One day after he was nearly brutally beaten in the woods, Israel Hayom returned to the Khurvat Se'adim nature reserve outside Jerusalem with Kohelet Policy Forum Executive Director Meir Rubin.
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On Friday, Rubin and his family had been camping out at the reserve. Around 7:30 p.m., they noticed a fire burning around 200 yards from where they had been sitting.
According to Rubin, he called the police and the fire department to report the blaze, which he suspected was the result of arson. Rubin quickly ran to the access road leading into the reserve to take pictures of vehicles leaving the area.
Rubin managed to photograph three different vehicles, the last of which abruptly braked next to him. The passengers asked why he was taking their picture. When he explained he was taking pictures of everyone leaving the site because of the fire, they cursed him in Arabic. They were about to exit the car but drove off when they noticed Rubin was armed.
Rubin then rejoined his family. After pitching the family's tent, however, Ruben felt something was off.
"I had a bad feeling. I didn't go to sleep. Around 10:30 at night, I suddenly heard noises. I turned my flashlight on and asked, 'Who's there?'" I heard steps growing farther away, and a few seconds leader, I suddenly saw a fire 10 meters (yards) wide 20 to 30 meters from me. The fire started at once. It was the middle of the night. No one was there. No one was barbequing, there was no lighting or thunder. Someone had started the fire."
Rubin got his family out of the tent and called the fire department to report the blaze. Just as they were getting into their car, a white GMC Savana stopped in front of their car, blocking it. There was another car behind the van.
"Two guys got out of the Savana and started heading in my direction, and someone else holding a long flashlight got out of the other car. They closed in on me, and I kept shouting at them, "The police are on their way. Get out of here!' But they didn't stop. I realized I only had a few seconds. My family was in the car, and I couldn't escape. I realized we were in a life-threatening situation," he said.
With the three men refusing to heed his calls, Rubin was forced to pull out his gun. Immediately, the men got into their cars and began to drive. They tried to block Rubin farther down the road but he succeeded in overtaking them and getting away.
"I drove to Jerusalem on the winding road, and they were following me in full force. I saw them trying to get close enough to me to ram me and take me off the road," he said. It was only when Rubin approached the entrance to the city that he noticed a police patrol car and told the officer what had just happened.
The officer responded by taking Rubin's car keys and gun and making sure he hadn't fired any shots by checking all the bullets were still inside. According to Rubin, it was only after one of the attackers approached him once more, raising his hand in a fist and threatening him in Arabic, that the officer gave him back his gun and keys and told him to leave.
"I got home. I put my children to bed, and I realized I had been saved from a brutal beating that could have killed me. It was only the next day that I realized from the police response these terrorists had gone to the police and filed a complaint saying that I had threatened them. The police are treating it as just different complaints. This was an attempted murder. Period. There is no reason for a normative person to walk to the forest, and by chance, after they walked around there, for there to be a wall of flames. Someone set the woods ablaze, and mere minutes later, someone blocked my car. If I hadn't taken out the weapons, I wouldn't be here and maybe my children wouldn't be here either."
Rubin said he planned to file a complaint with the police against the attackers on Monday.
In a statement, the Jerusalem District Police stood by their response.
"In contrast to what has been claimed, police forces were called to the scene by the youths. Upon the forces' arrival at the scene, the parties were questioned, and they were informed of the possibility of filing a complaint. Upon receiving the complaint, an investigation was opened, and naturally, we will not provide any details."
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