Comments on: Israeli arrested on suspicion of arson of asylum seekers’ homes

By: Mareli

Mareli — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:18:58 +0000

I agree with Greg. There may be others responsible as well, but the person arrested had prior behavior which made him an immediate suspect. Let us hope that this sort of racist attack subsides.

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:26:22 +0000

Piotr–where I live, Phoenix, Arizona, there was a hate killing sometime after 9-11. A man wearing a truban, from India and not Muslim, was killed by someone who, turns out, day or so before was in a bar railling against Muslims–and egged on by barmates. There is similarly no doubt that background hatred helped fuel this present man’s action in firebombing. And I have no doubt that some public statements by some rabbis are part of that background.
.
I am just glad that the police seem to have found the assailant. It may even be that some in the police, perhaps involved in the case, or not, may think a bit more about what hate speech does. This is why I will not belittle the Israeli police in the regard, sounding off on what happens in the West Bank. Progress sometimes is one mind at a time.

By: Piotr Berman

Piotr Berman — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:16:46 +0000

Quick arrest means that the suspect already had a police file matching the current facts.

Some vandalism and hooliganism is present in most places. But one may ask where the hooligans get their ideas from — usually this is not the most inventive bunch. Unfortunately, there are quite a few politicians and rabbis that can be fingered here.

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:21:33 +0000

There is no reason to deride this arrest by tainting it with other Israeli State policy. All you acheive is a univocal party line which yeilds told you sos from the likes of Caden. I tell you that in deep Jim Crow America attacks against blacks often went uninvestigaged. Lynching went unprosecuted.
.
If you deny any action by the police which might be said to reach for justice you will never expand thought within Israel. I view some of the above comments as about as dull minded as some of those present on this site by the policing right. You build change as you can. If the police do right in this case, perhaps the chances of right in other cases and areas can improve. I will not disdain the possibility that the Israeli police have arrested someone who might have planned further acts for later. If you want to retard these racial responses you need to have the police enforce the law–in this instance. How do you think Federal agents in the US were received when they entered the seggregated South to enforce the law? Not well, I assure you. Look at the American South today.
.
Hasbara yeilds anti-Hasbara. Both are the product of blindness.

By: SHLOMO KROL

SHLOMO KROL — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:44:19 +0000

The demonstration on Mesilat Yesharim st. in Shapira neighbourhood was sometimes ridiculous. The activists were so shy because of being from well off neighbourhoods, or, even if they indeed live in the south Tel-Aviv, they were still raised in much better off neighbourhoods and they have their “rear” there – supportive parents, and therefore they felt that they were not “genuine” representatives of the poor neighbourhoods – that, instead of expressing solidarity with those really downtrodden, the migrants, they soon started to shout to the aggressive arsim on the opposite side of the street: “Shapira neighbourhood, we are not against you!”. As if these arsim were appointed by Shapira residents to represent them. It was really outrageous, that intelligent people “bought” the demagoguery of these arsim that “the foreigners must live in Ramat Aviv rather than in Shapira”. Everybody understands, that they cannot afford appartments in affluent neighbourhoods, that if these migrants and refuge seekers are here to stay, they will stay in poor neighbourhoods, such as Shapira. The shy activists thought: “if all residents of the neighbourhood say, that these migrants are dangerous, than they probably know better than us”.
Common. I live for half of my life in south Tel-Aviv. I lived in Florentin for many years, in Shapira for one year, after that in Levinsky for a year, after that on Shoken st. for two years, now I live on Carmel market. All these areas are full of people of very different backgrounds and I can tell responsibly to all those who may doubt this fact, that the migrants are the least dangerous of all. The most dangerous are the arsim of the kind that shouted anti-immigrant, anti-leftist and racist slogans on Mesilat Yesharim couple of days ago.
Their racism has its roots in the very base of the capitalist system: one raises by getting someone else down. The weak populations seek somebody weaker than them to vent their anger and to feel their own superiority. Such damn dialectics.

By: caden

caden — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:44:16 +0000

Well, the guy who dipped his hands in the reservists blood in the Ramallah polica station is out already. And so are a lot of other guys. Including Samir Kuntar. So, what should the penalty here.

By: Jack

Jack — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:13:16 +0000

Caden,
The problem isnt that they never arrest people, its more interesting to note the verdict, which is often whitewasing. Atleast when it comes to the IDF.

By: caden

caden — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:00:25 +0000

Wow, so the police made an arrest. Who would have expected that from the jackbooted, racist, apartheid, zio-nazis.

By: Woody

Woody — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:37:20 +0000

So when do the crowds start gathering outside of his home demanding it be demolished with the state ready and willing to carry that out in addition to the deportation of his family?

Oh yeah, he’s not Palestinian. I forgot. He will probably get an army promotion and cult status among the neighborhood. Right wing Knesset members will surely carry his banner, rather than condemn his deeds.

By: Dee Coombes

Dee Coombes — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:09:13 +0000

Greg, deciding whether the setting fire to people’s homes and a kindergarten is bad does not exactly call for fine judgement – it cannot be anything else but bad. Trying to ethnically cleanse any area through terror is also unequivocally bad. The people who do bad things are not always completely bad and not always bad for all time but there are no good motives for this. I wonder whether the police would have done anything at all if the homes and the kindergarten had belonged to Palestinians.