Yoseph Haddad, a well known pro-Israel advocate and online personality, has been arrested by Israeli police after firing a gun during an argument.
Israeli media reported that Haddad had been taken in for questioning after firing his weapon during an altercation with a motorist on a road in Jaffa. The other person was also arrested following the incident.
According to the newspaper Maariv, it was alleged that one of the two individuals spat at the other. Police are investigating the incident.
Haddad’s lawyer, cited by Maariv, said that while some media had stated that the incident resulted from a “roadside argument”, it was actually “based on racism and hatred against Yosef Haddad by an Arab man who recognised him and began to curse, threaten his life, and even spit on and physically attack him”.
The lawyer stated that his client’s car was overtaken by “an Arab resident of Jaffa”, who noticed that it was Haddad, made a u-turn, “approached Haddad, attacked and cursed at him”.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on
Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Haddad then felt threatened, and so took out his gun to deter the attacker, at which point he shot at a nearby wall, causing no injuries.
Middle East Eye could not independently verify the lawyer’s account.
‘Broader phenomenon’
Haddad, who describes himself as an Arab-Israeli, has worked as a journalist and an advocate for several pro-Israel organisations.
Last year, he was ejected from a fiery Oxford Union debate by two security officers after being accused of insulting a Palestinian student.
He served in the Israeli military during the 2006 war with Lebanon, during which he was seriously wounded and had his foot amputated.
“The incident we saw today with Yosef Haddad is indicative of a much broader phenomenon concerning the chaos in the country,” Abed Abu Shahada, a Palestinian activist and writer from Jaffa, told Middle East Eye.
“Unfortunately, it’s only when people start dying that the media begins to sound the alarm about the ongoing violence – whether in the West Bank or within Israel itself. Specifically, within Israel in the past two years, there have been hundreds of cases of assaults against Palestinian citizens.”
Abu Shahada said that such incidents were taking place in the absence of functioning police institutions protecting personal safety.
“I’m not surprised that some in Israeli society see this chaos as an opportunity – an opportunity to take revenge on Arabs, to attack Arabs, to shoot at Arabs,” he said.
“This is part of the broader public atmosphere – starting with the genocide, and even a little before – but especially after the genocide in Gaza, cases of chaos and violence have only become more frequent and more intense, driven by a sense of power.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
