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Tension on streets of Safed
Photo: Ziv Reinstein

Safed clash stirs fear among Arab students

Police boosts security following weekend incident between haredim, Arabs. 'Several female students asked if it was safe to go to school,' says Arab students' representative at city's Academic College

Two days after the violent clash between haredim and Arab students in the northern city of Safed, police boosted deployment throughout the city for fear of further provocations.

 

Sunday afternoon, officers from the Safed police department arrested a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of involvement in Friday night's incident, which ended with no casualties, although the windows of a house inhabited by an Arab student were shattered.

 

"We have no intention of giving hooligans a free hand, and so we concentrated on intelligence operations which led to the first arrest, and more are soon to follow," Gadi Ron, Safed police superintendent, told Ynet.

 

"We are talking about outright thuggery. Today it's against the Arabs, and tomorrow it can be against the olim or any other sector of society," he added.

 

The violent incident over the weekend came on the heels of a recent halachic decree issued by Safed's chief Rabbi Shmuel Elihu, which uges Jews to refrain from renting out apartments to Arabs.

 

"Since the Shabbat ended, I have been in touch with rabbi representatives and the different communities in the city as well as municipality officials, in order to make clear that only through cooperation we can prevent similar incidents from happening in the future," said Ron.

 

The superintendent stressed that he would act with an iron fist against any attempt to stir provocation in the city. "We will employ zero tolerance toward any type of violence – this is the message we would like to send to those who want to encroach on the residents' daily routine."

 

Business as usual

Despite the tensions, Safed residents were going about their daily routine, some even claiming they only heard of the incident through media reports.

 

"It's a shame that a fringe group put Safed in the headlines, but in the negative sense," said local resident Yossi Levin.

 

Most of the 400 Arab students attending Safed Academic College didn't let the clash interrupt their daily routine, as the majority of them stay in college housing, while only a small number rent apartments in the city.

 

"We are talking about a minority that is trying to damage the city's reputation," explained the Arab students' representative Mahmoud Abu- Salah. "Those who study here come from all over the region, and are not here to create provocations or engage in politics. We are here to study," he said.

 

Abu-Salah added that following reports of the incident, "Several female students called me in the morning and asked whether it was safe to go to school. We talked to the college's management and decided to hold pacification talks with the help of rabbis, to prevent such acts from repeating in the future."

 

Despite issuing the controversial halachic decree, Rabbi Eliyahu himself published a statement Saturday night, along with Safed Mayor Ilan Shochat, in which they condemned the acts and called on both sides to show restraint, tolerance and mutual respect.

 

The two also urged police to investigate the incident and arrest the perpetrators as soon as possible.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.24.10, 20:26
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