“Also, my client was explained by his cellmates that the suspect’s behavior is also related to the death of his relative Yaqub Abu Al-Kiyan during the security forces’ activity near Hura,” a Bedouin town in southern Israel.

Yet “much to the surprise and in spite of the risk involved, the suspect was transferred to another cell that also contained Jewish prisoners.

“This is a serious attack on a nationalistic basis. Even though it was carried out within the walls of the prison, this constitutes a terror attack for all intents and purposes. The suspect poses an immediate danger to every Israeli citizen even while in prison.

‘First, I would like to warn about the suspect being in a cell together with Jews. It seems that this suspect should be isolated immediately or, unfortunately, he should not be put in a cell together with Jewish or Druze citizens and the like,” Bleicher concluded.

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Avraham Ehrlich was so severely beaten in 2015 that he cannot work and suffers from PTSD.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ordered a group of Arabs who had severely beaten a Jew in the Old City of Jerusalem in 2015 to pay him a whopping 2.75 million shekels (over $800,000) in compensation for his injuries, Hebrew media reported.

Avraham Ehrlich was in the Old City as part of a tour guide course, but he separated from the group because his electric bike couldn’t make it up the stairs. He ate a falafel dish at an Arab restaurant while talking to the staff in English. Assuming he was a tourist, one employee charged him an exaggerated sum of 200 shekels.

Ehrlich then took out his cell phone and recorded himself asking in Hebrew how much his meal cost. This time the answer was 50 shekels.

But Arabs who worked in the eatery then started shoving him around and warning him to stop rolling his camera. One finally grabbed his phone and smashed the screen.

Ehrlich fled, but then returned to get his bicycle, and when he re-entered the restaurant, one of the original attackers jumped him and started beating him with a stick.

The assailant was joined by other staff, some of whom used baseball bats on their victim, hitting him on the head and all over his body. They then dragged him into a nearby alley to continue the beating outside.

Ehrlich finally managed to escape, although when he begged for help from Arab passersby, some of them also tried to hit him. He called the police, who helped him get his bike back, and he identified his attackers.

The criminal trial that followed ended in plea agreements, and the assailants received only suspended sentences.

This was not acceptable to Ehrlich, who had physical injuries to his head, leg and hand from the ordeal and such severe symptoms of mental trauma and PTSD that he couldn’t return to work.

He sued the men in civil court with the help of Attorney Haim Bleicher from the Honenu organization, which offers legal aid to Jews who have difficulty receiving fair treatment in cases involving Arab violence.

Commenting on the victory, Bleicher said, “Unfortunately, attacks on Jews by Islamic rioters is done as a matter of course and as if their victims’ blood was cheap. We will continue to act even more vigorously in order to exact a heavy price from those rioters and to stop the repeated acts of violence against Jews.”

In recent months, Honenu has managed to extract tens of thousands of shekels in civil damages from Arabs who have attacked Jews but received only light or suspended sentences in criminal court. In September, two Arabs who had knocked a haredi youth to the ground and kicked and punched him repeatedly, also in the Old City, were ordered to pay him 60,000 shekels.

In another case decided the day before, the same Magistrate’s Court  fined the Arab assailant of a Jewish driver 90,000 shekels.

The goal, says Honenu, is deterrence.

“When a terrorist is sent to prison, he receives status and respect in his society,” Honenu lawyer Ofir Steiner explained in an interview with Makor Rishon after the two cases were won. “After he runs out his sentence, he’s received at home and on the street as if he were a king.”

“When this happens again and again, we understand that the penalties imposed by criminal law do not create a real deterrent. There is no system that prevents the man from repeating the act again. So we say: if being in prison or having a criminal record is not a deterrent to the terrorist, we will go into his pocket and sue him financially.”

“I have often seen how even a convicted terrorist who served a prison sentence is not worried about everything that happened, but is very worried about the civil lawsuit,” he added.

The post Arabs who attacked Jew ordered to pay millions of shekels in compensation appeared first on World Israel News.

“This is a very serious antisemitic incident that challenges the right of Jews to live in our capital, Jerusalem,” said the victim’s lawyer.

By World Israel News Staff

An Arab motorcyclist ran down an Orthodox Jewish man in an apparent ramming attack in Jerusalem during the Sukkot holiday.

The attack occurred in the predominantly Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa in southeastern Jerusalem during the first day of the Sukkot festival on Monday afternoon.

A 22-year-old haredi resident of Jerusalem and his 13-year-old brother were walking down the street. A passing Arab motorcyclist spotted the two haredi brothers as he drove by in the opposite direction. He then made a U-turn and sped up towards them.

He ran over the elder brother, hitting him in the leg.

During the attack, the motorcyclist shouted antisemitic epithets at the two pedestrians and demanded they leave the neighborhood.

The victims later filed a criminal complaint against the motorcyclist at a local police station.

The brothers are being assisted by attorney Haim Bleicher from the Honenu organization.

“This is a very serious antisemitic incident that challenges the right of Jews to live in our capital, Jerusalem,” Bleicher said, according to a report by Israel National News. “An attacker on a motorcycle who runs over a person because of his Jewish appearance is a terrorist and we expect the police to make every effort to catch him and prosecute him as quickly as possible.”

Also on Monday, Palestinian Arab gunmen opened fire at a hotel in Bethlehem in which Jewish symbols were displayed in one of the hotel’s event halls.

The upper floors were damaged but there were no injuries reported in the incident.

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Nasser Abu Hamid, who planned numerous terror attacks that killed 7 Israeli civilians including Rabbi Binyamin Kahane and his wife, may be released in the near future.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A terrorist convicted of the murders of Israeli civilians is up for parole, and the families of the victims were not informed about the possibility that their loved ones’ killer could potentially be released.

Nasser Abu Hamid, one of the founders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, was given seven life sentences plus an additional fifty years for planning a series of terror attacks which left seven Israeli civilians dead.

Among those killed in the attacks were Rabbi Binyamin Kahane, son of Jewish Defense League founder and one-time Knesset Member Rabbi Meir Kahane, and Rabbi Binyamin Kahane’s wife, Talya Kahane. The couple were shot and killed while driving their children on Route 60 in Samaria in December 2000.

Abu Hamid, who is terminally ill with cancer, was recently transferred back to prison after spending several months hospitalized at Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center.

According to Hebrew language media reports, a report from the hospital indicated that Abu Hamid, who has been imprisoned since 2002, is on the verge of death.

Attorneys for Abu Hamid lobbied the parole board for compassionate release, which would allow Abu Hamid to die at home.

The parole board appeared to be receptive to this request, scheduling a hearing in which doctors will likely recommend his release from incarceration.

But the families of Abu Hamid’s victims were not informed about his health condition, nor his upcoming parole hearing, and are fuming that they were kept in the dark.

The possibility that Abu Hamid will be freed is “heartbreaking” for the victims’ families, said attorney Ofir Steiner.

Steiner, who works for the Honenu NGO, is representing the victims’ families and will speak against the release in the parole hearing.

“Those… who lost their loved ones in a number of murderous terrorist attacks, all of which were planned and carried out by the master murderer, were shocked to learn that the parole board intends to discuss his release,” Steiner told Channel 12 News.

“The court found that he should be sentenced to seven life sentences plus another fifty years, indicating that this is someone who needs to be kept away from the public. It is difficult to understand how the terrorist’s request is accepted in the face of the suffering of the orphans and widows, and may even lead to an early release that will harm the deterrence and security of the citizens and break the spirit of the victims,” he added.

“We will do whatever it takes to prevent the release of the murderer, who has no right to taste freedom again.”

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The two victims are being treated at Hadassah-University Medical Center on Mt. Scopus.

By David Hellerman, World Israel News

A group of Arab workers attacked two Jewish men in Jerusalem on Thursday, leaving both hospitalized, Israel National News reported.

The two men, whose names were not released, are brothers and were assaulted in the northern neighborhood of Maalot Dafna. One was knocked unconscious. Both are being treated at the nearby Hadassah-University Medical Center on Mt. Scopus.

Honenu, a legal aid organization, called upon police authorities in Jerusalem to arrest the attackers.

The post Arab workers attack Jewish brothers in Jerusalem appeared first on World Israel News.

Israeli police arrest a Jewish man who said he brandished a toy gun while he and his son were threatened by knife-wielding Arabs.

By World Israel News Staff

A Jewish man who was threatened by Arabs in a forest in central Israel was arrested two weeks ago, Arutz-7 reported Tuesday evening.

The man and his son were taking photos of the area in a Jewish National Fund forest near the city of Rosh Haayin, where they live, when a group of Arabs surrounded them and threatened them with a knife, the report said. The two were making plans for an event for children with special needs.

According to the man’s testimony, during the incident he suddenly recalled that he had a toy gun in the back seat of the car and managed to retrieve it. When he brandished the pistol, the gang retreated.

Immediately afterwards, he said, he called police.

Police arrived at his home several hours later, the report continues, but instead of collecting testimony, they took him away for questioning.

The man’s attorney, Haim Bleicher of the Honenu organization, appealed to the Central District Police Chief to apprehend the Arab attackers and to delete his client’s criminal record, the Arutz-7 report continues. But to no avail.

“My client planned to hold a party for children with special needs in this park, and he went with his 13-year-old son to inspect the area,” Bleicher wrote in his appeal.

“My client was standing next to his vehicle and taking pictures when suddenly, members of a minority group began to gather around him in a threatening manner, shouting at him and demanding to know why he was taking pictures.

“The man told the Arabs why he was there but he only received more threats in response. The gang managed to distance him from his vehicle, warning him that ‘You [Jews] have nothing to look for here.’

“A woman, part of the gang, then drew out a knife and approached the two, shouting, ‘We are Bedouins, and we will slaughter you.’”

“When my client was later detained, despite repeating the threatening incident with the knife to police, police investigating the incident accused my client of lying based on the fact that he did not call police while the attack was in progress,” Bleicher continued, as quoted by Arutz-7.

“My client explained that he had called police immediately afterward and produced his phone’s call log as proof. The investigator then claimed that my client had called and hung up immediately…

“Only after my client showed him a repeat message after the call and after his phone was taken for inspection did the police announce that his report to the 100 hotline had been located.”

The man was fingerprinted and forced to sign a large financial guarantee, the report said.

“The injustice arising from the sequence of events should not be underestimated,” Bleicher stated, according to Arutz-7. “This was a serious incident in which a family encountered violent and dangerous members from a minority population who threatened my client’s life.

“Nonetheless, it was my client who was detained as if he had been the criminal in the case, even though he had been acting in self-defense. This police response deprives citizens of any possibility of attempting self-defense.”

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“This is a shocking incident in which a bus driver abused the boy in an attempt to humiliate him and disrespect Jews,” his lawyer stated.

By Shemesh Online

An indictment was filed in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court this week against an Arab bus driver who worked in the city of Beit Shemesh. The indictment was filed following an incident in which the driver threatened a Jewish boy traveling on his bus and harassed him for several minutes.

Attorney Haim Bleicher of the Honenu legal organization, representing the boy, described the incident to the Beit Shemesh Police Investigations Department as an “ugly antisemitic humiliation.”

The incident happened about a year ago, when an ultra-Orthodox boy boarded the bus early in the morning. At one point, the boy was the only passenger on the bus. The driver then stopped the bus and told the boy to approach him.

“The boy went to the driver, who took out his cell phone and began filming him while he asked him questions,” according to Honenu.

“For several minutes, the driver forced the boy to give humiliating answers, such as that the driver should beat him if they meet in the Old City of Jerusalem, to say that he does not like Jews and he likes Arabs, and more,” Haim Bleicher wrote to the police.

The driver also told the boy to repeat an Arabic sentence, the meaning of which he did not know. After several minutes of cruel humiliation the driver continued his journey, and the boy got off at the nearest bus stop, shaken and very upset.

The boy filed a complaint with the police against the driver, and as stated, an indictment has now been filed against him.

“This is a shocking incident in which a bus driver abused the boy in an attempt to humiliate him and disrespect Jews,” Bleicher stated.

“It seems that within the existing law it is difficult to find a legal offense that covers this crazy situation of outright antisemitism towards a Jew in our country,” he said.

“Members of antisemitic minorities have freedom to act in a despicable manner. We will work to ensure that the court addresses the seriousness of this antisemitic act and sends him to prison for a significant period.”

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Attorney says letting the assailant go free could establish a precedent that endangers national security.

By World Israel News Staff

An Arab man physically assaulted a 16-year-old Jewish girl in an unprovoked attack on the Jerusalem light rail on Sunday, and the assailant is still at large, Israel National News reported.

The young woman, a Jerusalem local, recently reached out to the Honenu Jewish legal aid NGO for assistance.

Haim Bleicher, an attorney from the organization, wrote a strongly worded letter to the Jerusalem police, urging them to take the attack seriously, apprehend the assailant, and charge him with a nationalistically motivated crime.

Bleicher wrote that his teenage client had been speaking with her sister while riding the train and that there were Arab youth present in the light rail car.

“Suddenly, and for no reason at all, one of the minority individuals [Arabs] came and delivered a strong blow to my client’s arm. He then continued on his way, while he and his friends giggled,” the letter read, according to Israel National News.

“My client, who was in serious pain, turned to the attacker to protest what he had done, but he treated her with contempt. My client and her sister got off at the Iriya [City Hall] station and told police officers about the incident. Later, my client filed a complaint at the Sha’ar Binyamin police station.”

But despite filing a formal complaint with police, no progress has been made in tracking down the attacker, Bleicher said.

“This is an antisemitic degrading, and outrageous attack – and it is seven times uglier since we are speaking about an Arab man who hit a woman, and in front of a crowd. It must be dealt with firmly, and not taken lightly.”

He added that holding the assailant responsible was critical for national security.

“A terrorist who began with such an attack, and is not punished appropriately, is likely to ‘develop an appetite’ and continue to escalate to more serious and severe acts, G-d forbid,” Bleicher wrote.

He then referenced Arab rioting throughout Israel immediately preceding and during the May 2021 Israel-Gaza clash, which saw Arab youth attacking Jewish victims and uploading videos of the assaults to social media.

“We note that a very similar incident – in which an [Arab] slapped a Jewish young man on the light rail train – was [widely] publicized and shortly afterwards the 2021 riots began last year.”

Bleicher demanded that “security footage from the train be immediately and urgently backed up, before it is deleted. Both from inside the train car, for the purpose of videos of the attack, and from the stations outside, for the purpose of locating the station where the terrorist got off and finding his place of residence.

“I request that intelligence sources be activated, to locate the attacker, arrest him, and bring him to justice.”

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