🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The caldron of violence that has been rampant throughout the Middle East, and has spread to the West Bank and Jerusalem, reached Tel Aviv on the night of October 7 and a town in the northern Negev earlier in the afternoon.
On the night of October 1, an Israeli couple was slain in the West Bank while in their car, with their children looking on. From that moment, violence has begun to spiral out of control. This heinous shooting followed days of stone attacks and other mounting violence along the divide between Arab and Jewish Jerusalem.
On the night of October 3, two Israelis were stabbed to death in the Old City of Jerusalem, while Israeli forces in the West Bank confronted demonstrators—some violent, some not—killing at least two. Those clashes have been ongoing. As is their nature, Israelis do their best to take the violence in stride. I visited the Jewish part of Jerusalem on October 6, and outwardly everything looked very normal and unchanged.
That evening, Arab-Israeli residents of Jaffa (a part of Tel Aviv) heeded the call by the Islamic Front of Northern Israel to demonstrate on behalf of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque. That demonstration turned violent. Six demonstrators were arrested, and six policemen were injured.
When interviewed, one of the demonstrators said he was worried about the status quo at Al-Aqsa. In addition, he said the demonstrators were angry that the perpetrators of the October 1 shooting, a Hamas cell, had already been apprehended, while those who burned down the Dawabsheh family's home in a Palestinian village in July, killing the mother, father and an 18-month-old infant, remain at large.
The radio interviewer then asked, "Considering the state of Arabs everywhere else in the area, what do the Arabs in Jaffa have to demonstrate about?" The mere question struck a nerve.
The interviewee was deeply offended, reflecting the complicated identity of Israeli Arabs. Some of the time he might consider himself an Arab-Israeli who compares his situation to that of other Israelis and not other Arabs. However, during the course of this radio conversation he expressed identification with the Palestinians.
On the afternoon of October 7 there was another stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem. Those attacked suffered only minor injuries, while the attacker was seriously wounded by one of the victims, who had a gun. An hour later, in Kiryat Gat, a town in the northern Negev, home of one of Intel's most advanced fabrication facilities, a soldier was stabbed by a Palestinian, who then took the soldier's gun. The attacker was shot and killed by police.
Given the level of violence outside my family's neighborhood, for many months there has been concern that it was only a matter of time before the violence reached us. On October 7, right outside the mall in Petah Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv, a Palestinian took out a knife and stabbed someone entering. The victim is in critical condition, while the attacker was overpowered by passers-by and arrested. The incident at the mall, located on a major street and a 10-minute drive from our house, has brought the terror ever closer.
The Palestinian Authority's use of the Al-Aqsa mosque as a symbol to stir up passions regarding the Palestinians was no doubt a calculated move by a leader who saw the world ignoring his cause. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas seems to have reached the realization that he is unable to control the tiger he has released. As such, he has called for restraint and allowed Israeli and Palestinian security forces to meet to coordinate their efforts to control the situation.
The fear among many of the residents of Tel Aviv that I have spoken with is that Abbas's best efforts might be too little, too late. Most of them laugh in disdain at the sight of members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party and government demonstrating in front of his house, demanding that he be tougher on those perpetrating violence. However, the average Tel Avivian has no alternative suggestions or plans of action.
The general sense here is that we are in for a period of very rough waters. Whether this period will become known as "the Third Intifada" we will know only as events unfold over the next few days and weeks.
Multimedia historian Marc Schulman blogs at www.multieducator.net.