• Published 00:00 03.08.07
  • Latest update 00:00 03.08.07

Woman's throat slit in random attack in Tel Aviv laundromat

Owner of laundromat said man argued with him, slit woman's throat with box cutter, and escaped.

By Roni Singer-Heruti

Police in south Tel Aviv are investigating a near-lethal and unprovoked assault last Wednesday on a 30-year-old woman at a Florentin laundromat.

According to the owner's testimony, the perpetrator had argued with him before approaching the woman who had just entered the premises. He pulled out a box cutter from his pocket and made a horizontal incision to her throat.

"He didn't stab her. He didn't stick the knife into her and then run away or anything. He just slit her throat from one side to the other," the victim's mother said.

The owner pursued the perpetrator, whose identity remains unknown, but could not catch him. The owner later told police that he noticed the man spoke with what sounded like a foreign accent. The owner added, however, that he couldn't place the accent. He also suggested the possibility that the man had been slurring, possibly drunk.

While the owner was busy chasing after the man, passersby called an ambulance for the woman, who was lying on the floor bleeding profusely from the neck. "Someone called me all of sudden to tell me that my daughter had been injured. I was so worried I almost went mad, waiting for the hospital to call me. I had no idea where they were taking her!" her mother recalls.

The victim underwent extensive surgery for hours, until her condition stabilized and the doctors managed to patch up her wound, which was dangerously close to her jugular.

Police are investigating the crime, but have so far produced no evidence and no leads. "We started looking for people matching the suspect's description. At present, we can't really determine why he did it," police officer Albert Ohaiun, who is handling the case, told Haaretz.

The victim moved to Florentin only recently, not too far from the offices of the international translation company where she works.

"The neighborhood is pretty bad, but the landlord installed a electronic-code lock and he is actually pretty particular about his tenants. The neighbors there are good people," the victim's mother says. "We're normal people, leading normal lives. We don't even smoke. Now all of a sudden we have to deal with the police, and such a violent crime. It's worse than Harlem."

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  • 12. 0 0
    Nick Miller, SM
    • Bentolila
    • 03.08.07
    • 16:05

    Let's not beat about the bushes: the crime increased has nothing to do with indigenous ills, though few tere are and were before the great onslaught of the immigration from the former Lands of the Soviet Union. Now, don't rush pointing your fingers at me with a cry: catch him, he is a racist; or someting to that effect. But lets be reasonable, cool and collected: is it that the state failure to induct the new comers to the local cultures: meaning don't drink, don't try and persist on the anti-social attitude which was induced on them (the immigrants) by the Socialist regime, and encourage them to be suspicious, relying on Vodka and other violent means. Now, if you go back to prior of the big Soviet immigration you'll find out that petty criminality was endemic, but the senseless killink, the high sophisticated robberies, great misdeamurs, are in the high triple and quadruple level. Also the reluctance of such immigration that after almost two decades, to learn Hebrew and acquire the local cultures: each nation has its own Pushkin, Tolstoy ans Shostakovitch, but they don't make it a point that they are failed artists as an excuse for their bad behaviour. Shalom

  • 11. 0 0
    Just maybe..
    • Homer David
    • 03.08.07
    • 15:59

    Just maybe the Hareidim are right? The percentage of their people acting in such a fashion is far lower than secular society. Could it be that following the word of the L-d has something to do with it? They're far from perfect, but in this aspect of life they have something going for them. Let's all do the math together. Just maybe...

  • 10. 0 0
    Shabat Shalom
    • Za'atar
    • 03.08.07
    • 14:40

    Yes Israel got all the escapees from the former soviet union. As Putin said, let the Israelis got a piece of the action we do feel in Moscowva...

  • 9. 0 0
    SM
    • Nik Miller
    • 03.08.07
    • 14:33

    I agree with you, but I believe that the petty crimes being ignored need to be dealt with, as one misdemeanor, no matter how negligible becomes common place and acceptable so the level of acceptibility moves up (down?) a notch. Spitting in the street, talking on mobile phones while driving, scooters on the pavements, cars jumping red lights, litter being dropped, dog mess being left uncleaned by dog owners, these 'petty' crimes need to be dealt with in order for people to respect the law. This is not to say that every litterbug will become a murderer, but respect for the law must be overall. This means the useless police we have need also to stop sitting in untucked shirts eating and smoking in public and start acting like respectable representatives of the law. The first reforms must be in the police force, if they are not respected neither will the laws they protect be.

  • 8. 0 0
    throat slit to #3
    • Hilda
    • 03.08.07
    • 14:02

    I remember very clearly in 1955 when I was living in Tel Aviv, there was a murder in Jerusalem and the papers all wrote how wonderful that Israel was finally like other countries. coincidentally at the same time, I met my first Jewish drunk--a client originally from Algeria and just as we did in US at the time, I put him on meal vouchers. People are essentially the same all over the world.

  • 7. 0 0
    SM
    • Nik Miller
    • 03.08.07
    • 12:48

    I agree with you, but I believe that the petty crimes being ignored need to be dealt with, as one misdemeanor, no matter how negligible becomes common place and acceptable so the level of acceptibility moves up (down?) a notch. Spitting in the street, talking on mobile phones while driving, scooters on the pavements, cars jumping red lights, litter being dropped, dog mess being left uncleaned by dog owners, these 'petty' crimes need to be dealt with in order for people to respect the law. This is not to say that every litterbug will become a murderer, but respect for the law must be overall. This means the useless police we have need also to stop sitting in untucked shirts eating and smoking in public and start acting like respectable representatives of the law. The first reforms must be in the police force, if they are not respected neither will the laws they protect be.

  • 6. 0 0
    Correction
    • YIDN
    • 03.08.07
    • 11:28

    Sorry it was #5, not #4.

  • 5. 0 0
    We Still Have Time
    • SM
    • 03.08.07
    • 09:56

    Israel needs to take a long hard look at democratic countries that suffer from high crime rates and identify what went wrong in these societies. We then need to take strong action to prevent the same ills occuring here. I would suggest a zero tolerance policy to all street crime. A sentencing policy that puts persistent offenders in prison for decades not for months and a large expansion of the police force using army conscripts. That is only half the solution. We need to invest a lot more money in education and youth programmes, get people off drugs and set up schemes to reform first time offenders. None of this is cheap and it will take a national commitment to see it through. Finally, there is nothing like public disapproval for stopping low level anti social behaviour which if unchecked can escalate into crime. Ordinary people should be confident and assertive when dealing with unruly youth, problem neighbours etc. and should keep pushing the police to act.

  • 4. 0 0
    We Still Have Time
    • SM
    • 03.08.07
    • 09:55

    Israel needs to take a long hard look at democratic countries that suffer from high crime rates and identify what went wrong in these societies. We then need to take strong action to prevent the same ills occuring here. I would suggest a zero tolerance policy to all street crime. A sentencing policy that puts persistent offenders in prison for decades not for months and a large expansion of the police force using army conscripts. That is only half the solution. We need to invest a lot more money in education and youth programmes, get people off drugs and set up schemes to reform first time offenders. None of this is cheap and it will take a national commitment to see it through. Finally, there is nothing like public disapproval for stopping low level anti social behaviour which if unchecked can escalate into crime. Ordinary people should be confident and assertive when dealing with unruly youth, problem neighbours etc. and should keep pushing the police to act.

  • 3. 0 0
    Ben Gurion's dream
    • chava
    • 03.08.07
    • 08:29

    Isn't this what Ben Gurion dreamt of?

  • 2. 0 0
    Thats really evil
    • Brumle
    • 03.08.07
    • 08:10

    Crime is everyvhere,thanks G-d she survived

  • 1. 0 0
    The New Israel!!! WOW!
    • Danite
    • 03.08.07
    • 07:25

    Good thing they dumped all that socialism,at last people are free, just like in America!!!