Palestinians face violence on the streets of Israel as racist attacks spread Palestinian citizens of Israel are exposed to levels of violence that have long been familiar to those in occupied territories, writes Nadav Rapaport in Tel Aviv, Israel. Zidan Agbaria, a Palestinian man from Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel , explained how his son, Mahmoud, was attacked in Tel Aviv. He said last week his son had arrived in Tel Aviv for construction work and was speaking Arabic on his phone, while "two men who identified themselves as police officers started beating him after they saw that he was Arab". "They didn’t leave him until they thought he was dead," Agbaria told Middle East Eye. According to Agbaria, an Israeli woman who was present at the scene called the police, and the two attackers were arrested. The attackers told the police officers: "Why aren’t you arresting the terrorist?" Mahmoud was taken to hospital with severe injuries. Almost two weeks after the attack, he remains at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and has undergone several operations, according to his father. "It will take him a long time before he can return to work - at least three months. He can only eat liquid food and he has head injuries," his father said. Agbaria spoke about the fear of his son returning to work in Tel Aviv, a city generally considered a liberal stronghold in Israel. "I won’t let him go to work there alone," he said. "He saw death with his own eyes. He came to work, not to die." Read more: Palestinians face violence on the streets of Israel as racist attacks spread