(JNi.media) Omar Alfaruk Abidiyah, 22, from Jabel Mukaber, a predominantly Arab neighborhood in south-eastern Jerusalem, was charged Monday by the Jerusalem District Attorney with smashing the head of an Israeli female tour guide with a glass bottle, on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. The indictment is for causing injury with aggravating circumstances and attempted grievous bodily harm in aggravated circumstances.
Last Monday, the tour guide, a resident of Efrat, met with a pair of tourists from the US, at the outdoor plaza near the Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, to start the day’s guided tour.
A few minutes later, Abidiyah arrived from the direction of the IDF Square, armed with a glass bottle. He noticed the tour guide standing with the tourists in the plaza, and decided to attack her because she was Jewish, according to the indictment.
Abidiyah then approached the tour guide, who was busy speaking to her two clients about the area. He walked slowly towards the three people, observing them, as he waited for the right moment to carry out his plan. Eventually, Abidiyah turned to the guide and said, “Slihah” (Hebrew for Beg your Pardon), so that she would turn her head at him, and began to hit her head several times using the glass bottle. As a result of the blows the bottle broke, the guide dropped to the floor and Abidiyah fled the scene. He was caught a short time later by Border Police officers.
The Prosecutor’s office emphasized that Abidiyah’s attack on the tour guide was racially motivated—solely because she was a Jew. They seek his remand to prison until the completion of the legal proceedings against him.
