Last Friday afternoon, shortly before sundown, 10-year-old Uriel, who lives in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem, was assaulted by an Arab youth who gave him a ringing slap in the face.

Uriel’s family has lived in Armon Hanatziv for years, without any particular quarrel with any of the Arabs living in nearby Jabal Mukaber.

“On Friday afternoon at around half-past-five, my son left the house to go to the synagogue right after my husband and older son left,” Uriel’s mother related to ArutzSheva. “Just a few minutes away from our home, outside the Clalit health clinic, three Arab youths eyed him, and my son, who isn’t usually intimidated, said, ‘What?’ meaning to say, ‘What do you want?’

“Their response was to give him a slap,” she said.

“When my ten-year-old son found himself up against three Arab youths, all bigger than him, he immediately turned back home,” she continued. “He ran all the way home, with the Arabs’ mocking laughter following him. I did my best to calm him down when he arrived, very agitated, and told me what had happened.

“Since he was afraid to leave the house alone after that, I accompanied him to the synagogue. The whole way he was looking in all directions, but he didn’t see the Arabs anywhere. When we were over half way to synagogue, he felt more confident and said he could go the rest of the way by himself.

“When he got there, he told my husband what happened, and my husband was extremely upset. After prayers were over, they went around all the local parks to see if the three Arabs were hanging around anywhere, but they didn’t spot them.”

Uriel’s parents resolved not to let the incident pass without taking action. They plan to file a complaint with police, after their son succeeded in describing one of his attackers.