A young Palestinian man from Ras Alamoud was reported to have been assaulted while in Jerusalem, on Thursday. According to his father, a group of Israeli settlers attempted to kidnap him after tying him and dragging him to their car.Ali Mohammed al-Abbasi, age 21, who works at a local bakery in the area, was on his way to Deir Yassin (Givaat Sahool) when a number of radicals approached him, armed with pepper spray, and with the intention of restraining and kidnapping the youth.
When they failed to drag him to their vehicle, they assaulted al-Abbasi with a large amount of pepper spray, upon which another group of settlers began to gather, thinking that they were a group of Palestinians attacking another settler.
Ali’s father confirmed that a fellow co-worker took his son to the hospital, after ambulance and police failed to respond.
However, police did reportedly come to the hospital to ask Mr. al-Abbasi if he had any enemies, upon which they dismissed the incident as a dispute.
Al Abbasi told Ma’an News Agency that he was attacked previously this month, by a group of Israeli radicals at the same place, near his work.
On a related note, a Jerusalemite youth working the graveyard shift, at a gas station in the same vicinity, notified the administrators of ‘Ana Min Alquds’ website, saying that three settlers came to the station and asked him to fill their car.
The group then proceeded to fill bottles of gas, according to the youth.
He asked them to stop and telephoned a senior employee of the station, upon which the boss instructed him to write down the car’s plate number, just in case foul play was suspect.
Attempts by settlers to kidnap Palestinians as young as two years of age are an increasingly common occurrence in the Jerusalem area.
(See: Clashes Continue Across West Bank and East Jerusalem)
Last month, Israeli right-wing settlers kidnapped 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir, before reportedly stabbing the boy and burning him to death.
