(JNi.media) Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan has posted on his Facebook page that he is asking Israeli police to consider charging the Arabs who declined to help Adele Bennett after she had been knifed in the Old City Saturday night.
“Whole groups of Arabs looked on and saw the incident and did not open their mouths, and laughed,” Bennett, who had lost her husband, Aharon, in the attack, told reporters on Sunday from her hospital bed. “I really begged for help, help, help me,” she said. “I heard curses, they spat in my face, one slapped me. The knife was still in me, in the neck, still inside my body. They slapped my face, laughed, shouted, no one tried to help.” Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi, who rushed to help the stabbed couple, was also killed.
Erdan wrote: This evening I visited, along with the Prime Minister… Adele Bennett who was wounded with her baby in the attack in the Old City and lost her husband Aaron who was murdered… Following Adele’s shocking testimony about the behavior of the storekeepers and passersby who saw a woman in the Old City with a knife in the neck crying out for help and instead of helping her behaved like animals — laughed at her, beat and spat on, I asked the police to urgently consider initiate criminal proceedings against them for failure to prevent a crime.
Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA has cited the relevant law, published 30 June 1998:
1. (a) It is an obligation of a person to aid a person in front of him, due to a sudden, severe and immediate danger to his life, to his bodily integrity or to his health, when the person nearby can help, without risking or endanger himself.
(b) Someone who notifies the authorities or alerts another person who can provide the assistance required, is deemed to have helped for the purposes of this Act; In this section, “authorities” – the Israel Police, Magen David Adom and firefighting service.
2. (a) The provisions of Section 5 of the Unjust Enrichment Law, 1979, shall also apply when the qualifying person operated under his obligation under Section 1.
(c) The court may require the person causing the danger that the aided person encountered, including the aided person himself if he caused this danger, to indemnify those who assisted in accordance with their obligation under the provisions of Article 1 for reasonable expenses and disbursements incurred.
3. Subject to the provisions of Article 2 (a), there is nothing in the provisions of this Act that shall derogate from the provisions of the law.
4. A person who contravenes the provisions of Section 1 of this Act, shall be liable to a fine.
5. The Minister of Justice is responsible for implementation of this law.
6. The commencement of this law is at the conclusion of 90 days from its publication.