In leaked talks
Police and many in the Arab community of Lod are at odds over the handling of the murder of Dua’a Abu Sharkh, 32, who was shot at close range by masked gunmen in front of her four children on Friday.
“Police do not care about the Arab community,” said one Arab resident of Lod, who declined to state her name. “If a Jewish mother was murdered, the whole city would be closed. Instead, the police blame it on the family. It is a shame that the police arrested her three brothers, bringing the family more pain.”
On Sunday, after protests from the Abu Sharkh family and numerous Arab residents blocked roads, the three brothers, who are suspects in the murder, were allowed to attend their sister’s funeral. They made for an unusual site, appearing at the funeral while handcuffed to police officers. It highlighted the tense state of police relations with the Arab community in Lod.
Nasser, a construction worker in the low-income city who declined to state his last name, said he feels that the police eye all Arabs with suspicion. “I don’t feel like they are here to protect me, only to protect the Jewish residents,” he said.
Yitzhak, a religious Jew who works at a jewelry store, chastised what he said was a characterization of Lod as dangerous and violent by the media. “For the most part things are OK, despite a minority of violent people; most people want to live a regular life,” he said. “I’ve had no problems with violence here – most of it is within the Arab community, so it does not affect me.”
Despite violence in the headlines and the strained atmosphere surrounding the Lod District Court on Monday, the rest of the city maintained an air of normality. Arab and Jewish employees of a metalworking shop refused to talk about politics. “We don’t have time for that,” they said, and returned to cutting metal sheets. Lod, which has a population of 72,000, has a Jewish majority, but also boasts a substantial Arab population, numbering between 20% and 30%.
A mall adjacent to the Lod District Court was flooded with Jewish and Arab women shoppers.
Shaymaa, a sister of the slain mother, told Walla that police are not doing enough to solve the deaths of women. “100 women were murdered in family ‘honor killings’ in Lod, and to this day [the police] have not found [the] murderers,” she said. “The police need to find the killer [still] on the loose instead of arresting my brothers; instead of grieving and weeping for their sister who was killed, they were taken into custody in handcuffs.”
According to data released last week by the Central Bureau of Statistics, 69% of Arab-Israelis surveyed have a negative view of the police. In the most recent police statistics from 2015, 59% of murders occurred in Arab communities, despite the fact that the Arab minority makes up only 21% of the country’s population.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lacks “intelligence” and “does not want to do anything,” a senior Egyptian intelligence official said in a leaked phone conversation with Muhammad Dahlan.
Dahlan is Abbas’s primary rival.
The Turkey-based Mukmaleen network, which broadcasted the phone conversation on Sunday, identified the intelligence officer as Wael Safti, who is responsible for the Palestinian affairs in the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate.
Mukmaleen is considered critical of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi’s regime and has leaked unflattering tapes of the Egyptian president.
At the start of the phone conversation, Safti greets Dahlan and then remarks, “Undoubtedly there is a problem... I have noticed that his concentration is insufficient,” referring to Abbas. “He has nothing to offer.”
Safti then says Abbas “acts like a camel.” In Arabic, a “camel” refers to someone who brings no new ideas to the table because camels chew their cud, swallow it and repeat the process again.
The senior intelligence officer continued, saying that Abbas “is not intelligent at all in terms of how he acts,” adding, “He does not want to change. He does not want to do anything at all.
“He is sitting and talking nonsense to the right and the left, while the situation is catching on fire. Nothing makes a difference for him.”
Safti then exclaims that Fatah and the PLO are in poor standing: “Fatah is deeply troubled and the PLO is even [more troubled],” before saying that Abbas has failed “to bring together” and “contain” the different PLO actions.
At the end of the phone conversation, Safti describes Abbas’s leadership as “stupidity.”
Following the leak of the phone conversation, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri did an interview with al-Youm al-Sabaa, an Egyptian newspaper, in which he described a positive relationship between Egyptian President Sisi and President Abbas.
“I believe the last meeting between President Sisi and [Abbas] in New York saw an intimate dialogue and mutual understating of the different issues,” Shukri said, stating further that Egypt does not plan to intervene in internal Palestinian affairs.
“Egypt has no intention to impose a vision on the PA or the Palestinian people. It is more worthwhile for the Palestinians to deal with Palestinian issues because they know their interests best.”
The Palestinian Authority has not issued an official response to the leaked phone conversation, but posted the Shukri interview on its official news site, Wafa.
Since fleeing the West Bank and being ousted from Fatah in 2011, Dahlan has cultivated close relationships with top Egyptian officials. Reports surfaced recently that Egypt and other Arab states have been pressuring President Abbas to reinstate Dahlan in Fatah and allow him to return to Ramallah.
Nonetheless, Abbas has expressed no intention of allowing his main rival to return to Fatah or Ramallah.