Israeli Students Assaulted By ‘Arabic Speakers’ In Warsaw
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — Israeli students spending a semester in Warsaw were attacked as they left a nightclub in the city.
Two of the students required hospitalization after the early Saturday morning attack.
The details of the attack were posted on Facebook by Barak Kashpizky, the twin brother of one of the injured Israelis.
Yotam Kashpizky, who lost consciousness during the attack, suffered a broken nose and a broken eye-socket, according to his brother.
The assailants, described as “Arabic speakers,” asked the group as they left a Warsaw nightclub if they were Israeli. When the students answered that they were, the assailants assaulted them, reportedly shouting “f**k Israel” and “Free Gaza.”
Yotam Kashpizky told Channel 13 on Sunday that the assailants were from Qatar. He said that security guards from the club and bystanders watched the attack but did not move to stop the attackers or help the Israeli students.
Barak Kashpizky also criticized Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the Israeli consul in Warsaw for leaving the students to file a police report on their own.
The Foreign Ministry disagreed with this account, telling Channel 13 news that the ministry had been monitoring developments since the initial report of the attack at 8 a.m. on Saturday. The ministry said that the consul in Warsaw offered his assistance and made himself available to the students.
The ministry said it is working to determine what further steps to take.
“History is repeating itself in Warsaw, Poland, as Poles stand by and watch, while people who ‘are not from our nation’ are beating Jews until they lose consciousnesses,” Barak Kashpizky wrote on Facebook, where he posted photos of his brother’s bloodied face. “Today it is my twin brother, tomorrow it is your relatives.”
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