Arab assailants pull rabbi of Lod neighborhood out of his car and beat him in front of his children. Outraged locals plan protest.

The rabbi of a neighborhood in the central Israeli city of Lod was beaten by Arab assailants Sunday afternoon, after being dragged out of his car.

Rabbi Itamar Ben-Yaakov, the rabbi of the Eshkol neighborhood in Lod, had driven to a daycare center to pick up his kids, when an Arab woman stepped out into the street, blocking his car, a resident of the Eshkol neighborhood told Arutz Sheva.

Despite requests by Rabbi Ben-Yaakov that the woman move so that he could continue to drive, the woman refused to budge. The rabbi warned the woman that he would call the police if she continued to block him.

“The rabbi said that if she doesn’t stop, he’ll call the police,” the resident said.

After the woman ignored his warning, Rabbi Ben-Yaakov called police, and photographed the woman as she blocked his car.

Moments after he photographed her, however, “she called her friends, and immediately, two Arabs came,” the resident continued.

“They forced [the rabbi] onto the ground and beat him in front of his children.”

“I’ve lived in this neighborhood for nine years, and in all my time here there has never been this kind of violence,” the resident said, adding that locals planned a demonstration to protest the attack.