Tommy Hasson
Case closed for Druze attacked by Jews for speaking Arabic
Tommy Hasson, a 22 year old Druze man who served in the IDF, was attacked in 2015 by 10 Jewish people because he was speaking Arabic; The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office has closed the case against the attackers for 'lack of evidence.'
The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office has announced that it is closing the case against suspects who allegedly attacked Tommy Hasson,
a 22 year old Druze man, due to lack of evidence.
The man was suspected of being attacked on nationalistic grounds after the suspects overheard him speaking in Arabic. He is already recognized by the National Insurance Institute as someone who survived ''enemy hostilities."
The Druze sector is very active in Israeli society, with a strong presence in the military and government.
The aforementioned attack occurred in January 2015. Hasson, who grew up in the Druze city of Daliyat al-Karmel, and who served in the IDF Druze Battalion and at the home of the President of Israel in Jerusalem. He was attacked by 10 men wearing kippot outside of the Jerusalem Central Bus Station.
Tommy Hasson who was attacked for speaking Arabic (Photo: Zohar Shachar)
Hasson was hospitalized in Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, and the police arrested several suspects.
"The victim sustained a lot of injuries," said the judge who ordered the extended remand of the suspects. "This is a very dangerous offense, all the more so as it was done borne out of nationalistic motivations during those troubling days (the height of the recent wave of terror)."
The case continued slowly, and the physical case file itself was lost. However, after an article written by Ynet on the issue was written in March of 2016, the file was re-created, and Hasson was recognized as someone who was injured in enemy hostilities.
The announcement of the closure of the case surprised Hasson. "I'm really disappointed," he said on Sunday. "They know exactly who attacked me. I'm sure that if the incident happened the other way around – that a Jew was attacked by Arabs – everything would have ended differently."
The Jerusalem Prosecutor's Office responded, saying "the evidence recovered was sent to the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office. After consideration, the decision was made to close the case due to lack of evidence and the inability to fully identify the attackers."
