By: Arye Green
An Arab supermarket worker who tied up a special needs Jewish co-worker and humiliated him on camera at the Gush Etzion market is now facing severe legal action.
Footage posted on Facebook by the perpetrator shows him forcing the special needs person to repeat after him various statements and follow his commands while the man is bound in nylon wrapper.
The attacked co-worker, an Ultra-Orthodox young man with special needs from Beitar Illit, is suing his attacker with the help of Itamar Ben-Gvir, a known lawyer who is currently running for Knesset in the Otzma Yehudit party.
The Arab worker, who has since been summoned for questioning by the Shufersal supermarket they both worked at, claimed it was all a misunderstanding, and that they were only having fun together. “We were only joking,” he said about the incident. He claimed they’re friends and that “it wasn’t like everyone is saying, Arab against Jew, we have been working together for five years. I wasn’t hitting him as everyone said.” He also added that he is “sorry for what happened.”
Shufersal has publicly apologized for the incident, which happened inside the supermarket during working hours. “We employ hundreds of special needs workers, we will not allow any employee to hurt another, especially not a disadvantaged one,” said Itzik Abercohen, CEO of the Shufersal Group.
Ben-Gvir said in response that this is not the first time that the man with special needs has been assaulted by his Arab co-workers, and Shufersal knew about the incidents but did not intervene.
“I took this case upon myself, to help the young man who was humiliated. I was shocked to learn this was not the first time. They did this to him regularly.” He charged. He said they are suing the co-worker, as well as Shufersal.
The incident has already caused Shufersal harm, as the video of the event has spread across social media, with calls to boycott the supermarket chain and cancel memberships as a form of protest.
(TPS)
