If you want to see apartheid in Israel, go to Fureidis. This rural northern coastal town of 12,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel with not a single Jew, is surrounded by many all-Jewish settlements. Most notable among them is Zichron Ya’akov, which was founded in 1882, as one of the first colonies in what has become known to Jewish Israelis as the first aliyah or immigration.
Yesterday (April 29), Fureidis was the scene of a so-called “price tag attack,” by Jewish vandals, three of whom were filmed by a security video camera. During the attack, dozens of vehicles had their tires slashed and graffiti was spray painted on numerous walls, including those of a mosque.
The Jerusalem Post, quoting Fureidis Village Chairman Yonas Marai on Israel Radio, reported:
“They wrote many things on the mosque wall. They wrote that we have to close down the mosques and build yeshivas in their place. We live here in the State of Israel, a democratic state, we do not live in the West Bank and not in the [Gaza] Strip.”
On the day of the attack residents quickly organized a protest march against “price tag attacks,” which had been mostly limited to the West Bank until recently. There have been at least six other reports of such attacks on Palestinian towns inside the “green line” since December. The news media estimated that between 1500 to 4000 demonstrators participated in the march.
Thursday, most Fureidis residents went on strike to protest the political violence and the lack of a sufficient response from the government to these acts of vandalism and hatred. The commercial center was shuttered as stores closed their doors in solidarity with the protest. In an unusual occurrence, even the banks closed their doors. Schools also were closed for the day.
The name Fureidis is said to come from the Arabic word for “little Garden of Eden” and by extension from the term “paradise.” In the early 70s, this fact was a source of never- ending amusement for the residents of the neighboring Kibbutz Ma’ayan Tzvi, a place at which I briefly lived as a volunteer worker and Hebrew student.
Furiedis was the subject of the brilliant documentary “Paradise Lost” directed by Ebtisam Mara’ana who grew up in the town. The film is a meditation both on occupation and feminism in a Palestinian context.
Palestinian political organizing and protest has been brutally suppressed from the beginning of the state until the present. Maybe this protest is a sign that the long suppressed anger of Israel’s Palestinian citizens will be heard in surprising ways in the near future.
Ira.
You failed to mention that many of the protesters were Jews from nearby Zichron Yaakov who came out to support their Arab neighbors.
You also fail to explain why it is that there are no Jews living in Fureidis.
These illegal settlers have a vicious streak in their DNA. How much more should these poor Palestinian people endure? Their Mosques have been attacked, tires slashed, racist graffiti spray painted on Mosques and other structures, and have been spat on, and orchards destroyed, by those who should be rightfully called Israel’s front line terrorists and thugs. According to many reports hardly any of these barbarians are held accountable for these crimes, nor face any kind of sentence, for what can be considered serious crimes. The Israeli government knows how to flex it’s muscles at unarmed neighbors and use brute force on them, but strangely cannot control their criminals. What we sometimes forget is, that these Palestinians have been abused for so long, and it is no wonder they want to retaliate in some way or the other. If Americans were treated this way, I know they will want to retaliate in ways that will make the occupiers head spin.
This “price tag” attack may not clearly be a “price” for anything in particular, merely a showing of vicious cruelty on the part of the (apparently photographed) attackers. The villagers should go for justice and let the world know what result they have in democratic (the only! if only!) Israel.
The importance of this episode (for me) is that it shows that all Palestine is one and the (bad) Jews treat it all the same way. Green Line is erased, giving color-blindness a new meaning.
So, that means (to me) that apartheid is the same, or sufficiently the same, throughout Israel/Palestine. While Kerry dithers, these brave and demonstrative “price tag” folks have shown the world (or anyone watching anyway) that apartheid is universal in Greater Israel. It is no longer two states but one state.
And then there is this. Seems like the poison is spreading.
http://www.imemc.org/article/67671
It seems the US State Department is keeping track of these heinous crimes:
“Crimes by Israeli extremists against Palestinians spread into Israel and went largely unpunished last year, according to the U.S. State Department’s annual Country Reports on Terrorism for 2013, released on Wednesday.
Within the chapter on Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem is a sub-section dedicated to “price tag” attacks, defined as “property crimes and violent acts by extremist Jewish individuals and groups in retaliation for activity they deemed to be anti-settlement.” According to the report, citing the United Nations and NGO sources, such acts were “largely unprosecuted.”
There were 399 attacks by Israeli settler extremists that resulted in Palestinian injuries or property damage, including five vandalized mosques and there churches in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.588285
Oh they know that such crimes go on, yet we keep supporting these criminals with aid.
How about insisting that the charity receiver, do something to stop these crimes?
Why do we keep showering this rogue state with unwavering support, knowing that it is guilty of numerous crimes against powerless civilians, the true victims?