An Ethiopian Jew claims he was pepper sprayed and electric shocked by a cop in the Israeli city of Haifa who told him to “go back to Africa.”
Jajao Bimaro
Ethiopian Jew Allegedly Beaten And Electric Shocked By Israeli Cop Who Told Him To Go Back To Africa
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
An Ethiopian Jew claims he was pepper sprayed and electric shocked by a cop in the Israeli city of Haifa who told him to “go back to Africa.”
27-year-old Jajao Bimaro filed a complaint with police after the incident took place in April. It is still being investigated by the Police Internal Investigations unit, Ynet reported.
The attack reportedly happened on the day before Passover.
Bimaro was trying to flag down a taxi outside a nightclub at about at about 5:00 am when a fight broke out at a nearby kiosk.
"We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but also had the wrong skin color. A police car suddenly came racing by and stopped at the middle of the intersection. Two policemen came out and one of them approached a girl, who is also Ethiopian, as she stepped out of the club. She had absolutely nothing to do with the scuffle but the officer kicked her and after she fell to the ground slapped her and threatened to use the electric shocker on her,” Bimaro told Ynet.
"He then used pepper spray against me, directly at the eyes, for no reason and with no provocation on my part. Later and while I was still completely blind from the spray he used the electric shocker on me, with no warning and completely unnecessarily. This left contusion marks on my body. While lying there in the middle of the night, wrongly assaulted, the officer yelled at me 'go back to Africa' and seasoned it with extra profanity. No amount of pepper spray or electric shock could hurt me as much as those words did."
It wasn’t coverage from the media that first drew national attention to the racist assault – it was Bimaro’s Facebook post about the incident.
“I have mixed feelings about what happened since I went public with the attack. On the one hand the response moved me. There are lots of people who care and are supporting me. On the other hand, I'm not used to this type of exposure and it's a bit nerve rattling," Bimero reportedly said.
Bimero is a student at Hebrew University and former member of an elite IDF combat unit. He provided photos and eyewitness testimony to the Ministry of Justice, but he doubts charges will be filed against his attackers.