An Arab taxi driver was lightly hurt after being attacked with pepper spray in central Jerusalem on Monday.

The driver, Mohammed Shalayla, a resident of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, said he stopped on King George Street to pick up a passenger, when a Jewish man in his 40s shouted, "Don't take that cab – the driver is Arab."

He said he responded that he wouldn’t drive such an "extremist" passenger, and that the man then pepper-sprayed him in the face through the window. The spray hurt his eyes, ears and face.

Magen David Adom first responders took the victim to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment.

Shalayla said that, despite a complaint filed with police, no one had questioned him about the incident even an hour and a half later. Jerusalem police confirmed the details of the incident, and said they had begun a search for the attacker.

Earlier this month, four girls from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar were arrested in Jerusalem on suspicion of spraying Arabs in Jerusalem with pepper spray.

In the first incident, a Palestinian taxi driver reported that he had been attacked on King George Street by four girls, who fled on foot.

Shortly after, another Palestinian reported a similar attack.

Police apprehended the four in the vicinity of the second attack, finding two canisters of pepper spray in their possession.

