Israeli Bedouin Found Chained to Pole in His Home

The Israeli police rescued Thursday an Israeli Bedouin who was tied to a pole in his house in the village of Hura, three days after another Bedouin man was found chained in a tin shack.

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The 30-year-old man, who was kept tied to a pole with the help of metal chains, was found malnourished and taken to a local hospital. His brother was arrested and claimed in his interrogation that his brother tied himself to the polce. Police are investigating and social services are involved in the case.

Hura regional council spokesman Kaid Abu al-Kian told Haaretz that the family of the man is known to the local welfare authorities. "The municipality has removed seven children from the family, two of them for special education, at a cost of one million shekels for all seven," he said.

The man who was found chained today had been treated by welfare authorities and the council had asked the welfare and health ministries that he removed from the house after several incidents in which he was involved, including defecating in a public place and entering the neighbor's house while naked, the spokesman said.

Those attempts were unsuccessful, ostensibly because testing had not found him to be suffering from any psychiatric illness and the welfare authorities did not want to accept him.

While in the current case, the council had found the man before reports on his conditions were published, in general the state did not give the council sufficient budget to detect and prevent such cases, al-Kian said. All it was able to do was put out fires.

He added that the council had petitioned a court today in connection with the man and a hearing was due to be held next month.

On Tuesday, police freed a 43-year-old Bedouin man found naked and chained in a tin shack in the Al-Fura area of the Negev. The man said he had been kept bound in chains in captivity for over 15 years in a tin shack.

The police said their initial investigation revealed he had been confined for five years. The man’s father and brother have been questioned under caution, meaning they could be charged with a crime, and released with restrictions in coordination with the prosecution while the investigation continues.

The police said the man was not held inside the shack for the entire duration of his captivity, but rather was released from time to time.

He was found by a police officer guarding a demolition site in the Al-Fura area after he heard crying from the shack.