A violent tumult broke out Saturday in the Herbert Samuel Hotel in Jerusalem, where several Arab hotel workers were reported to be cursing a group of Jewish guests.
According to the guests, the cursing and provocations by the Arab hotel workers began on Friday evening, and only led to a commotion after a hotel worker pulled out a knife and attempted to stab a pregnant woman, who was part of the group of guests.
Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Daniel Algaby said: "We arrived as a family to celebrate my cousin's Shabbat chatan (Sabbath after his wedding). He got married on Thursday and we came to Jerusalem, to the Herbert Samuel hotel, for Shabbat."
"Already at the start of the stay, I felt a degradation and a lack of respect...they provoked us on an hourly basis. You'd walk in the hotel and they'd make a comment. It even reached a situation where they were scaring the girls who were with us.
"Today at about three-thirty, it reached a peak. There was an argument between my female cousin and one of the cooks there, an Arab. He attacked her verbally, in one of the most callous ways possible, whether he called her a wh*** or one of the other curses they often use.
"At some point he pulled out a knife and threatened her. And then, out of self-defense, our guys acted there, and they weren't willing to keep silent about this. After that a tumult broke out.
"The woman was pregnant, in her ninth month, she's due to give birth any day. Probably from the pressure, people were afraid for her."
When Israel Police arrived at the scene, however, the officers arrested the Jews.
"The police who arrived acted against us, as if we had done this due to racism," Algaby continued. "We didn't come to fight and we're not interested in this nonsense. We came to celebrate with my cousin. He's an orphan and we wanted to make him happy, and we want him to be happy. He finally had a moment of happiness in his life, and the police destroyed our event, in the most extreme way possible."
"We're seven family members who are arrested, versus zero [hotel] employees. We tried to talk to the hotel management and they said we acted aggressively and that we acted in an inappropriate fashion. But it was simple self-defense, everything we did there.
"The woman who was threatened has submitted a complaint to the police. She is nine months pregnant, she can't do anything to anyone. The hotel management showed the footage from when we attacked, but they're not showing what happened prior. Curses, and other things like that you don't see on the camera."
The Nakash Brothers Group, which own the Herbert Samuel chain, said: "The issue is being dealt with by Israel Police, following complaints by the hotel management regarding harm to its employees."