Student tells of disgust at ‘violation’ of Israeli flag

A JEWISH exchange student yesterday said he felt so threatened after two of his peers allegedly rubbed their genitalia on his Israeli flag in an apparently racist disturbance that he had to “get out of St Andrews”.

Chanan Reitblat, 21, was giving evidence at the trial of Samuel Colchester, 20, and Paul Donnachie, 18, who face a charge of racially aggravated conduct following the alleged incident at a halls of residence this year.

The pair have also been accused of an alternative charge of acting in a threatening and abusive manner towards United States national Mr Reitblat

Harvard scholar Mr Reitblat, claimed that he felt “violated” by the alleged incident – to the extent that he “couldn’t eat and couldn’t sleep” and almost failed an exam.

Mr Reitblat told fiscal depute Brian Robertson at Cupar Sheriff Court that the accused entered his room drunk and Donnachie began to refer to Israel as a “terrorist state” and the flag as a “terrorist symbol”. He claimed that Donnachie also called him a terrorist.

Mr Reitblat, who was flown in from New York to give evidence for the Crown, said the flag had been given to him by his brother who served in the Israel Defence Forces.

The trial, before Sheriff Charles Macnair, continues.