Violent gang attack on driver in Negev caught on camera
29-year-old Bedouin cuffed on suspicion of taking part in assault in which masked and unmasked men appear to attack passengers involved in a crash with metal bars in Be'er Sheva.
A 29-year-old man from the Bedouin community was arrested on Monday for taking part an assault, recorded on camera, on a driver involved in a traffic accident at a junction on Route 46 in the Negev near Be'er Sheva.
A video of the violent incident posted on social media shows a van pulling up next to a vehicle involved in the incident, before alighting while wielding iron bars and seemingly attacking its passengers. One suspcet's face was covered with a balaclava.
On Tuesday, police asked the courts to extend the arrest of the suspect at the Be’er Sheva Magistrates’ Court. Other people suspected of taking part in the attack have yet to be arrested.
The attack took place on the same day and in the same area where young men were captured on camera shooting into the air and engaging in other reckless behavior during a wedding celebration.
The video, recorded by the director of one of the plants in the Ramat Hovav Regional Council, was published by Milena Teplizkiy-Vershinin on the "Be'er Sheva Together" Facebook group.
According to her, the man who captured the footage contacted the police, but was told they are "aware of the phenomena."
Teplizkiy-Vershinin lamented the "sense of helplessness" she receives after encountering such increasingly common incidents, pointing a finger at the region's Bedouin communities.
"To sum it up in two words: no security," she commented on the two separate incidents. "I am a mother of two small children who travels back and forth on this road every day. You have to place a police car at this junction because the Bedouin endanger the passengers there and commit traffic violations."
The Israel Police said that "a report was received about incident. Within minutes a police van arrived at the scene. The police encountered a heavily bruised civilian and we took him to give testimony. An investigation was opened into the matter the area was scoured.”
Be’er Sheva Mayor Rubik Danilovich said that he had contacted Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to seek their direct intervention into the matter.
“Last night, shocking images surfaced when a group made up of minorities, without any demonstrable fear or concern, drove wildly on the roads of the Negev, firing automatic weapons in front of everyone," Danilovich said.
"This is a crossing of a red line that cannot be crossed. I have to say that recently we witnessed a number violent incidents on the roads in the Negev and within the towns by gangs who violate the law and terrorize the public,” he continued, adding that he had implored Alsheikh and Erdan "to immediately cut this serious phenomenon at the root and to comprehensively deal with it with an iron fist.
"We will not allow for the Negev residents to be held hostage and be frightened on the roads. No more!” the mayor said.
Erdan has decided to open a police station in a Bedouin village in the Negev amid a spike in violent incidents on roads in southern Israel.
The police station, the first one in a Bedouin village in 15 years, will be located in Ar'arat an-Naqab and include 150 police officers.
On Monday morning, a day after the video went viral on social media of the wedding celebration shooting, the police took in two suspects for questioning, a father and son, after the groom of the wedding was arrested on Sunday. A number of suspects will also be brought before the Be’er Sheva Magistrates’ Court.
Leaders of the Bedouin community on all sides publicly condemned the violent occurrences. Attorney Mahran al-Huziel, who works as a teacher in Rahat, lamented the surge in violent crime in south Israel.
“We are suffering serious troubles. There is crime and it is on the rise, but it is not a problem exclusively suffered by Bedouin," he told Ynet. "The problem is that we are not able to enforce law and order through the older people in the community and the younger generation is out of control.”
