(JTA) — An Arab-Israeli man attacked by a Jewish mob after being mistaken for a terrorist met with the Jewish man who rescued him.
Eyal Haddad visited with Salem on Sunday while the Bedouin man was recovering at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, the Times of Israel reported.
The previous evening, Haddad got between Salem and a crowd attacking him in the Negev town of Kiryat Gat because they wrongly believed he was the terrorist who had stabbed four people outside a soccer stadium that night, causing moderate injuries.
The mob hit Salem, an Israeli army veteran, and stabbed him several times before Haddad intervened.
“They threw a cement block at my head and stabbed me nine times, my body is covered in stab wounds. I wouldn’t be alive if not for him,” Salem told Israel Channel 2 news.
“I told them I wasn’t a terrorist but they kept going. These people would have done it to anyone, whoever they found on the street, they’d kill him.”
Police said they are searching for Salem’s attackers.
