An Israeli Arab man was attacked and nearly lynched by an angry mob near Jerusalem last week, but not for any of the reasons you might initially imagine.

The man was driving through the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Hanina, an Arab neighborhood, when he was surrounded by a mob of young men wielding knives and metal rods.

The Israeli Arab victim’s crime? He was speaking on his cell phone in Hebrew.

Assuming he was a Jew, the mob stoned the victim’s car. After realizing he was Arab, they screamed that he should be ashamed of himself.

“I thought I was in a murder situation, they really lynched me,” the victim, Abu Rahman, told Israeli news portal Walla!.

Abu Rahman called for help and was quickly and safely extracted from Beit Hanina by police.

This is the atmosphere of crazed hatred in which Israel must try to make peace. It speaks to the fact that even if a document is signed, there will be no genuine peace on the ground until the people are educated for coexistence, an education these young Arabs have clearly not recieved.