JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Druze soldier in the Israeli army said he was attacked outside a nightclub after speaking Arabic.
Razzi Houseysa, 19, a combat soldier in the Golani Brigade, said the attack occurred Friday outside a club on Kibbutz Yagur in northern Israel, near Haifa. Houseysa, a resident of the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel, was on a furlough from the army when he was attacked by a group of Jewish men outside the party, which was for Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli media reports.
Houseysa underwent surgery on his right eye at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
His cousin Amir, also an Israeli soldier, told Ynet that the attackers called Razzi Houseysa “Arab” in a derogatory way and told him that “you are not wanted here” after they heard the two speaking in Arabic to each other.
A similar incident occurred last month when a Druze university student was beaten near the central bus station in Jerusalem after he spoke Arabic. Six Jewish men were arrested in the incident.
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