Israel’s soft stance on incitement creates tragedy
Hate of Israeli Arabs has reached a peak with the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, reflecting the tolerance of Israeli society toward words and deeds of extreme-right activists.
Twenty-four hours after the charred body of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, was discovered on July 3, President-elect Reuven Rivlin paid a condolence visit to the Shaer family, whose son Gil-Ad was abducted and murdered by terrorists. When asked by journalists about the voices calling for revenge against Arabs and the wave of incitement and racism on the social networks, Rivlin responded with an analogy from the sphere of soccer. He said that when racist cries emerge from the eastern gallery of the Teddy Stadium, it's befitting that the fans from the western gallery should admonish them. “I always thought that the western gallery is no less guilty than the eastern one. Even if it is horrified inside, that’s not enough.”
It's doubtful whether Rivlin knew at that moment that the police were already on the heels of the suspects, who are believed to be members of an extremist Jewish organization in Jerusalem. The organization’s activists and inciters are part of that infamous eastern gallery.
Every Arab soccer player who played in Teddy (Jerusalem’s soccer stadium that occasionally hosts the games of Israel’s top teams) was the target of a string of curses and invectives from the fans in the “eastern gallery,” only because he was an Arab.
Cries of “Death to the Arabs” are a routine part of soccer matches in Teddy. Each time, after politicians mouth feeble objections, things revert back to normal until the next match with its series of curses and incitement. Nothing significant is ever done. Official Israel treats the hatred of Arabs expressed by growing numbers of groups in Jerusalem as an almost unavoidable phenomenon. It is regarded as an inappropriate but not really dangerous one.
