Posted on 05/25/2010 1:57:53 PM PDT by bkopto
Although violence in downtown Jerusalem has become more frequent over the years, the beating of a young Israeli man last week near Hillel and King George streets may prove to be especially out of the ordinary, in that he claims it was perpetrated by employees of the US Consulate.
Yishai, who has asked to have his last name withheld, told The Jerusalem Post that he was on the receiving end of an unprovoked attack on Thursday night, May 13, after arriving in downtown Jerusalem’s Nahalat Shiva neighborhood to attend a friend’s birthday party at an area pub.
As per his plans for the evening, Yishai met up with his friends at the birthday party, and around midnight, he and another friend stepped out to buy cigarettes, when they were approached by what he described as a “large man, who was with a group of people speaking in English.
“The man and I had an exchange of words,” Yishai told the Post last week. “I couldn’t exactly understand what he said, but it was something along the lines of, ‘you’re going the wrong way.’”
Then Yishai said, the man suddenly punched him in the face, causing him to fall to the ground.
As he curled up in a ball, Yishai said he was then punched and kicked repeatedly in his face, and other parts of his body.
“I’ve never been in a fight before,” Yishai said, “And the whole thing was terribly confusing. I didn’t understand what was happening or why.”
While Yishai’s friend tried to intervene and was lightly injured himself, Yishai sustained a bloody nose, bruises on his face, ribs, and other parts of his body, and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance, “covered in blood.”
His friend, Yishai said, then alerted police and friends who were still at the birthday party, and they began looking for the perpetrators.
“After it was all over, the guy who hit me and his friends apparently just walked off and went to a different bar,” Yishai said of his attackers. “That’s where my friends found them.”
After his friends identified the men to police, Yishai said they were brought to the nearby Russian Compound station and briefly detained.
“But then the police let them go,” he said. “They told my friends – who had also arrived at the station to file a complaint – that the men were US Consulate employees, and that they had diplomatic immunity.”
“They just let them go,” he said.
Police were somewhat tight-lipped about the case, and after numerous requests for clarification, said that the “details were being checked out.”
“The case is being investigated, and at this point, we are not commenting as to who was involved,” police spokesman Shmulik Ben-Ruby told the Post.
Ben-Ruby refused to confirm or deny if the men in question were employees of the consulate, and if they in fact had been released based on diplomatic immunity.
Nonetheless, a US Consulate spokesperson who was reached for comment told the Post, “We are cooperating fully with the [Israel Police]. We value our ongoing close, cooperative relationship with the police].”
In the meantime, Yishai said he wants his attackers to be held accountable for what happened.
“It was an unprovoked attack,” he said. “And I’m still in pain – it’s hard for me to breathe, I’ve been mostly laying in bed since I got out of the hospital.
“Things like this shouldn’t happen,” he added. “And more importantly, the people responsible shouldn’t just be allowed to walk free.”
Oh no...tell me it ain’t so! Our people did??
I wonder if the SEIU has a contract to clean up and maintain the consulate?;)
Guess that kinda hurts the “charm offensive”. Now they are just “offensive”.
Well, it could have been worse. The attacker could have asked the victim for his papers and violated his civil rights and all. /s
I also recall this recent case of diplomatic immunity (from Qatar visiting terrorist prisoners in the US)...
New Shoebomber Claims Diplomatic Immunity
04/07/2010 7:32:24 PM PDT
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2488783/posts
Seems that those who have connections get the gig while people like John Bolton get the shaft.
Emboldened US State Department employees at work.
They despise Israel, and always have, long before Obama. It’s in the Department culture.
Oh no...tell me it ain’t so! Our people did??
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Not our people...obama’s people.
It sure sounds as if some thug working at the Consulate was responsible. The Jerusalem Post would be unlikely to go with this story unless they believed it to be true.
As for diplomatic immunity—yes, there is such a thing. It’s quite possible that he could not be tried in an Israeli court. But he could sure as hell be investigated, and publicized, and the Israeli government could sure as hell demand that he be fired, or at the very least removed from Israel.
Can anyone imagine the publicity if this happened under Bush? Is Obama going to get a free pass on EVERYTHING?
The Israelis will find a way to get even with these slime.
hard to judge this one.
one one hand: Isreal has a well armed populus and diplomatic imunity does not make you bulletproof. A random act of thuggery could easily end with the thug going home in a box.
on the other hand: drunken males do stupid things and often become agressive when they are getting no play from the ladies.
Obama people
“Our”?? I don’t claim Obama people as “ours”
Here is the story..second hand, but accurate. The guys who did the beating were employees of Triple Canopy(TC) who are under contract with State Dept to provide security services for Embassy/Consulate employees in Jerusalem when they travel to certain areas.
Two men and an office worker women were involved. One of the men fled Israel and the other two have been fired.
One of the management team was also fired, but maybe for different reasons.
Needless to say the US Embassy is up in arms with TC who also has the security contract in Bahgdad. TC is bidding on a renewal of the contract is Israel and the scuttlebutt is that they won’t get it because they are having a hard time keeping the operation in Bahgdad staffed..plus they are short people in Jerusalem.
The contractor grapevine is buzzing with this incident.
Oh piff.......Yishai whines like a little gay boy. This is something that happens in a thousand bars in a thousand cities every day. When I was in Tel Aviv a friend made the mistake of asking a Scottish guy if he was from Ireland.....guess what happened next? We didn't run to the Jerusalem Post and cry about getting a bloody nose and neither did the Scots.
LOL! Whatever, just shows what a bunch of tools now work for the State Department. Worst asswhooping I ever saw was in Egypt at a disco when two British security contractors, working for a Saudi Prince on vacation, threw down on a loudmouth American oilfield worker. He didn't get out with just a bloody nose.....
Its good to hear this wasn’t swept under the rug
They tried to sweep it, but I think the kid who got beat up was the son of a diplomat. He said something critical about americans and the beating followed. TC needs to clean out their management there.
Does TC have “close ties to the Obama Administration” by any chance?
This seems to have gotten no media attention in the US
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