World
Attack by ‘Arabic-speaking group’ on Israeli students in Warsaw hospitalises two
Brother of one of the victims says they were beaten because they were Jewish
September 9, 2019 14:30
Brother of one of the victims says they were beaten because they were Jewish
September 9, 2019 14:30The Polish foreign ministry has condemned an attack on several Israeli nationals in Warsaw that left two Israeli men hospitalised and two others injured.
The attack, which took place in the early hours of Saturday morning outside a nightclub in the Polish capital, reportedly took place after an “Arab group” approached some Israeli students on a foreign exchange trip and asked if they came from Israel.
When the students said they did, the Arabs, reportedly from Qatar, attacked them.
In a statement on Sunday, the Polish foreign ministry condemned “acts of aggression carried out by or against foreigners in Poland. The matter of the beating of [Israeli] citizens by foreigners on Polish territory is being clarified by the police.”
Barak Kashpizky, the brother of one of the injured, shared pictures on Facebook of his sibling Yotam, bloodied and bruised after being attacked by the group.
Mr Kashpizky described how the students, in Warsaw to study for a semester, had left the club and ordered several taxis to take them back to their hotel, when an “Arabic-speaking group approached them and asked if they came from Israel. When they answered yes, they were relentlessly attacked, accompanied by shouts of ‘f**k Israel’.”
He said that his brother was already in a taxi but, seeing what was happening, asked the driver to stop and went to help his friends in order to separate the brawl and calm things down.
At that point, “an Arab guy” attacked him, punching him and making him lose consciousness. The Arab group only left when they heard the screams of the Israeli girls in the group.
"They started beating him and his friends because they [the Israelis] were Jewish", Barak Kashpizky wrote.
“In case you were wondering, none of the hundreds of Polish men on the scene came to offer help, or called the police”, he said, adding that the nightclub’s bouncers had done nothing either.
“Yes, 2019, Warsaw-Poland, and reality is repeating itself. Poles stand by and watch, while those ‘not from their people’ are beaten to the point of losing consciousness.”
He also condemned the Israeli embassy in Warsaw, saying that “not even one representative came to help” and that his brother had been left with a broken nose and eye socket injuries.
“Today it was my brother. Tomorrow it could be your relative”, he wrote.
Israel’s foreign ministry said the country’s representative in the Polish capital had “made himself available, as much as needed”, to the victims of the attack.
