Report: Israeli police officer witnessed Zion Square ‘lynching’ and chose not to intervene

Israeli suspects in an attack on young Palestinians were led into a magistrate’s court in Jerusalem (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/AFP Getty)

Israeli press first reported a patrol officer was called to the scene of the lynching in Zion Square as the attackers were screaming  ‘Death to Arabs’ and chasing Palestinian the youths.

Google Translate: He chose not to intervene and left without calling additional forces. “It did not affect him, he chose not to intervene,” said the eyewitness.

New evidence interprets the young Arab attack in Zion Square indicate poor conduct of the Israel Police: newspaper “Ma’ariv” post this morning that the focus of police reports of events came about 40 minutes before the violent event. According to an eyewitness at the scene, a patrolman who was called to the scene watched young wild square, but left the place minute by beating young.

Muhammad, one of employee witnesses near the square cats, suggesting that the 100 center called the police and reported the event. A few minutes later a policeman arrived on a motorcycle tour of watching young people chasing Arabs but the officer chose not to intervene.

“The policeman arrived just as the boys began to shout ‘Death to Arabs’, he was right in the mess, he heard the curses, saw chase Arabs and beat them, but it did not affect him., He decided not to intervene and did not ask to send other teams to place,” said witness.

Jerusalem Police sources told the newspaper “Ma’ariv that the place did come Explorer police after receiving the complaint center. According scout scan performed and explained that some of the boys dispersed, and some came to Zion Square.

Times of Israel: Cop reportedly witnessed brutal Jerusalem beating

A policeman was present during a mass brawl in Jerusalem Thursday night that nearly left an Arab teen dead, but reportedly did nothing to stop what officials are calling an attempted “lynch.”

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Eyewitnesses said they called the police at the start of the brawl, some 40 minutes before Julani was severely beaten. As a result, a policeman arrived on a motorcycle, but he stood and watched without stopping the mob as violence unfolded, Maariv reported on Wednesday.

“He was right in the mess,” and could see and hear everything going on, one of the witnesses told the Hebrew daily. The policeman “saw how they [the mob] were chasing Arabs and hitting them, but he didn’t care,” the witness said.

Phone records from the night of the attack show that both witnesses spoke to the police dispatcher, Maariv wrote.

The police confirmed that the policeman arrived at the scene.

How might this have changed Amy Dickerson’s coverage at the New Yorker? 

  By the time the police arrive, their victim isn’t moving.

This attack has penetrated a firewall that often exists between much of the violence happening on the ground in Israel/Palestine and the US media.

Isabel Kershner at the New York Times: Young Israelis Held in Attack on Arabs

“This is directly tied to national fundamentalism that is the same as the rhetoric of neo-Nazis, Taliban and K.K.K.,” Mr. Aloni said. “This comes from an entire culture that has been escalating toward an open and blunt language based on us being the chosen people who are allowed to do whatever we like.”

The police said Thursday’s beating of Mr. Julani, who regained consciousness in the hospital on Sunday, resulted from a brawl after a girl in a crowd of Israeli youths complained that she had been harassed by an Arab. Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said the girl had spurred the crowd to seek vengeance, though her lawyer denied that on Israel Radio on Monday. The crowd then arbitrarily focused on Mr. Julani and his friends, Mr. Rosenfeld said, beating Mr. Julani until he lost consciousness.

“According to those questioned, there was a fight, there was cursing,” Mr. Rosenfeld said. “One thing led to another.”

Mr. Julani, a youth of slender build with fashionably short hair from the predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, said in an interview from his hospital bed on Monday that he had no memory of what had happened — or even of being downtown on Thursday. But relatives at his bedside, including a cousin who was with him at the time of the assault, said the attack had been unprovoked.

The cousin, Muhammad Mujahid, 17, said he and four friends were walking in the square and suddenly found themselves being chased by a group of youths. “They were shouting ‘Arabs, death to Arabs,’ ” he said. “I saw about 50 people chasing us. We ran, but about 10 of them caught Jamal.”

Asked whether he would return to West Jerusalem at night, Mr. Mujahid said: “I don’t want to go back there. I’ve learned.”

Mr. Julani’s mother, Nariman, described the attackers as “terrorists, fanatics.”

“We have no ideas about politics,” said Mrs. Julani, 44. “We brought our children up to study, to be good and to love their homeland.”