Is Jerusalem burning?

East Jerusalem Arabs interviewed blame police for violence and claim asymmetry in the treatment of rioters from the east and west.

By PEGGY CIDOR
A stone-thrower stands next to a tire set ablaze during clashes with police in Shuafat. (photo credit: REUTERS)
A stone-thrower stands next to a tire set ablaze during clashes with police in Shuafat.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Ismayil, the taxi driver, is so angry that his Hebrew and Arabic run together. After a while, he calms down and apologizes, but immediately adds that he feels he can’t hold it in anymore.
“You know me, I’m not in politics, but this time things have gone too far,” he says.
It is early last Friday afternoon, in the heat of the day, and Ismayil – a resident of the Shuafat neighborhood and normally a smiling, easygoing veteran driver for a taxi company working in the Arnona-Talpiot neighborhood – seems both tired by the Ramadan fast and angry.
Earlier in the week, as if just waiting for the end of the funerals of murdered teenagers Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrah, riots burst out across the city, with a few hundred Jewish youths marching through the capital on Tuesday and leaving damage in their wake. The disappearance of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir from his neighborhood of Beit Hanina the following morning and the discovery of his burnt body in the Jerusalem Forest was the signal for the Arab residents to start their own riots. A slew of rumors that were a mixture of facts and baseless speculation fueled their anger.
By Friday, it seemed that nothing would restore the fragile quiet between the two sides – not even Mayor Nir Barkat’s immediate and unequivocal official declaration condemning the murder upon the discovery of Abu Khdeir’s body, at a time when those who suspected it was a Jewish job were few.
Faras Abu Halaf, head of the parents’ association of the Beit Ayub school in the Silwan neighborhood, says the police’s behavior during the last week and a half has only added to the anger and frustration of the population. “They make a lot of noise, fire rubber bullets, tear gas, frighten the small children and make our lives miserable, on top of the tough daily situation,” he says.
He adds that the usually festive atmosphere of Ramadan has been totally destroyed.
“During this month, families visit their relatives every evening for Iftar [the fast-breaking meal], friends visit one another, but now we remain at home, afraid of going out because of the rioters and the police. They have ruined our Ramadan,” he says. “We don’t go out shopping, we keep the small children at home, we all feel threatened.”
Faras contends that the police don’t seem to be implementing protective measures or restoring order.
“The police act with a lot of force toward all the Arab residents, including youth and women. We feel that they act more as if they are taking revenge for the killing of the three Jewish boys than trying to bring back order. That’s not how police should act.”
After a few seconds of silence, he continues, his voice shaking with increasing anger: “They patrol the neighborhood and insult us through a loudspeaker, using despicable words, humiliating us – why? Does that restore calm and order? Or does it sound more as if the police are working together with the more extremist Jews?” Faras and his neighbors are convinced that the police are acting as the arm of extremist agents in Israeli politics.
“They get support from ministers and MKs, they act differently when facing Jewish rioters and Arabs – for example, during the night following the burial of the three Jewish boys, policemen did not use sticks to disperse rioters, but when they come to our neighborhoods, they use sticks, tear gas, rubber bullets, lots of violence. Is that how police should act?” A police spokesman said that during the disturbances in east Jerusalem over the past few days the rioters threw stones, Molotov cocktails, fireworks and bombs at the police, some of which exploded.
“The Jerusalem Police and Border Police used means to disperse the riots and hold off the rioters. The police will display zero tolerance for events that endanger the public, arrest lawless rioters and apply the full extent of justice.
Eighty rioters have been arrested and more arrests are expected,” he said.
But Faras’s denunciation sounds almost low-key compared to Ismayil’s. For the taxi driver, there is no question at all that the whole situation was the wellplanned outcome of an Israeli plot to blacken the Palestinians’ name and take advantage of the situation.
“It’s all lies,” he says. “We know it’s all lies – the three Jewish boys were on their way to Eilat and were killed by a traffic accident. Tell me, is it possible that two guys could kidnap three boys and kill them and nobody saw it? And your famous Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] hasn’t yet put its hands on the two suspects? They were killed in an accident, and the whole story was told just for one reason: to destroy Palestinians’ houses and install more settlers there, and kill our boys like they killed Abu Khdeir. We are not that stupid.”
The argument that Barkat immediately condemned Abu Khdeir’s murder doesn’t change his mind – on the contrary, he says, “that shows that it was planned. Otherwise, how could he know that it was that boy at such an early stage? It’s all lies.”
Meanwhile, as if in a different world, Rouah, a Palestinian girl from the Hebron area, stands in the spot she has occupied every Friday for the past few months, selling her embroidered and patchwork purses. Rouah, who has just finished school and plans to study at the women’s nursing school in Hebron, doesn’t seem troubled by the explosive situation.
“I cross through the checkpoint every day. The soldiers already recognize me and my aunt who is with me; they never prevented us from coming here,” she explains. “I also brought my two younger brothers. It’s better that they be with me here than in the streets of our village near Hebron. It’s very tense there now with all this mess,” she adds with a shy smile.
She says she has also heard that the three boys were killed in an accident, but that she doesn’t want to get involved.
Asked if she is worried about getting caught in the riots these days, she says simply, “I have 10 brothers and sisters at home. I am the eldest. I have to sell the purses to bring some food home – that’s my only goal.”
But while the rioting began fading Sunday night, quite a few people on both sides have remained vigilant to prevent any further deterioration. Among them is the Jerusalem Parents Association, which includes both Jewish and Arab parents.
“We immediately, at the beginning of the riots [last week], called for a meeting of all the committees, both Jewish and Arab,” says Paz Cohen, head of the association.
Cohen explains that there are three associations representing the Arab side: one for the schools that teach the Jordanian-Palestinian curriculum, one for the special education system, and one for the Arab schools that are under the jurisdiction of the municipal education administration.
Cohen points out that although some of the parties involved identify with the Palestinian Authority, “in this particular case and due to the serious situation, they all collaborated within the parents’ association to find ways to calm [the situation] down and restore order.”
At the end of that first meeting, all agreed that the most urgent step was to take all the children who were on summer vacation off the streets and protect them from the violence. Throughout the week, there were additional meetings and continual communication to solve problems that arose and find ways of alleviating the tensions.
The east and west Jerusalem parents’ committees have issued a call “to halt the cycle of violence immediately.
Every child in Jerusalem and in every other place needs to feel secure, regardless of blood or nationality.”
They further called “to leave the implementation of justice to the appointed authorities, and expect the authorities to respond to every manifestation of violence, to catch and severely punish anyone who threatens the security of Jerusalem’s children. And finally, the Parents’ Committees’ commit to continuing to act cooperatively to advance the education and security of Jerusalem’s children, and to [teach] tolerance and the prevention of violence.”