Israel

Scenes from the Tel Aviv terror attack (this time)

By Ben Hartman / January 1, 2016 December 1, 2020

Confusion seemed the order of the day in the minutes after a gunman had opened fire on a pub and a café on Dizengoff Friday afternoon, killing 2 and wounding 8 before vanishing without a trace. A rumor caught wind – from a reporter, maybe, or a random cop – that a suspect had been spotted a few blocks north on Nordau, and plainclothes cops with assault rifles started to give chase. It was then that something I’d never seen before happened …

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For all citizens, facing off against police is an uphill battle

By Ben Hartman / November 29, 2015 December 1, 2020

If you’ve seen the video of the assault, you may have found the penalty for the officer left something to be desired. Underage Jewish settlers who are resisting arrest but posing no threat are beaten repeatedly by a well-armed border policeman who seems to have no regard for the young age of the victims or the fact that it’s all being caught on video. The officer in this case, Mordechai Mehager, was sentenced in July to six months’ community service at …

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Variants of Vigilantism

By Ben Hartman / November 22, 2015 December 1, 2020

It would be funnier if it wasn’t real life and the stakes weren’t so high: a vigilante who tried to lynch a terrorist is arrested by police and then set upon by a mob which now mistakes him for the attacker. That scene actually unfolded last Monday evening in Netanya, minutes after an attacker stabbed an elderly woman and was shot and subdued by police. The vigilante – who in trying to get to the terrorist scuffled with police – was …

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After the knives are put away

By Ben Hartman / October 29, 2015 December 1, 2020

The uniforms and pistols make them look like police, but they aren’t cops. They’re members of the Tel Aviv municipal public order patrol – set up by the city this past year to deal with public disturbances, noise ordinance violations, and petty quality of life issues. After a terror attack in the city earlier this month and as the daily attacks known as the “Knife Intifada” continue across the country, the patrol members are now receiving firearms, to be force multipliers …

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Knife bait at the park – watching my daughter’s blind spot

By Ben Hartman / October 19, 2015 December 1, 2020

Ask yourself: Could you fend off a crazed attacker armed with only a stick of sidewalk chalk? Could you subdue a man with a knife, hold him until the police arrive, and give a man-on-the-street interview that will go viral? Most crucially, could you spend an hour and a half at the park with a group of toddlers, without checking your cell phone even once? All these questions went through my mind on Tuesday morning, when it was my turn for …

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Deadly force in deadly times

By Ben Hartman / October 15, 2015 December 1, 2020

The video that went viral in Israel on Monday left little room for debate. Three Special Patrol Unit police officers are standing outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, when one of them asks a young man for his ID and all hell breaks loose. The man, later named as Muhammad Ali, 19, from Shuafat, takes a knife and stabs the neck of one of the police officers and then jumps and stabs a second one, before he is taken down in a …

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The spy who came in from the cold – to lead the police

By Ben Hartman / October 1, 2015 December 1, 2020

Roni Alsheich, deputy head of the Shin Bet (Israel security agency) was introduced – somewhat – to the Israeli public last Friday as all but a shoo-in for the new chief of police, finally, mercifully bringing the hunt for a new chief to an end. Alsheich (whose name can now be printed, saving us the silly requirement of calling him simply “R”) brings impressive credentials – a former company and deputy brigade commander in the Paratroops – he has spent over …

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They came to watch the bridge explode

By Ben Hartman / August 23, 2015 December 1, 2020

Judging by the pre-game hype in the national press, something akin to the moon landing or the planting of the US flag on Iwo Jima took place in Tel Aviv on Friday morning, as hundreds gathered in the center of town to see the iconic Ma’ariv Bridge blown up and brought to Earth. The situation on the ground at judgment hour didn’t live up to the hype, but it was a carnival of sorts nonetheless. Ori Benaim was sober …

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Blackface as racial solidarity?

By Ben Hartman / August 21, 2015 December 1, 2020

Every protest movement needs a great song. Earlier this month the famed comedy trio Shlishiyat Ma Kashur released a protest video, a clip full of anger ripped from the front pages. A serious departure for the trio, “Ayalon Darom” (the title taken from the Ayalon freeway, which was blocked during rush hour during a protest by Ethiopian Israelis in May) depicts the three actors as Ethiopian Israelis fed up about racism in Israeli society, sick of being seen as nothing …

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Avera Mengistu – a flawed focus on racism

By Ben Hartman / July 10, 2015 December 1, 2020

For the past 10 months the family of Avera Mengistu has lived with trauma and uncertainty. Their son has been missing in Gaza, his whereabouts and health unknown, with no sign of life. The fact that he crossed into the Strip willingly, and has a history of mental distress is probably of no consolation. They have also, it turns out, not been treated with the level of urgency and sympathy one would expect for the family of an Israeli citizen held …

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