Eyewitness: J'lem brawl was lynch against Arabs
Volunteer for youths at risk says incident in which 18-year-old Arab man was seriously injured instigated by Jewish teens
Acting Jerusalem Police Commissioner Menny Yitzhaki instructed on Friday to set up a special investigation team to probe the
violent clash between Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem's Zion Square. The incident, which occurred Thursday night, left an 18-year-old Arab man seriously wounded.
The police say they plan to indict the suspects, and are looking into whether the incident had nationalistic motives.
An activist at an aid organization for youths at risk, who witnessed the event, posted a message on Facebook, claiming that the incident was more like "a lynch."
"Today I saw a lynch with my very own eyes, at Zion Square in the center of Jerusalem," she wrote.
"We arrived for our usual volunteering shift at Zion Square and not more than half-an-hour later, (we heard) screams: 'A Jew is a (good) soul; an Arab is a son-of-a...'.
(We saw) dozens of teens running and gathering around, starting to deliver deadly blows to three Arab teens who were peacefully walking by," the activist wrote.
"
When one of the Arab teens fell onto the floor, they continued to kick his head, and he lost consciousness... the assailants ran away and the rest gathered in a circle (around him) and some continued to shout with hatred in their eyes."
The activist further claimed in her post that when two of the volunteers tried to resuscitate the injured Arabs, "
the crowds were complaining that they were Arabs and that they deserve it because maybe now they will be afraid."
Comment: It is shocking and instructive to read the language used by this article from Ynetnews. First, it calls the event a "brawl" in its original headline, and a "violent clash" in the first paragraph, as if two equal parties were both to blame for the violence. If the article uses the appropriate word at all - "lynch" - it is only because it is quoting an eye-witness who, we suppose, has a little credibility in the eyes of the journalist only because she is Jewish. Then we read that the event was "instigated" by Jewish teens. Not "perpetrated" but "instigated", as if the three Arab boys had somehow willingly involved themselves into violence after a provocation. But the witness accounts very clearly describe that they were brutally attacked for no other reason than passing by. Next we read that the incident was "more like a lynch". "Like" being the key word here; you see, the phrase suggests it probably wasn't a lynch, witnesses just claim it looked like one!
By the way, the quoted testimony is incomplete. It left out the part that mentions that the witness suspects the Arab teenager died after being taken to the hospital in critical condition. Here is the full version as it
appeared on Facebook:
A translation from Hebrew of a post by Batya Houri-Yafin, a volunteering youth worker with Elem in Jerusalem, who witnessed the lynch last night:
"It is late at night and I can not fall asleep. My eyes have been tearing for hours and my stomach is turning over the loss of human form, the loss of god's image in humans, a loss I'm not really willing to accept. But today, with my own eyes, I've witnessed a lynch. In Zion square, city centre, Jerusalem. We, Elem volunteers, got there at the usual time and half an hour later we heard the shouting rise "The Jew is a soul, The Arab is a son of a...", and dozens of teenagers were running and gathering and beginning to beat to death three Arab boys who walked calmly down Ben Yehuda Street.
When one of the Arab boys stumbled and fell on the ground the boys kept kicking his head. He lost his consciousness, his eyes rolled up, the angle his head was at got distorted, and then the kickers ran off and the rest gathered in a circle around him. A few of them were still chanting, with hatred in their eyes, the wretched line about the Jew being "a soul" and the Arab...
When two of our volunteers got into the circle and started attempting to resuscitate the boy, the masses of youths around started complaining loudly - why were we helping the Arab breath. When they passed by us and saw the horror on the faces of the volunteers they asked what is there to be so shocked about, he's an Arab; When we came back after a while and the area was marked as a murder arena and the policemen were there with the victim's cousin who tried to recount what happened, there were two boys there who did not understand why we want to give a bottle of water to the cousin of the boy who was taken to hospital in critical condition. He's Arab; they should not be hanging out in our main street; They deserve it; Maybe now they'd finally learn to fear.
Kids aged 15-18 killing a youth their own age with their own hands. Kids who had nothing moved in their hearts when they kicked to death a child their own age as he lay fidgeting on the ground. The image does not more from my eyes and I can still hear the sounds and the helplessness and the question - what is happening to us, what is happening to our children, and mainly - Can we still change it, and how..."
Comment: It is shocking and instructive to read the language used by this article from Ynetnews. First, it calls the event a "brawl" in its original headline, and a "violent clash" in the first paragraph, as if two equal parties were both to blame for the violence. If the article uses the appropriate word at all - "lynch" - it is only because it is quoting an eye-witness who, we suppose, has a little credibility in the eyes of the journalist only because she is Jewish. Then we read that the event was "instigated" by Jewish teens. Not "perpetrated" but "instigated", as if the three Arab boys had somehow willingly involved themselves into violence after a provocation. But the witness accounts very clearly describe that they were brutally attacked for no other reason than passing by. Next we read that the incident was "more like a lynch". "Like" being the key word here; you see, the phrase suggests it probably wasn't a lynch, witnesses just claim it looked like one!
By the way, the quoted testimony is incomplete. It left out the part that mentions that the witness suspects the Arab teenager died after being taken to the hospital in critical condition. Here is the full version as it appeared on Facebook: