A taxi driver picked up two Arabs in Tel Aviv and chatted with them – until they started beating him and demanding money. He was able to shoot back, injuring one seriously.
The story began on Wednesday night when the driver picked up two young men on Dizengoff St. in downtown Tel Aviv. One sat next to him and chatted pleasantly with the driver, while the other pretended to be asleep. “I suspected nothing,” the driver later told Ynet.
Only once they reached their destination, a relatively deserted area in Rosh HaAyin, and shortly after the two began speaking in Arabic, did the driver begin to be wary – but by then it was too late. One held him back, and the other began beating him and demanding his money.
The robbers finally found the driver’s bag in which he kept his money – but they didn’t know that inside it was also a gun. They kept fumbling with the bag, looking for the money while continuing to hit him – and finally he said he would find them the money if they give him the bag.
“I realized that it was either me or them,” the driver said afterwards. “If they win, tomorrow’s my funeral.”
Though his glasses were broken in the attack and he could not see clearly, he was able to find the gun. He turned his back to them, opened the bag's compartment holding the gun, whirled back around and began shooting. “I couldn’t even see where I was firing,” he said, “and I was all beaten up, but I knew I couldn’t let them get me or the gun… I heard them screaming and running away.”
The driver was then able to get away, calling for an ambulance to take him to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah. Little did he expect that within a few hours he would also meet his attackers there – one of whom had been injured seriously by the shooting and who had no choice but to seek medical help.
In Israel Illegally, Under Arrest
The attackers are residents of PA-controlled areas and were in Israel illegally. The lightly-injured one has been arrested, and his accomplice is under police guard in the hospital.
It had originally been reported that the driver would be questioned by police for having shot the robbers. It is assumed, however, in light of the recent case of Shai Dromi – a Negev farmer who was acquitted of murdering intruders on his farm – that his sense that “it was either them or me” will stand him in good stead.
It is illegal to house or employ an illegal alien, or to aid him in entering Israel or finding housing or employment. Though the maximum punishment for the crime is two years in prison or a fine, the usual punishment meted out is between one and several months in prison.
Rough estimates of the number of illegal PA aliens in Israel range between 20,000 and 50,000.