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Last update - 09:27 18/03/2008
Limp police in the face of a pogrom
By Haaretz Editorial
Tags: police, jabal mukaber 

Already last week, radical right-wing groups announced that they planned to gather on Sunday at a spot along the Haas Promenade in Jerusalem and march to the Jabal Mukkaber neighborhood. They were bent on destroying the home of the man responsible for the terrorist attack at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, and the place and time were printed on announcements pasted up all over the city.

In view of this, the unbearable ease with which the rioters outwitted the police and carried out a pogrom at the site cannot be allowed to pass without the district police chiefs being called to account. The police commanders' statements that they "were surprised by the level of violence" already go beyond false naivete. Even former Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy, who usually defends his colleagues, said yesterday that "the district police had no cause to be surprised."

We are not talking about a mere handful of individuals who managed to get through police barriers, but a frenzied crowd of dozens of violent people, who in a simple outflanking move entered the neighborhood, threw stones and broke the windows of houses and cars for some time, unmolested. An organized and synchronized pogrom of this kind could never take place in a Jewish neighborhood.
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While Israel and the Jewish world raise a huge cry over every suspicion of an attack on Jews because of their ethnicity, it is intolerable that residents of the capital are attacked solely because of their nationality. The ease with which the police allowed the pogrom also refutes any claim about the equal rights that East Jerusalem residents enjoy. One must not, of course, ignore the outright incitement in the announcements praising the murderer that were pasted up in the neighborhood, but this has absolutely nothing to do with the carnival of rampage.

A straight line connects the fecklessness displayed by the Jerusalem police in Jabal Mukkaber with the police's bungled handling of the terror attack at Mercaz Harav. Jerusalem District police chief Aharon Franco has yet to provide a satisfying explanation as to why police officers stood outside the yeshiva for a good few minutes while the terrorist continued to murder.

The continued inactivity in the face of acts of incitement and violence by the extreme right is shared by all the law-enforcement authorities - the police, Shin Bet, State Prosecutor's Office, and the courts. The pogrom's organizers were not afraid to identify themselves and their organizations by name, and enough legal measures exist that could have prevented an event that from the outset had been designated an illegal demonstration. The arrested rioters should now be brought to justice and punished with all due severity, just as Arab rioters would be.

That the riot in Jabal Mukkaber ended only in property damage, with the exception of two lightly injured police officers, cannot be credited to the police, but to the fact that most of the villagers opted to stay in their homes. Otherwise, the results might have been much worse and sparked a long chain of violent acts. Had there been any Jewish casualties, a committee of inquiry would certainly have been established to examine the circumstances. But even without a committee, the conclusion to be drawn from the events is clear: Remove Major General Franco from his post.
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  1.   Shameful 10:22  |  Jeroen de Jager 18/03/08
  2.   arab murders 8 Jewish children - thats a pogrom. 11:45  |  Chris 18/03/08
  3.   Read: We at Shenkin Str. are affraid to be treated as Quislings 12:47  |  Absolute Sweden 18/03/08
  4.   leftists and arabs pogrom NOW happening in Hebron. 12:55  |  Dave 18/03/08
  5.   haaretz - happy now? israel being raped by olmert and you. 12:57  |  Jules Kemp 18/03/08
  6.   Sounds Like Eastern Europe on Good Friday 13:23  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/03/08
  7.   The Flowers of Zionism 13:30  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/03/08
  8.   The Flowers of Zionism, Part III 13:46  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/03/08
  9.   SOME SPOIL CHILDREN 13:49  |  indrajaya 18/03/08
  10.   Mickey Levy Is Simply Abashed!! 14:13  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/03/08
  11.   why surprised ? 14:48  |  whizbang 18/03/08
  12.   Only in Israel 14:53  |  Marilyn 18/03/08
  13.   to Chris #2 14:59  |  zeev 18/03/08
  14.   The Police Should have Helped 15:12  |  Yaakov Ish Tam 18/03/08
  15.   As pogroms go this one was one was as limp as this editorial 15:31  |  YSL 18/03/08
  16.   A holy pogrom 15:48  |  Tosefta 18/03/08
  17.   YSL Your Claim Is Nonsense 15:55  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/03/08
  18.   Ask WHY this "pogrom" happened 16:41  |  Harvey (Chaim) 18/03/08
  19.   The modern day Golems 16:59  |  Danite 18/03/08
  20.   Boot outr anglican/scotish priests from Tiberias for incitement 17:00  |  Absolute Sweden 18/03/08
  21.   Haim (Harvey) of London and what is needed 17:33  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/03/08
  22.   Oh my my, Yaakov, in deep and personal, aren`t we? 17:58  |  Harvey (Chaim) 18/03/08
  23.   The Loudest Mouths Do Not An Ideology Make 17:58  |  The Real Yaakov S. 18/03/08
  24.   Corruption and incompetence: the Israel Police 18:05  |  Chanalau, Tova 18/03/08
  25.   Well, was it really a pogrom....???? 18:20  |  Swiss (Dino) 18/03/08
  26.   The Real Yaakov S is not the Real Yaakov S 18:32  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/03/08
  27.   Arab murderers around jerusalem 18:43  |  jon 18/03/08
  28.   "Real" Movements Cannot Hijack Themselves 19:01  |  The Real Yaakov S. 18/03/08
  29.   #25 Thank you for your sober observation 19:03  |  The Real Yaakov S. 18/03/08
  30.   #21 Playing with names 19:08  |  (Real) Yaakov Sulliv 18/03/08
  31.   The traditional key to a pogrom - Tosefta 19:39  |  Mark Lincoln 18/03/08
  32.   NEWS: Abbas, Israel`s "peace partner", threatens USA. 20:01  |  Jules Kemp 18/03/08
  33.   I think Shin Bet was looking for "revenge" action 20:19  |  Tosefta 18/03/08
  34.   Dear Harvey, duped by the False Yaakov Sullivan 20:22  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/03/08
  35.   # 29 Yaakov Sullivan Nr. 2 20:53  |  Swiss (Dino) 18/03/08
  36.   AMAZING How. 20:55  |  Douglas 18/03/08
  37.   Swiss Dino, from the Original Yaakov Sullivan 20:58  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/03/08
  38.   Lesson is not learned in Israel. 21:04  |  Avi 18/03/08
  39.   False alarm,no pogrom,just another provocative headline 21:05  |  YSL 18/03/08
  40.   #18 Harvey in London 21:26  |  Labhras 18/03/08
  41.   Linguistic overkill by `Haaretz` A pogrom means dead people 21:30  |  Shalom Freedman 18/03/08
  42.   Pogrom? 21:37  |  Armand J. Gold 18/03/08
  43.   Palestinians have the right to defend themselves! 21:39  |  Dutch Dirk 18/03/08
  44.   If anger is an understandable response ... 21:40  |  Scharker Yid 18/03/08
  45.   The time has come.. 21:41  |  hollingsworth 18/03/08
  46.   I`ve just stopped reading "Yaakov Sullivan" 21:42  |  Scharker Yid 18/03/08
  47.   Marilyn has a point 21:47  |  hollingsworth 18/03/08
  48.   #34 Dear False Yaakov 21:58  |  The Real Yaakov 18/03/08
  49.   "Brilliant" analytical suggestion.... 22:15  |  Esther 18/03/08
  50.   #41 Shalom Freedman Gets F on basic English 22:23  |  Labhras 18/03/08
  51.   Dutch Kirk and the palestinians 22:33  |  Nanette 18/03/08
  52.   Re DD #43........ 22:46  |  Esther 18/03/08
  53.   Hollingsworth has a point 22:49  |  The Real Yaakov 18/03/08
  54.   #48 The real fake Jaakov 23:04  |  Labhras 18/03/08
  55.   Interesting definition of pogrom... 23:22  |  Esther 18/03/08
  56.   # 37 Yaakov Sullivan (2nd try) 23:28  |  Swiss (Dino) 18/03/08
  57.   Anti-Religious IncitementPogrom? You`re Nuts!! 23:29  |  marvls 18/03/08
  58.   The Fake Labhras 23:34  |  Labhras 18/03/08
  59.   Yeah, but Sharker.. 23:39  |  hollingsworth 18/03/08
  60.   Loopy Israeli media 00:10  |  Ilya 19/03/08
  61.   Al-Haaretz 01:00  |  Writer from Shenkin 19/03/08
  62.   #6 The False Yaakov Sullivan 01:02  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/03/08
  63.   A quest for justice is not a pogrom. 01:35  |  Chaim 19/03/08
  64.   It comes down to: Who will win? 02:16  |  Sensible 19/03/08
  65.   The Jewish state is all about revenge 02:16  |  Someday 19/03/08
  66.   What a hoot - and why 02:36  |  Mark Lincoln 19/03/08
  67.   more space for doubts and reconciliation 02:46  |  German individual 19/03/08
  68.   Simple Minds Prefer Simplistic Analysis 03:18  |  JP 19/03/08
  69.   Hey Jaakov! 05:14  |  Labhras 19/03/08
  70.   to JP #68 05:18  |  zeev 19/03/08
  71.   ARAB massacres Jews,Arabs celebrate! Jews(very wrongly) hit Arabs 05:42  |  PETER SM 19/03/08
  72.   Arab massacres Jews.Arabs Cheer.Jews,wrongly,hit Arabs