4 July 2017

Haaretz: In Jerusalem, a Far-right Jewish Gang Frequently Attacks Arabs - and the Police Do Almost Nothing

The recent attack on three Palestinians in downtown Jerusalem, allegedly by participants in a march organized by the far-right, anti-assimilationist Lehava group, joins dozens of such attacks in recent years in the city center. Organizations and activists monitoring such incidents have long complained about the inaction of the police during actual incidents and subsequent investigations. [...]

According to lawyer Orly Erez-Lahovsky, head of IRAC’s legal department, another problem is the lack of faith Palestinians have in the police “when they see that they file a complaint and the case is closed without being dealt with.”

In May 2015, left-wing activist Aviv Tatarsky was an eyewitness to a similar incident when he saw a young Palestinian running from young Jewish men.

“They were running through the police and they [the police] didn’t care. I approached policewomen who were there and told them I had seen the whole thing. They responded, ‘Stand aside and don’t interfere.’” [...]

“A patrol car was driving by and there were drivers who stopped it,” said Abu Jabneh’s lawyer, Eitay Mack. “But the police said they couldn’t intervene because they were on their way to another incident. During the attack, people were calling the police all the time but they didn’t come.”

No comments:

Post a Comment