Fatal beating of Eritrean raises vigilantism concerns
Mob mistook ‘modest man’ for Arab attacker in Israel
A video showing an Eritrean man in Israel being shot by a security guard and then beaten by a mob that mistook him for an Arab attacker has raised new concerns Monday about vigilantism amid the ongoing wave of IsraeliPalestinian violence.
“It is a disgrace to Israeli society, and those that carried out this lynching need to be found and brought to justice,” said Yaakov Amidror, former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Even if it was the terrorist himself, by the way, after he was shot, after he was neutralized and lying on the floor, you need to be an animal to torment him,” Amidror told Israel Radio, according to the Associated Press.
Sunday’s violence in the southern city of Beersheba began when an Arab with a knife and gun killed a soldier, stole his weapon and opened fire, wounding nine people before being killed by police.
In the mayhem, Habtom Zerhom, an Eritrean migrant in his late 20s, ran into the station to seek cover, police said. A security guard, mistaking Zerhom for another attacker, shot and wounded him.
As he lay on the floor, a mob cursed, kicked him and hit him with objects, the AP reported.
Security camera video showed Zerhom in a pool of blood as he was rammed with a bench and kicked in the head by passersby, while an Israeli officer and a few bystanders tried to protect him. Zerhom later died at a hospital. A headline in Monday’s Yediot
Ahronot newspaper said Zerhom was shot “just because of his skin color.” Police said they were reviewing the security video to identify the mob who beat Zerhom. As of late Monday, no arrests had been announced.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence and sent condolences to Zerhom’s family.
“We are a law-abiding country,” he said. “No one should take the law into their own hands.”
Zerhom worked at a plant nursery in southern Israel and had been in Beersheba to renew a work visa, said his employer, Sagi Malachi.
“He was a modest man, quiet, and he tried to do his job as best as he could,” Malachi told the AP. “I think that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
About 34,000 Eritrean migrants have fled conflict and persecution in their homeland for Israel.
Israeli police identified the attacker who did open fire Sunday at the Beersheba bus station as Mohannad al- Okbi, 21, an ArabIsraeli citizen from the Bedouin town of Hura in southern Israel.