Meron
Meronpolice spokesperson

A Druze security guard was violently attacked by a group of Jewish youths at Meron on Saturday after he was heard speaking Arabic. The shocking attack was caught on security footage,

Hamud Shafi, 27, who was part of the security detail assigned to the site of the grave of the Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai ahead of the Lag B'Omer festival tonight and tomorrow, remains hospitalized at Ziv Medical Center in Safed.

"I have been working on weekends for a security company in Meron at the tomb of Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai) for over two years," Shafi told Ynet. "I shouted to them that I was a Druze and I thought they might stop beating me, but they didn't," he said.

"We were standing there with two security guards, and seven young men arrived and started breaking things and making a mess," Shafi said. ''They didn't explain their actions and didn't tell us anything. Another security guard called us and told us not to interfere, but when this group heard that we were talking to each other in Arabic, they ran at us and started beating us, they also beat us with an iron rod and threw barriers at us and more."

Shafi, who served in the IDFs and continues to be a reservist, never imagined he would find himself in such a situation. "It's a gift that I am still alive."

Two suspects have been arrested in the assault, a 17-year-old youth from Modi'in Ilit and a 19-year-old man from Beit Shean. The two were found hiding in a grove near the Meron Junction.