"Who would want to
stab an 18-month-old baby?" asks Yardenus Yamena, 28, who cannot

The perpetrator, a 50-year-old man from Afula, was arrested and
charged with attempted murder. "I attacked black terrorists," he told
police following his arrest.

Tel Aviv District Court stopped the legal proceedings against him in
February, ordering his confinement to a psychiatric hospital, but this
did not end the family's nightmare.

Half a year has passed since then, and life has "become hell" for Yardenus, her husband Mulo and their two small daughters.

"Even now I can not believe this happened to us. I keep
thinking about those moments, and I am still scared to go outside," says
Yardenus. Her three-year-old daughter, who witnessed her sister's
stabbing, has trouble sleeping and constantly cries. "She sometimes says
'she's bleeding', and is scared of the white people she sees."

After three months in hospital, during which she underwent two
operations, Rakeb was transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Tel
Aviv, and still continues to receive out-patient treatment there. The
long-term effects of the attack will only become evident after tests
results are analyzed.

Since her discharge from rehab last month, Rakeb has started to
walk by herself, but with a limp. "She's not calm and she's not sleeping
well. I would like her to be able to leave the house and attend a
nursery with other children her age," her mother says.

Due to the complete absence of a social and welfare system for
the some 51,000 asylum seekers living in Israel, the family found
themselves without any rights to medical or social care. Rakeb's medical
expenses were paid for by her parents' private insurance, but it is not
clear what kind of further rehabilitation treatment the baby will
receive.

The family is facing severe economic hardship. For the first few
months after the attack, her parents were confined to the hospital and
couldn't work. Her father later returned to work, but Yardenus has been
taking care of Rakeb at home since her release from rehabilitation as
she is not entitled to any other alternatives, such as a home for
children with special needs.

According to staff at ASSAF ,
the Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, which
is helping the family, Rakeb's mother and sister are clearly suffering
from post-traumatic stress.

"The
family is broken," says Keren, an ASSAF volunteer who has worked with
the family since the stabbing. "This is a girl who was born in Israel
and who was stabbed here, but the state just does not see it."