Sunday, February 4

Another victim of violence in Jaffa

A man, some say from the Occupied Territories, was murdered in Jaffa last night, in Michelangelo Street in the center of Jaffa.

The man was living in a groundfloor appartment he had squatted, or so they say. To hide the traces of the murder, the flat had been set afire, and the mutilated body was detected only after the fire brigade finished their work.
Around the same time, a young, badly burned man form Jaffa arrived at a nearby hospital's emergency unit.

Some say the fight had been about a drug deal, others stated the attackers (there appear to have been more than one) wanted to squat the appartment themselves or help a family member to squat it against the victim's wishes. The police made a few arrests (1 man and three women, suspaected of aiding), but nothing is clear as yet.

Human life in Jaffa is cheap.


Update February 5, 2007: The police formally arrested the young man with burn wounds, who is still in hospital. He's suspected of having been involved in the murder or at least in the torching of the flat of the murder victim. The arrestee apparently lives in the same building as the murder victim, or so they say.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So with all these negative reports, what makes it worth for you to stay?

yudit said...

A good question, that's quite simple to answer: I love Jaffa, as it is a community.
Many of the neighborhoods elsewhere are just that; people don't know each other, don't care and mostly, do not want to be involved.
In Jaffa, there is a "we" feeling.
Moreover, Jaffa's beautiful (most of it), we have a lovely beach ( a very short walk from my home). There's always something going on and most of my friends live here, al in walking distance. No parking problems in most of Jaffa (except Yefet on saturdays, when all the non-Jaffa people come to dine & shop here) and i could go on.

The reason that i report the bad stuff going on here, is because no one else does.

When a murder happens in Tel Aviv, it's all in the papers, often for days. Images, background information from the family etc.
When a murder happens in Jaffa, no one cares, there may be a small article on the inner pages, unless the victim is Jewish.

When Adham Mansour was killed during the Id ElAdha parade, the papers carried a small backpage article, of yet another murder in Jaffa. No picture, no story about Adham, who was a student and a god kid and not at all connected to the gangs in Jaffa.
The kids in Jaffa were in shock. A few days before that a Jewish girl was murdered in the north. And each day the newspapers carried long stories about the girl. The minister of education went to visit the parents. Politicians and VIPS attended her funeral.
For Adham: nothing.
Adham's dad runs a popular fish restaurant. Many VIP's & politicos like to take their friends their to show them "authentic Jaffa".
They love "Abdu" as he's called. But when Abdu's son died, no one remebered that and only after actively 'bothereing" journalists, Ha'aretz carried an article with more than a few embarassing mistakes.

I also write about these things, because they happen where i live.
People tell me about their view on things, they want me to report about it. And they know i will.

In some cases i saw the things myself as they happened close by.

Slowly this blog has become a kind of "speaking bubble" as people contactme to ask me if i'll report about what happened.

Richard said...

And I'm glad that you do. The purpose of a blog is not merely to report on the glossy side of life. It is to report life as it really is, or at least as we see it--warts & all.

Who else will tell us about Jaffa? Who will tell us what happens there? Yediot? Maariv? Even Haaretz? Nah. You are yr community's voice. Keep it up.

But I wonder if you might encourage an Arab resident of Jaffa to blog. There are not enough Arab voices blogging in Israel. In fact, so far I've found exactly none. If you ever hear of any pls. let me know.