Court convicts second man in Bat Yam mob attack of Arab Israeli
A Tel Aviv court on Thursday convicted a second man for his involvement in a mob attack on an Arab motorist during a spasm of communal violence last year.
The incident took place in May, when a mob yanked Saeed Mousa from his car and proceeded to beat him in an assault that left him motionless and bloodied on the ground, and seriously injured.
Yaakov Cohen, 32, admitted to his role in the attack as part of a plea deal and was convicted of infliction of serious bodily injury.
Cohen is alleged to have struck Mousa’s car and kicked him after he was pulled out of the vehicle by the crowd.
The prosecution accepted Cohen’s argument that he had thought the mob attacked Moussa because he was a terrorist. In return, any references to racist motives were dropped from his case.
Cohen is facing up to 14 years in prison. His sentencing will take place at a later date.
He is the second person to be convicted in the case, and several others have been charged.
Saeed Mousa, an Arab Israeli who was assaulted by a Jewish Israeli mob, at Ichilov Medical Center, on May 14, 2021. (video screenshot)
In January, Lahav Nagauker was sentenced to one year in prison for his involvement in the attack.
Nagauker, who was 20 at the time, was convicted earlier of incitement to violence and racism as part of a plea deal that resulted in lighter charges.
The court said Nagauker was not involved in the actual attack, but threw a bottle at Moussa’s car, damaging the rear windshield.
The State Attorney’s Office appealed to the Supreme Court over his sentencing, arguing it was too lenient.
The beating, which took place in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam, occurred while Israel was at war with the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip. The 11-day war ignited an unprecedented wave of internecine Jewish-Arab violence in cities around the country.
Nagauker is among at least 10 people who were charged in the incident. In all, hundreds of people, most of them Arabs, were arrested for the nationwide violence, which saw mobs of Jews and Arabs vandalize property and violently clash, in some cases resulting in deaths.
Two juvenile defendants whose names are barred from publication admitted in plea agreements to assaulting Moussa.
The unprovoked beating of the motorist was caught on live television, shocking the public.
Mousa was on his way to the beach in Bat Yam when he was set upon by a group that had gathered to attack Arabs and Arab-owned businesses in the Tel Aviv-area city, according to an indictment filed in the case.
בת ים, הערב: זה לא ניסיון דריסה, זה פחד של הנהג מההמון הקיצוני. לינץ’ בנהג ממוצא ערבי, למה? כי הוא ערבי. תוהו ובוהו. pic.twitter.com/o5Z0iLCd5n
— אור רביד | Or Ravid (@OrRavid) May 12, 2021
According to prosecutors, Mousa attempted to reverse away from the mob, but hit a car behind him. He then accelerated forward, with people jumping out of the way, before crashing into another car.
He was then dragged out of the car by the mob, with some claiming he had attempted to run over pedestrians, and was beaten badly. He was taken to Ichilov Hospital in serious condition, and his health has improved since.