Two IDF Soldiers Arrested For Brutal Attack On Druze Soldier

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky

The Druze soldier who was beaten by two Israeli soldiers. Image by Facebook
The soldier, who said he was attacked and beaten by fellow soldiers on his base in northern Israel, was taken to the hospital with a broken nose, and cuts on his head and face. He also was kicked and punched all over his body until he lost consciousness. He reportedly was beaten after refusing to leave his dorm room immediately when called to do so.
The soldier’s family posted photos on social media to show how severely injured the soldier was. One of the photos shows his bloodied face. Another shows him lying unconscious on the ground. A third shows his blood-spattered uniform.
“The photo you see here was not taken at the scene of a terrorist attack, not in (Jerusalem’s) Damascus Gate and not in a kasbah (old city) in the territories. The soldier depicted in the photo was savagely attacked in his base by two soldiers—two criminals in uniform,” the family wrote in a post on Facebook, according to Ynet.
The base commander reportedly refused to immediately take the beaten soldier for medical care, waiting four hours before sending him to an emergency room. The soldier was ordered sent home for five days of rest, and said he was beaten again after returning to the base from the hospital before travelling home. The second attack necessitated another trip to the hospital, according to Ynet.
The assaulted soldier’s grandfather, Sa’id Hussein, in an interview with Ynet said of the attack: “To beat a soldier in the IDF until he loses consciousness requires an investigation. This is not the army I served in thirty years ago. I didn’t send my grandson to the army for this kind of thing.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
