RAMALLAH: The Palestinian victim of a hate attack in Jerusalem was released from hospital yesterday, as police carried on a probe into the violence which nearly cost the teenager’s life.
A spokeswoman for Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital told AFP that Jamal Julani, 17, was released since his condition was satisfactory. Relatives said the youth is still shocked and traumatized by the incident.
Julani and three cousins, residents of Israeli-annexed Arab East Jerusalem, were attacked by dozens of Israeli youths early last Friday in Zion Square in Jerusalem’s busy entertainment district.
Press reports said hundreds of onlookers failed to intervene.
After the attack, Julani was rushed unconscious to hospital.
Israeli police claimed that eight suspects have so far been detained, seven aged between 13 and 17 and one 19-year-old.
One of two female suspects has been released to be kept under home arrest, while the others remain in custody as the investigation continues, police said.
“Further arrests will be made,” a police spokesman told AFP.
Prior to leaving hospital, Julani was visited by Israel’s parliamentary speaker Reuven Rivlin, who apologized for the unchecked racial violence in Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier condemned the attack as a combination of “racism and violence.”
President Shimon Peres said he was “full of shame” over the incident.
An another development, Israeli groups have protested against the South African Cabinet’s decision to approve regulations to label goods made in Israeli settlements as being from the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
But South Africa said the move conformed with its standing policy.
Pro-Palestinian groups have called for a boycott and sanctions campaign against Israeli goods and companies.
A South African government spokesman said: “This is in line with South Africa’s stance that recognizes the 1948 borders delineated by the UN and does not recognize occupied territories beyond these borders as being part of Israel.”
