‘We are all equal,’ says Uri Rezken, wounded in vigilante attack, and it is a hate crime regardless of whether an Arab or a Jew stabs him

An Israeli Jew stabbed by a Jewish man who believed he was an Arab has criticised the recent violence from his hospital bed.

Uri Rezken was stacking shelves in a Haifa suburb on Tuesday when he was stabbed in the back, the latest in a series of suspected vigilante attacks.



“We are all human beings, we are all equal,” the supermarket worker told Israeli TV. “It does not matter if an Arab stabbed me or a Jew stabbed me, a religious, orthodox or secular person. I have no words to describe this hate crime.”

Israeli police said the stabbing was intended to “avenge a recent wave of attacks on Jews”.

Rezken said he was working with an Arab colleague when he was stabbed. “I felt four stabs and I heard someone say: ‘You deserve it, you deserve it. You are bastard Arabs.’ ”

Rezen tried to protect himself with a shopping trolley. “I screamed at him: ‘I am a Jew, I am a Jew’ – he didn’t stop … he tried to stab me again so I fought him again with my trolley.”

The 36-year-old attacker, who is known to police, was shot by a security guard as he tried to flee. He was granted anonymity by a magistrates’ court in Haifa since he may now become a target of a vigilante attack. The court also agreed to his lawyer’s request for a psychological examination to see if he was fit to stand trial.

In the past month, eight Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks and 31 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire, 14 identified by Israel as attackers.

The attack is the third time in just over a week that Israeli Jews have sought to attack Palestinians. On Friday, a 17-year-old from Dimona stabbed four Palestinians. His lawyer claimed his client had psychological problems and was not competent to stand trial.

Abdel al-Kader Jamal, an Israeli citizen of Kalansua, was beaten and chased by about 30 Jewish men in the coastal city of Netanya on Thursday last week. A Jewish Israeli, Mimon Himy, threw himself on Jamal to protect him from the mob and said he believes the man would have died had he not intervened.

New checkpoints and fears divide Jerusalem's Jews and Palestinians Read more

The fear of attack is very real on both sides: Jews fear being stabbed; Palestinians fear being shot as a suspected attacker or becoming the victim of a vigilante attack.



In some cases where Palestinians have been shot as they were allegedly carrying out, or about to carry out attacks, suspicion has been raised over whether this was the case. Arab leaders have criticised Israeli police for being too quick to shoot stabbers instead of arresting them.

Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Thursday night he would be open to meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to end weeks of the Israeli-Palestinian unrest. “I am open to a meeting with Abbas and Arab leaders. I think it is potentially useful because it might stop the wave of incitement.”

He also criticised Abbas falsely claiming that a 13-year-old Palestinian, Ahmed Mansara, from Beit Hanina, had been “executed” by Israel. Mansara is in fact alive, and being treated in a hospital in Jerusalem.

Mansara and a 17-year-old friend allegedly stabbed two people, leaving one in a serious condition and one critically wounded. Palestinians were enraged by footage showing the wounded Ahmed lying on the ground after the attack, as bystanders yell at him: “Die!”. He is being treated at Hadassah hospital, in Jerusalem. The Palestinian leadership says Mansara is innocent and was shot in an attempt to kill him.

Netanyahu also told the US not to draw what he termed false equivalence between Israeli and Palestinian attackers, after the US State Department said Israel may have used excessive force in responding to the recent string of attacks.

Netanyahu said: “We expect our friends not to draw false symmetry between Israeli citizens and those who knife them to death. There is no truth to the claim Israeli used excessive force. We have done what every country would have done.”



