{"id":9621,"date":"2015-10-21T08:56:24","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T12:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=9621"},"modified":"2015-10-21T08:56:24","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T12:56:24","slug":"eritrea-condemns-murder-of-refugee-in-israel-demands-arrest-of-attackers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/9621","title":{"rendered":"Eritrea Condemns Murder of Refugee in Israel, Demands Arrest of Attackers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Eritrea-ambassador-e1387747267485-635x357\"<\/a>The Eritrean government has criticized Israel for the death of an Eritrean man in the hands of an angry mob at a bus station in Bir-al-Saba this past weekend.<\/p>\n

The deceased, 29-year-old Haftom Zarhum<\/a>, was seeking asylum in Israel where he has been working for several years. On Sunday, Zarhum was mobbed to death at a central bus station in the Israeli city after being mistaken for a terrorist.<\/p>\n

A 21-year-old Arab-Israeli citizen Mohannadd Al-Aqaby had attacked the bus station wielding a knife and a gun. In what has been described as one of most bloody attacks in recent times, Al-Aqaby killed a 21-year-old Israel soldier and injured 11 others.<\/p>\n

Israeli police officers, who responded to the scene, shot Al-Aqaby dead.<\/p>\n

Amid the chaos of the attack, a security officer at the bus station somehow assumed that Zarhum was Al-Aqaby\u2019s accomplice. The Eritrean, who was visiting the city to secure a work permit, was shot several times by the officer. As Zarhum lay on the floor bleeding, an angry Israeli mob beat him mercilessly.<\/p>\n

A sickening viral amateur video shows a defenseless Zarhum squirming in pain while being kicked in the head repeatedly. A long bench was also thrown on him. A man is seen trying to protect him from the mob by pinning him under a chair.<\/p>\n

The mob, who mistook Zarhum for an Arab, allegedly prevented medics from attending to his injuries. The angry crowd reportedly chanted \u201cdeath to the Arabs\u201d and Arabs out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zarhum died on Monday at a hospital. He reportedly suffered wounds to his chest, abdomen and a fractured femur.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you that I really mourned his death. His death is not justified,\u201d said Yonhanan Baizel, the surgeon who treated Zarhum for three hours at the Soroka University Medical Center.<\/p>\n

The Eritrean government has condemned the tragic incident<\/a> saying it represents the frequent cases of racism and hostility many of its citizens experience in Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the Eritrean people in particular, the tragic incident is a poignant reminder of the hidden and unreported repression routinely committed in Israel against tens of thousands of the compatriots,\u201d Eritrea\u2019s Minister of Information Yemane Meskel said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International said it was appalled by Zarhum\u2019s death, particularly because he was targeted due to the color of his skin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a victim of racism and xenophobia who just happened to be at the scene of a terrorist attack,\u201d a statement from the human rights group said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible,\u201d Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in a rare official statement regarding Zarhum\u2019s death. \u201cIt shows you what a terrible situation we are in.\u201d<\/p>\n

A witness told Ynet<\/a> that \u201cPeople took out their rage on the wounded Eritrean and abused him. We thought he was one of the terrorists. He was shot in the legs and the real terrorist ran outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another member of mob identified as Dudu told Army Radio that he regretted kicking Zarhum after discovering his identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the people gathering around the man attacked him. Nobody was helping him. People just were making sure he doesn\u2019t move. There is no human being who did not kick or beat him. Everyone took part. I couldn\u2019t sleep last night thinking about what happened and I feel sick about myself,\u201d the witness said.<\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has cautioned people not to take the law into their own hands. \u201cWe\u2019ve a country of law. No one will take the law into his own hands,\u201d he said after the attack.<\/p>\n

Despite the tragic incident and the uproar it has caused, it doesn\u2019t seem Israeli authorities plan to punish the mob for Zarhum\u2019s death. Two days after the attack, no member of the mob captured in the viral amateur video has been arrested.<\/p>\n

Mickey Rosenfeld, spokesman for Israel\u2019s police force, said the private security officer who shot Zarhum repeatedly has been questioned and released.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Eritrea\u2019s ambassador to Israel Tesfamariam Tekeste demanded an investigation into the incident as well as the arrest of the officer and members of the mob<\/a>, who attacked Zarhum.<\/p>\n

Tekeste cautioned Eritrean nationals living and working in Israel to be careful as they go about their business. He said Zarhum\u2019s remains would be flown back to his family for burial after the investigation into his death is concluded.<\/p>\n

Zarhum is from Shambuko, a small town in the Gash-Barka region of western Eritrea. About 20,000 Eritreans are estimated to be living in Israel.<\/p>\n

Photo: Noam Moskowitz\/Flash90<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Eritrean government has criticized Israel for the death of an Eritrean man in the hands of an angry mob at a bus station in Bir-al-Saba this past weekend. The deceased, 29-year-old Haftom Zarhum, was seeking asylum in Israel where…<\/span> Read more ›<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[44,1],"tags":[498,4371,4970,4373,4361,475,4374,4364,4372,4370],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9621"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9623,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9621\/revisions\/9623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}