Police beat up handcuffed boys in Jaffa
A fight erupted between a few young boys from Jaffa's public "Shem HaGdolim" housing estate and a yeshiva student.
The word on the street -which perhaps may be not correct- is that they plan to build a yeshiva right in front of a nearby mosque. To the best of my knowledge the yeshiva is on the corner of Toulouse street and Korchak street. But rumours have their ways. Perhaps they do pan to build another yeshiva close to the mosque.
In any case, a fight erupted. Apparently there had been words (death to the Arabs) and insults before, or so it is being said.
The police was called and they arrested three boys. The wrong boys by the way, not the ones who had been in a fight with the guy from the yeshiva. The kids arrested, were at home at the time of the fight.
While the boys were under arrest and handcuffed, the police beat them up. Another kid managed to film it on his phone camera. The kid bragged about it, stating he would complain about it or take the film to the media. As a result, the unlucky photographer was arrested as well and kept for more than 24 hours at the police station, his phone taken from him and the film wiped out.
While under arrest, the kids were threatened that they would go to jail for 5-10 years, as "we are dealing with activitןes against the safety of the state". Young boys, all minors, according to the juvenile law, from good homes, who had nothing to do with the fight yet were intimidated, while not having access to legal advice.
So much for democracy. "Acco" is closeby it appears.
The atmosphere on the streets is one of fear. Last week three flats in Tel Aviv's HaTikva neighborhood were torched by ultra right wingers. The common ground: all three flats were inhabited by Arabs. I call it a progrom.
Last week grafiti was sprayed inside a building on Jaffa's Jerusalem Boulevard; "Death to the Arabs".
Speaking to my friend Zeinab and others, we wonder what we can do to prevent further violence. And we don't really know.
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8 comments:
this place is not just about hatred.. maybe for once you can acknowledge the amazing friendships and goodwill as well instead of being so mcbeth-ish about everything.. maybe if people dont believe that we all hate eachother then we will fear eachother less and be less antagonistic..
maybe rather than just complaining about ethnic cleansing etc etc all the time.. you can look become active in reconciliation movements..
there you go.. just a few ideas..
I simply report the things i see and hear.
And as i am VERY active in the community, i hear and see a lot, people share their fear, anger and frustrations with me and generally, i also make an effort to help and change things. Sometimes i'm successful.
If you, however, want to live in a sort of fantasy land where u imagine all is great and lovely, fine. Continue believing and as you have your own blog, do write about it over there.
Why read mine? Save yourself the trouble and the anguish, as i have no intent to stop writing about what is happening here, all around us. Simply don't read it...
Do so by all means
In the real life we humans are only commited to ourselves, some a little less and some a little more.
It is not bad to be overly positive when you are unspoilt and young, in another twenty years our interactions with other humans do give scars, some have less and some have more.
To find out what I am talking about one could read
The Moral Animal written by Robert Wright.
J.P.
Yudit I really find your posts as realistic and honest! you are doing a great job and I keep checking and reading your articles here day by day.
Now,for those who choose thier blindness and draw their fantasy in front of their eyes and insist to hate the truth.. you can switch to a different blog.
Best regards,
Fadi Kanaan
NEW YORK
its not perfect.. of course it isnt..
but it doesnt help that everyone thinks we all hate eachother..
i draw attention to the some of the more optimistic things because the new already does what you do.. only better.. and in full motion pictures and with advertising dollars..
i am active in my community and i know that there is a long way to go.. but when it comes to deciding whether one is part of the problem or part of the solution i think your choice is obvious..
Lirun, like i said before, i have no idea why you read my blog if it is s horrid and unprofessional (not that i ever intended it to be than a local personal blog), why don't you just read the news sources you love so much and don't bother reading mine.
blogs arent supposed to be professional..
my point is yudit that you are in a rare space that will allow you to see a lot of things that the world doesnt know about..
you are in a position to change the way that people think.. and for the better..
and instead you seek to confirm that they already know everything they need to know..
and - when people receive such confirmation they lose their drive to change..
sometimes people need to be inspired.. when i ask you to show a balanced picture of our reality its not for me.. because i know both sides.. but rather for your readers who dont live and breath this village that you and i live in..
Lirun, it's amazing how you place these comments in a reaction to a short article describing something that should truly worry you: rising violence in Jaffa.
It appears you want to live in a dream. Perhaps reality scares you. and yes, the reality of life in Jaffa, especially in its poorer and very poor quarters, is violent.
It's very easy not to see this reality. Or not to want to see it.
And yes, some good things happen in Jaffa too.
But i am worried about the future here. Poverty and discrimination as well as the force used by the establishment in all its various forms, doesn't give me any reason for optimism.
Jaffa 's recent history has left huge scars on its Palestinian population. By denying them, YOU might feel better. For a while.
Until reality laughs or cries in your face.
Stop dreaming, or fantasizing. Open your eyes.
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