The death of an Eritrean asylum seeker who was brutally beaten by an angry mob after being mistaken for an Arab gunman during a terror attack has shaken Israel as it tries to cope with a burgeoning Palestinian uprising.
Haptum Zarhum, a 26-year-old farm worker, was caught up in an attack at a bus station in the southern city of Beersheba yesterday in which a young Israeli solder was killed and nine other people were injured.
The assailant, a 21-year-old Israeli Arab, died in an exchange of fire after grabbing his victim’s rifle while panicked bystanders fled the scene.
Among them was Zarhum, who was shown on CCTV footage scrambling away on all fours before being shot in the lower body by a security guard heading the other way.
Further footage shows a number of people kicking him in the head despite attempts to protect him, with others trying to crush him with a bench as he lay on the ground in a pool of blood.
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Evacuated from the scene on a stretcher, the young asylum seeker died overnight at the nearby Soroka hospital.
The mistaken shooting of the migrant and the mob attack reflected Israelis’ shattered nerves after months of seemingly random lone-wolf attacks by Palestinians.
The daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot left no ambiguity as to why the man was shot. Monday’s headline read: “Just because of his skin colour.”
“It’s terrible,” added Emmanuel Nahshon, a foreign ministry spokesman. “It shows you what a terrible situation we are in.”
An Israeli identified only by the first name Dudu told Israeli Army Radio that he regretted having taken part in the attack on the Eritrean migrant.
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“I understood from people he was a terrorist. If I would have known he wasn’t a terrorist, believe me, I would have protected him like I protect myself,” he said. “I didn’t sleep well at night. I feel disgusted.”
The local Negev police force said that detectives had been instructed to find the assailants responsible for beating the foreigner “after he had already been subdued and was lying on the floor and did not pose a danger at all”.
“The police view the incident with the utmost severity and will not allow civilians to take the law into their own hands,” it said in a statement.
Zarhum’s employer at a plant nursery, Sagi Malachi, described him as a quiet and modest man who had been in Beersheba to renew his Israeli visa.
“The country is in a state of chaos. Civilians are confused, people are taking the law into their own hands,” he told Army Radio.
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There are an estimated 34,000 Eritrean migrants in Israel, who say they are fleeing persecution and conflict and seek refugee status. Israel does not recognise them as refugees, but does not deport them to Eritrea in line with international law so as not to endanger their lives. Migrants must renew Israeli visas every month or two.
Sari Bashi, of Human Rights Watch, said that the asylum seeker’s death was “a tragic but foreseeable outgrowth of a climate in which some Israeli politicians encourage citizens to take the law into their own hands”.
“The Israeli authorities should investigate and prosecute those responsible for the attack. Israel faces acute threats to public safety, but vigilantism will only lead to more innocent people being harmed or killed,” she added.