Civil war, not intifada
Two reports from Times of Israel plus comment from Rogel Alpher in Haaretz
Israeli Army and Border Police take their positions during clashes with Palestinian stone-throwers near the Qalandia checkpoint leading from the West Bank to Jerusalem, 07 November 2014. Israel deployed thousand of police forces in Jerusalem and limited Palestinian access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound, during the Muslim Friday prayers. Photo by Atef Safadi / EPA
Police probe anti-Arab vandalism, boost patrols as tensions swirl
Cars damaged in Jerusalem’s Beit Safafa; security forces bolster presence in major cities and West Bank; relative of Palestinian killed Monday night says incident was nationalist
By Times of Israel staff
November 11, 2014
Police said on Tuesday [November 11] they are investigating a suspected “price tag” hate-crime attack in an Arab neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, hours after an Arab cab driver was attacked by Jewish extremists in the wake of two terror attacks a day earlier.
At the same time, police and security forces fanned out in major cities and the West Bank in a bid to restore quiet after several days of unrest and a wave of violent attacks.
Jerusalem residents reported Tuesday morning that vandals had damaged several cars and spray-painted “No Arabs, no cars” on the sidewalk nearby in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa.
The graffiti was in reference to several recent attacks in which Palestinian drivers plowed their vehicles into crowds of people.
Anger has spread among Israelis in the wake of a spike in terror attacks over the last several weeks, including two separate stabbing incidents on Monday.
A protest late Monday night against the spate of attacks turned violent, with demonstrators blocking a road at in central Jerusalem, and an Arab taxi driver being attacked by rock throwers.
Police said Tuesday they had arrested four 13-year-old boys who admitted to throwing the rocks at the taxi driver.
The protesters, which seemed to number a dozen or so people as seen in a video of the incident, staged an impromptu demonstration calling for government action after IDF soldier Almog Shiloni and 26-year-old Dalia Lemkus were killed in separate terror attacks during the day.
Chants such as “No Arabs, no terror attacks!” were heard and protesters carried signs with anti-Arab slogans.
The stabbings came as a third straight day of violent protests rocked a number of Arab towns in the wake of the police shooting and killing a man in Kafr Kanna on Saturday.
A Hamas official praised the killing of Shiloni, saying it was in response to the Kafr Kanna shooting.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered police to beef up presence across the country and in the West Bank after the stabbings.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that in response to the two deadly attacks Monday, several police units had been mobilized in major Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and were being deployed “in public places.”
The Israeli military said it sent reinforcements to the West Bank, following what it called “new security assessments.”
Palestinians protesters marching toward the Qalandia checkpoint leading from the West Bank to Jerusalem, 07 November 2014. Israel deployed thousand of police forces in Jerusalem and limited Palestinian access to the al-Aqsa mosque compound, during the Muslim Friday prayers. Photo by Atef Safadi / EPA
Concrete barriers were also set up at the West Bank bus stop where one of the stabbing attacks occurred, and extra troops were dispatched to bus stops and hitchhiking posts in the area.
Hundreds of soldiers doing training in the Golan Heights were moved to the West Bank to help bolster patrols, Israeli news site Ynet reported Tuesday.
Tensions in Israel have run high since the summer, with waves of violence centered in Jerusalem.
The US on Monday condemned the attacks, and called for the sides to work for calm.
“It is absolutely critical that parties take every possible measure to protect civilians and de-escalate tensions,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Psaki also said the US was seeking Israeli clarifications over the Kafr Kanna shooting, in which Kheir Hamdan was killed by police after attacking a cruiser with a knife.
The shooting came amid sky-high tensions across the country spawned by conflicting claims to the Temple Mount and the aftermath of this summer’s bloody Gaza war.
Also Monday night, a Palestinian man was shot dead outside the Arab town of Zemer in the Sharon region close to the seam line, according to preliminary reports.
The man, a 36-year-old Nablus resident, was reportedly shot in an open field adjacent to the town. A 16-year-old Palestinian teenager was wounded in the incident.
Police said the shooting was criminally related, but a relative said the killing was nationalistically motivated, Ynet reported.
Protesters throwing rocks towards Israeli Border Policemen at the entrance to Kafr Kanna on November 9, 2014. Photo by Flash90
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch is reportedly looking into the possibility of calling up reserves from the Border Police gendarme force to help quell the unrest, according to Channel 2 news.
As a last resort, officials may consider a closure on the West Bank if the situation deteriorates, the channel reported.
Aharonovitch, who convened a security meeting Monday night, also decided to beef up police presence across the country and ordered stepped-up arrest operations against Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives.
A statement from the police called on residents to remain alert and report suspicious activity.
AP contributed to this report.
Police urge Jewish drivers to stay out of Arab villages
Advisory comes amid surge in violent protests across Galilee; police find body near Nazareth, but believe death is criminal rather than nationalistic
By Adiv Sterman and Times of Israel staff
November 11, 2014
As violent protests raged across the country for a fourth consecutive day, the Israel Police issued a statement to Jewish drivers Tuesday urging them not to pass through the Galilean villages of Kafr Kanna and Turan, as well as other Arab Israeli communities in the lower Galilee
The police recommendation came several hours after an Israeli man suffered minor injuries when his car was struck by a rock near Turan, and amid riots which have erupted sporadically in Kafr Kanna in the wake of the shooting death late Friday of 22-year-old Kheir Hamdan by police. Hamdan had attacked a police cruiser with a knife but was shot while he apparently attempted to flee the scene.
Police said intelligence reports indicated that assailants planned to target Jews in the area of Kafr Kanna and Turan, according to Channel 10 news. However, police stressed that no overarching directives were placed against driving through Arab Israeli towns in general.
The ongoing violence showed no sign of dying down Tuesday, as dozens of protesters clashed with police in several Arab Israeli towns across the country’s north. In Shfaram, masked demonstrators hurled stones at a police car, causing slight damage to the vehicle. No injuries were reported in the incident and police were searching the area for the perpetrator of the attack.
Palestinian youth seen throwing rocks towards Israeli Border Policemen at the entrance to the Arab village, Kfar Kanna, in Northern Israel, on November 9, 2014. (photo credit: Flash90)
Palestinian youth seen throwing rocks towards Israeli Border Policemen at the entrance to the Arab village of Kfar Kanna, in Northern Israel, on November 9, 2014. (photo credit: Flash90)
In the Arab Israeli village of Ibillin, rioters threw sticks and Molotov cocktails at a Border Police unit that was stationed in the area. Police arrested two men during the protest, Channel 10 reported.
In Jerusalem’s Old City, police arrested a 17-year-old Palestinian who had attempted to hide a butcher’s knife beneath his clothes. Police took the teen in for questioning, and shared a photo of the knife on Twitter.
Police briefly raised the possibility of a new nationalistic attack when they announced that the body of a man in his forties was found with signs of violence beneath an abandoned pickup truck on the road outside Nazareth. But they later said the death of the man, identified as Fuad Halaf of the Arab town of Muqeibla, was more likely to be criminal in nature.
Israeli soldiers place large cement blocks at a bus stop to prevent Palestinian car attacks near the Jewish settlement of Alon Shvut on November 11, 2014. Photo by Gershon Elinson/Flash90
Israel’s security cabinet convened Tuesday evening in Jerusalem to discuss the deteriorating security situation as beefed up police and security forces were dispatched to major cities and across the West Bank in a bid to restore quiet after several days of unrest and a wave of violent attacks, including fatal stabbings in Tel Aviv and Gush Etzion. There were no immediate reports of details from the meeting.
According to Channel 2 news, the IDF assigned 2,000 additional fighters to secure Jewish settlements in the West Bank. IDF soldiers were reportedly stationed every few hundred meters along Route 60, the major north-south artery running through the West Bank.
A masked Palestinian throws a fire bomb at Israeli forces at the main entrance of the West Bank town of Bethlehem on November 11, 2014 (photo credit: AFP/ Musa Al Shaer)
On Tuesday afternoon, one Palestinian was killed and another was seriously injured by Israeli fire as riots broke out near Hebron. The army shot and killed Imad Jawabreh, 22, near the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Arroub north of Hebron. The army said soldiers opened fire at Jawabreh when he “aimed at them with an improvised weapon.”
The incident took place on a main road from Jerusalem to Hebron as some 200 Palestinians clashed with troops, the army said. Jawabreh was taken to the hospital in critical condition but died from bullet wounds to his chest, medics said.
In separate clashes south of Hebron, near the village of Dura and the Israeli settlement of Negohot, a Palestinian man was shot by Israeli forces and evacuated to a hospital in serious condition.
The clashes erupted when about 150 Palestinian demonstrators began throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers and vehicles.
Palestinian mourners carry the body of Imad Jawabrehin, killed in clashes with Israeli security forces, north of the the West Bank city of Hebron November 11,2014 (photo credit: AFP/ Hazem Bader)
Palestinian mourners carry the body of Imad Jawabrehin, killed in clashes with Israeli security forces, north of the the West Bank city of Hebron November 11,2014 (photo credit: AFP/ Hazem Bader)
The IDF said it opened fire on the demonstrators after earlier attempts to disperse the crowd using tear gas and rubber bullets had failed.
Tuesday morning also saw a number of anti-Arab attacks, likely as revenge for the two fatal stabbing attacks on Jews a day earlier.
The Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reported that dozens of cars in the West Bank town of Hawara had their windows smashed Tuesday during a settler rally.
Earlier Tuesday, police launched an investigation into a suspected “price tag” attack in an Arab neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, Beit Safafa, hours after an Arab cab driver was attacked by suspected Jewish extremists.
AP and AFP contributed to this report
All this intifada business, and Britney Spears too
Don’t be fooled by the media. What’s happening now in Jerusalem isn’t an intifada. It’s a civil war in a binational state.
By Rogel Alpher, Haaretz
November 09, 2014
It looks like an intifada. It acts like an intifada. And, true, the intifada rituals are here, with their endless television broadcasts: There is an improvement in his condition. Our reporter is at the scene of the attack. Tell us what just happened. Wait, there’s an update from the Magen David Adom spokesperson. I have an eyewitness with me. What did you see? First of all, I want to wish the wounded a speedy recovery. Thank you, Honourable Minister. The dead were the most wonderful people. Everybody loved them.
Then there’s the resourcefulness of the person who killed the terrorist. You’re too kind. Anyone would have done the same. What’s most important is that a united Jerusalem will remain forever the capital of Israel. Our reporter is at the scene. You can see Al-Aqsa behind me, and right beneath it is the Kotel. They are so close. It’s a very complex situation. We won’t solve it tonight.
And the taxi driver says, “Did you hear what happened? A terror attack. What a lousy country!”
And the intifada rhetoric is back. It’s so retro. You have to hit them with force! No, force won’t help. It’s precisely because of people like you. We are sitting on a powder keg. But we’re post-Holocaust. We have to calm the situation. It’s just like I said in Operation Protective Edge, and even then they didn’t listen to me. The prime minister asked. His father was killed in a terror attack, and now this. Don’t be right, be smart. I would say the same thing about a Jewish extremist, if it had been one. Sow restraint now? It’s a little hard on a night like this. Still, Britney Spears has a new boyfriend. Expanded evening broadcast. And the other news. Time permitting.
But this is not an intifada. It’s not a Palestinian war of independence. This time, too, they won’t establish a state. The Europeans can recognize it as much as they like, but it still won’t be established. It’s a civil war in a binational state. If this war succeeds, they won’t evacuate the Jewish settlements of the West Bank. They won’t drive Jews from their homes in Silwan [East Jerusalem].
It won’t stop the construction on the hills. The soldiers will keep knocking on doors at four in the morning. Knesset members Miri Regev and Tzipi Hotovely [both Likud] will keep observing from the mountain the flying stones and the burning torches. Palestinian residents won’t receive citizenship in the binational state, and certainly won’t have the choice. None of this will happen – the bus is for Jews only.
The only good thing to hope for is that, out of this chaos, something unexpected will emerge, some historic event that will totally change our reality. There will be some awakening, some sobriety. A popular movement will represent the majority of Israelis – Jews and Palestinians – who just want to go home in peace, who understand that there never will be peace between two states, but want to go home in peace. A million people will march in the streets together and declare that home (bayit) is more important than the Temple Mount (Har Habayit). Perhaps a leader will emerge who, instead of heading a cellular revolution, will revolutionize what people say. Perhaps; one can always hope.
But we also have to be realistic. Disaster is also liable to emerge out of the chaos. As easily, surprisingly and joyously as the Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, the Western Wall could sorrowfully fall. The only thing certain is that it will happen sometime, this thing – the unplanned, the unexpected that changes everything.
In any event, the new boy keeping Britney warm at night is called Charlie. He’s a TV-film producer, and their love, she says, was an unexpected event. She’s stopped looking.