March 14, 2013

(JTA) — Polish police arrested a man suspected of intimidating a group of religious Israeli teenagers at the Warsaw airport.

A spokesperson for Chopin International Airport in Warsaw said “a minor incident” occurred on March 11 when police officers arrested a man who approached one of the Israelis, whom Israeli media identified as students of a religious high school, as they were waiting for buses to take them to visit Holocaust-era concentration camps. 

The Israeli news site Behadrey Haredim reported the man approached the group holding an iron bar and shouting insults against Jews. The airport official did not say why the man attacked the group. The news website published a picture showing the man being handcuffed.

Thousands of Israeli youths visit Poland every year on educational trips.

A spokesperson for the Polish embassy in Israel told JTA: “It is important that Israeli youth visiting Poland should feel completely safe. Such incidents are very rare. Unfortunately, one may encounter hooligans or attackers in any part of the world.”

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