Violent clashes took place throughout the day Saturday in Jaffa following the death of a 21-year-old man who was shot dead by police during a chase. The man’s family members and the rest of the residents in the majority-Arab city are outraged at police. Jaffa Arabs threw stones and set tires on the road on Yefet Street, one of the main drags in the city. Three rioters were detained for questioning and large police forces were deployed to prevent the situation from escalating.
Video courtesy Ynet
According to Walla, the event took place around 4:30 AM Saturday, when police received a report of shooting on Yefet Street outside a butcher shop whose window had been smashed in the event. Police who were patrolling nearby were called over, and when they arrived, they noticed several scooters whose drivers were trying to escape.
Police gave chase and fired their pistols at the runaways. Two suspects were found wounded in the nearby Magen Avraham street. One of them had been severely wounded in his upper body by the shots and eventually died.
Police Internal Affairs has launched an investigation.
The body of the deceased has not yet been returned to his family. Hundreds more policemen will arrive in Jaffa from around the country Sunday for the funeral.
The owner of candy shop in Jaffa told Walla Islamic religious elements encouraged the violence Saturday. “They destroyed the entire front of my store after there was an argument between the youths and the police,” he said. “Police asked business owners to close their shops after the guy was murdered in the morning by the police. Within seconds [after closing] the youths began to throw stones at my business, broke the whole front of the place.”
Amir Badran, a member of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa city council, criticized police for their conduct, saying “police in a democratic state receive a mandate from the people to impose order and not to execute people, even if they sinned or committed a crime.”
Badran said the deceased came from a normative family, even though he was “apparently also a little problematic and had a little trouble with the police – but not anything that justifies chasing and shooting to kill from point-blank range. This was not shooting to deter but to kill,” he said.