A group of Jewish students from an educational institution in southern Israel who were touring the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood of Lod on Tuesday was attacked by violent Arab rioters, the Honenu legal aid society reported Wednesday morning. The students were forced to flee and hide in a nearby synagogue. Police arrived at the scene and rescued the group. However, according to Honenu, the police did not arrest any of the rioters.
Here’s what the police did instead: early Wednesday morning, the police raided the homes of the rabbi of the students from the south, and their tour guide who lives in Lod. The rabbi was not at home and coordinated an appearance for interrogation at the Lod precinct on Wednesday.
The guide was handcuffed in his home in front of his wife and taken for questioning at the Lod precinct. His wife was extremely unhappy, and shot the entire arrest process on her smartphone, complete with her acerbic commentary (recommended viewing):
After the interrogation, the guide was released. Honenu attorney Adi Keidar is assisting the members of the group that was attacked and whose attackers were allowed to go unscathed.
Keidar said in a statement: “Students of an educational institution who toured the city of Lod were attacked by a group of minority rioters. Police arrived at the scene after the incident, the Jews explained what had happened, but in the middle of the night, a father of four was arrested, a normative man, a teacher, and an educator, arrested and handcuffed in front of his wife, for no reason at all. And, of course, after the police interrogation, he is released in the early morning hours.”
Keidar continued: “It seems that the police not only did not learn their lesson but continue the policy of defending the minority members, persecuting the victims and not the rioters. This is a continuation of the denial of governance and the security of the citizens.”
The mixed city of Lod, outside Ben Gurion International Airport, saw a severe wave of violence in May of 2021 when Israeli Arabs rioted throughout the city. The violent incidents included the destruction of municipal cameras and the displacement of road signs, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, shooting, vandalism, arson of synagogues, arson of the pre-military preparatory school Maoz in the city, arson of schools, public institutions, Jewish homes, trash cans, electrical cabinets, private cars, and police patrol vehicles.
On the first night of the riots, a Jew shot at a group of rioters and killed a young Arab. The next day, a Jewish man was wounded in the head by stones thrown at him by Arab rioters and died of his wounds a week later. Over the next few days, tensions grew in the city, and Jewish volunteers came to Lod to protect its Jewish residents. The police were reinforced by Border Guard forces, a civil emergency was declared, and a night curfew was imposed in the city.
