Yesterday, we were subject to another deadly terrorist attack, this time at the central bus station in Beer Sheva (a common haunt of mine the first year after I emigrated to Israel). One soldier was killed, and many other people injured.
A further tragedy occurred during the attack: an Eritrean national was shot by a security guard who mistakenly thought he was a terrorist, and was then beaten to death by a mob who thought the same.
It is important to note that even though the people were under this mistaken impression, police are trying to locate them, possibly to charge them.
Police announced on Monday that they would work to identify and locate civilians who fatally wounded an Eritrean who was mistaken for a terrorist during the Sunday evening terror attack at the Be’er Sheva central bus terminal.
Investigators plan to examine videos taken by witnesses and captured on security cameras.
Police noted that they were searching specifically for people who assaulted the Eritrean man after he was incapacitated by a gunshot wound and clearly no longer posed a threat.
The security officer who suspected the victim was a terrorist and shot him will not, said police, be investigated.
It is unclear what charges these individuals might face and whether they would end up being indicted.
After the man was shot by a security officer and lay incapacitated, people beat him, threw benches and chairs at him, kicking him, spat on him and cursed at him. Police officers on the scene, as well as some civilians, tried to keep attackers at bay at bay.
Paramedics trying to evacuate the Eritrean to the hospital ran into objection from the crowds at the scene, who blocked their way and called out “Death to Arabs,” “Arabs out!” and “Am Israel Hai” (“The people of Israel still live”). He was taken in serious condition to Soroka Medical Center, where he died of his wounds early Monday morning.
“People took out their rage on the wounded Eritrean and abused him,” said a witness. “We thought he was one of the terrorists. He was shot in the legs and the real terrorist ran outside.”
The JPost adds:
Negev subdistrict police said in a statement on Monday that Dep.-Ch. Amnon Alkalai had instructed the subdistrict’s special investigative unit to find the assailants “who brutally beat a foreigner after he had already been subdued and was lying on the floor and did not pose a danger at all.”
They added that “the police view the incident with the utmost severity and will not allow civilians to take the law into their own hands.”
Definitely a horrible tragedy, but there is no suggestion he was murdered because he was Eritrean. Rather, they believed he was one of the terrorists.
Enter Electronic Intifada’s Rania Khalek, who never misses an opportunity to lie in order to demonize Israel.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/israeli-mob-attacks-dying-eritrean-refugee-after-soldier-killed
Firstly, she stresses the victim was a soldier, as well as the terrorist’s other intended victims (she does not call him a terrorist, of course). As if killing soldiers is ok with her (which it is, based on her previous posts).
A gunman opened fire at the central bus station in Bir al-Saba (Beer Sheva), a city in the south of present-day Israel, on Sunday evening, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding up to 11 other people.
The assailant shot and killed a soldier and then “snatched his M-16 rifle” before opening fire on the others, most of whom were “members of Israel’s security forces,” Israel’s Ynet reported. Walla! News reported that four of the injured were soldiers.
Israeli police shot and killed the assailant.
Israeli media named the dead soldier as 19-year-old Sergeant Omri Levi. He was a member of the Israeli army’s Golani brigade.
Then she claims the Eritrean was killed because of Israeli racism against non-Jewish refugees from African states.
Death-chanting mob
During the incident, a security guard shot 29-year-old Haftom Zarhum, an Eritrean refugee who was “misidentified” as a “terrorist,” according to Haaretz. Zarhum later died of his injuries.
Zarhum came to Beer Sheva on Sunday to procure a visa.
Video captured by bystanders and posted to social media shows a mob of onlookers, including Israeli soldiers and police, kicking Zarhum in the head, pinning him under a chair and throwing a bench at him as he writhes on the floor, clearly in pain and bleeding severely.
Voices from the crowd can be heard chanting for Zarhum’s death, shouting “mehabel” (terrorist), ”Kill him!” and ”Break his head! Break his head! Son of a prostitute!”
Ynet reported that medics trying to evacuate Zarhum “ran into objection from the crowds at the scene, who blocked their way and called out “Death to Arabs,” “Arabs out!” and “Am Israel Chai” (“The people of Israel still live”).”
Haaretz correspondent Chaim Levinson tweeted a statement from an Israeli police spokesperson implying Zarhum might have been shot because of his race.
“I haven’t touched a word. The Police spokesman’s (Negev region) statement: One of the wounded persons, who was shot by security forces, is a foreign citizen; at the moment it is not clear if he is involved with the event or if he was shot due to his exterior appearance,” Levinson wrote.
Non-Jewish refugees from African states regularly experience extreme racism and hostility in Israel.
Israeli leaders have labeled them a “demographic threat” to Israel’s Jewish majority, as they have Palestinians. They are at constant risk of indefinite detention and deportation.
Note the fabrication. Khalek mentions a tweet quoting the Israeli police spokesperson questioning whether he was shot “due to his exterior appearance.” This is not an admission of racism against Africans. Rather, it is clear from the chants of people at the scene – mentioned by Khalek herself – that they really believed he was an Arab terrorist. After all, many such terrorists have had dark skin.
In other words, Khalek is spinning her own narrative, even though some of the things she reports are very much conducive to the official version of events.
Khalek goes on to claim
What is also all but certain is that the Israelis who attacked and perhaps ultimately killed Zarhum are not likely to held accountable.
This is pure conjecture, and flies in the face of the harsh words the police had for those who attacked him.
Khalek’s fellow liar and Israel hater Richard Silverstein parrots her claims, and adds some of his own, long-winded commentary – with bonus Nazi comparison – for maximum demonization effect.
Breaking: Israeli Jewish Mob Lynches Eritrean, Mistaking Him for Terrorist
Ironically, the victim had come to Beersheba to secure a visa, a golden ticket for African refugees seeking a safe haven in Israel. It goes without saying that he had very little chance of success given Israel’s absolutely allergic reaction to the plight of these refugees.This killing saves Israel the trouble of yet another rejection.Though if Zarhoum has any family in Israel, the immigration authorities would be advised to grant immediate visas to them. Either it will because it sees hasbara advantage in showing mercy; or it won’t because it’s locked into its racialist narrative that Israel is for Jews only, not Africans (or Arabs). There are a raft of reasons for Bibi to stiff-arm any survivors. Mainly because the Likud heartland hates African refugees and showing decency to any of them, even ones who’ve suffered like this, will not win points. Time will tell which option Bibi chooses.
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Most international media outlets are reporting that the security guards wounded the Eritrean man. Very few are reporting that after he was wounded an Israeli Jewish mob actually killed him, kicking him in the head, throwing chairs at his head, shouting that he was a terrorist and should be killed, etc. They egged each other on as lynch mobs do. This is what latter-day Israel has become. Yet another example of rampant Israeli racism by which Israeli Jews see the world as enemies based on color, religion and ethnicity. In effect, they are continuing the same racialist approach advocated by Hitler and the Nazis toward Jews and other “undesirables.”
I should also point out that Israeli TV has reported the security guard was a Bedouin, not a Jewish Israeli. This is something the likes of Khalek and Silverstein are not likely to add to their posts because it flies in the face of their “racist Jewish Israeli” narrative.
Yet another example of how the Israel haters lie and try to kick Israel while she is down.
