It has been months since 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Aryeh Shapira left his Ramat Aviv home due to his ailing health. On Sunday, 24 Kislev, he decided to step outside for a few minutes, to get some fresh air and to feed the cats in the area. This decision resulted in him being attacked and beaten in his face, requiring sutures.

He explained to MyNet “One of the residents of the area decided to prevent me from feeding them. She began running like a wild person, shouting crazily and striking me with a bag in her hand that had something very hard inside”.

“I was injured in my face, hands and knees. I lost my balance and fell to the ground, bleeding. She continued shouting while stamping on the food left for the cats. I have gone through a great deal in my life, the Holocaust and the concentration camps, and now, I feel that I went through another pogrom. I felt like a punching bag. If not for the embarrassment, I would cry due to the feeling of helplessness”.

Mr. Shapira could not get up, and he remained on the ground in the pool of blood until a neighbor passed by and found him. The neighbor summoned an ambulance. He was transported to Ichilov Hospital and treated for soft tissue trauma and required facial sutures as well as to his hands. He was released a number of hours later.

Police responded to the hospital to take a statement from him. The following day, an 82-year-old neighbor was questioned regarding the assault.

Shapira told MyNet police were less than sympathetic and actually, “one was quite rude. When my wife tried to say something he told her ‘be quiet and sit down. Don’t bother or interrupt’. We could not speak for anyone who spoke was in trouble. They did not leave us with any document or details”.

A niece of Shapira, Vered Lubitz, who escorted them following the attack added “One of the nicest thing for our generation is to feed the cats as he did. He left a few morsels of food and that women, who apparently hates cats, was bothered because the cats climb onto her vehicle”.

“She left him outside bruised and barely able to move. I cannot understand how something like this can occur. I expected police to warn her, for from my perspective, this is a dangerous woman capable of harming others. I cannot understand why police were so unkind and why one said ‘Sir, if you wish to feed cats, feed them outside the building area’. Is this what is important, feeding them two meters to the left or right”?

Police report that they responded, spoke with the victim and attacker and the case is being handled.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)