Former MK Yehuda Glick filed a financial lawsuit yesterday (Sunday) in the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court against a Jerusalem resident who was an accomplice in the attack on him last June.
Glick is demanding a total of NIS 300,000 from the attacker, after he was convicted about four months ago of assault and causing serious injury, and was sentenced to five months in prison.
The indictment alleges that the defendant was convicted on the basis of his criminal confession, and states that the defendant acted for racist motives but was not charged with that motive for several reasons.
"For the purposes of the lawsuit, it is therefore requested to estimate the non-pecuniary damages at NIS 250,000. In addition, the appellant will seek to impose punitive damages on the defendant in the amount of NIS 50,000, since the attack was carried out in a vicious and cruel manner," the lawsuit reads.
Glick was assaulted after he paid a condolence visit to the family of Iyad al-Halak, an autistic man who was killed by a police officer in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the indictment, Glick was thrown down the steps of the entrance to the al-Halak family's house and then kicked repeatedly in the head and body. After he got up and attempted to walk away the assailants knocked him down again and continued to kick him. During the assault, the assailants accused Glick of "breaking into Al Aqsa."
Glick commented on the lawsuit: "The incident was very traumatic and caused very severe physical pain. I was amazed that the state did not see it as a nationalist event, even though the calls were nationalistic and it was clear to all that they did not just randomly attack me. I am against violence in general society and in particular against public figures. [I file this lawsuit] in the hope that we will create deterrence here and reach a situation where there will be no violence on the streets of Israel and there will be no violence, especially with a nationalist background."
Attorney Haim Bleicher, who represents Glick on behalf of the Honenu organization, responded: "Yehuda Glick was attacked by cruel criminals for being a Jew. The attackers threw Yehuda down 25 steps and beat him in all parts of his body. They knew who he was and his medical past and that he was a survivor of an assassination attempt in which he was gravely wounded. Unfortunately, the prosecution negligently did not accuse the perpetrator of racist motives and even rushed to close the case with a ridiculous plea deal of five months in prison without informing the victim of the offense. We hope that some justice will now be done through the civil lawsuit we have filed."