Jews, Arabs on a knife edge in Lod
The stench of fires from burnt-out buildings and vehicles in the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood of Lod on Tuesday afternoon was the first indication of the severe riots that had taken place the night before.
Smashed windows, a burntout security post, rocks and rubble strewn around some streets, and still smoldering trash cans began to paint a fuller picture, and then a classroom in the Maoz yeshiva reduced to a burnt-out ruin told of the full violence of Monday night’s riot.
Following high tensions in Jerusalem and the physical battles between worshipers and rioters on the Temple Mount with the police, large numbers of Lod’s Arab residents took to the streets in protest at the events in the capital.
Fires were set, stones were thrown, vehicles attacked, and at one point an Israeli flag erected by the municipality was torn town and replaced with the Palestinian flag.
According to Jewish residents of the city, Arab protesters began approaching the Jewish neighborhood of Nof Naveh at around 1 p.m. throwing rocks and fire bombs, following which a 34-year-old Jewish resident shot and killed Musa Hasuna, a 25-year-old Arab resident.
During the course of events, the Maoz yeshiva in the mixed Jewish-Arab Ramat Eshkol neighborhood was firebombed, causing massive damage to one classroom and lesser damage to another, as well as superficial damage to the facade of the building.
Violence continued on Tuesday night following the
funeral of Hasuna, with rioters clashing with riot police, throwing rocks and rubble and once again setting fires.
Tahael Harris, a resident of Ramat Eshkol, was holding an event for around 70 university students at the local community center. As it drew to a close at around 10 p.m., organizers realized that no one could leave the center because of the severe riots taking place.
“People from the other
buildings shouted to us that there were too many Arabs throwing rocks, setting fire to trees, and yelling that it was not safe to leave,” said Harris.
The police were called, and the students were eventually escorted out of the building some two hours later at midnight.
“I don’t know who did these riots, but I know that my neighbors let it happen, and
the sacred city, and to stop all acts that violate the sanctity of the Holy al-Aqsa Mosque.”
On Saturday, the UAE “strongly condemn[ed] the Israeli authorities’ storming of the Holy al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Bahrain’s cabinet in its weekly meeting on Monday “expressed its deep concern following the violence that has taken place in Jerusalem.” Manama also called on Israel to “de-escalate tensions... to avoid a regional drift toward instability.”
In Rabat, Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Sunday said he viewed Israeli “violations as an inadmissible act and likely to stir up tensions.” He is the chairman of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee.
There was “frustration” in the Gulf, a former Trump administration official still involved in Israel-Gulf ties said, adding that Jerusalem is “complicated and confusing” and is viewed differently than Gaza.
“There’s universal dislike of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, who are seen as people looking to pervert Islam… by many people in the Abraham Accords and those who might join,” he said.
Similarly, a source involved in business between Israel and the Gulf found that when the center of violence was at al-Aqsa Mosque, “many were upset and said that places of worship are off limits, and they were upset with Israel. When it moved over to rockets, though, they were supportive of Israel and felt the Palestinians crossed the line. They are sensitive to rockets because the Houthis use them against [Saudi Arabia].”
The UAE’s leadership is unlikely to issue a statement condemning Hamas rockets out of concern over how the public will react, the source said, adding: “This is the first blow-up post-[Abraham] Accords, and you can feel in the air how they are treading very lightly.”
Emiratis expressed that dichotomy on social media between concern over Israeli police entering al-Aqsa Mosque and disdain for Hamas and other extremists.
Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s former minister of state for foreign affairs and currently a diplomatic adviser to the president, tweeted that his country “stands with the Palestinians’ right, with the end of the Israeli occupation, with the two-state solution, and with an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. This is a historic and principled position that does not budge.”
“How distressing the scandalous insults within the endless regional Arab civil wars and the exploitation of the suffering of the Palestinian people for narrow and unworthy calculations,” he added.
Unofficial but prominent Emirati social-media users made similar remarks.
UAE political analyst Majed al-Raeesi tweeted that if the entire world reached a consensus on how to address prayer rights on the Temple Mount, the Muslim Brotherhood’s factions, including Hamas, would still reject it, and “kindness will be met with offense.”
Faith and al-Aqsa are “greater than trading and raising the Hamas flag on it,” he added.
The former Trump administration official said Israel must do a better job at presenting its narrative.
“Allies are looking for information,” he said. “When there’s a vacuum, the prevailing argument is newspaper articles, and if Israel relies on newspaper articles to tell its story, it can just pack up and go. There needs to be a clear message. Israel needs to be better at articulating that message.”
Ideally, Israel could have briefed its new allies in advance about expected events in Jerusalem, such as how there is often an uptick in violence against Israelis around Ramadan, Jerusalem Day and Nakba Day and the possible ruling on the property dispute in the Sheikh Jarrah/Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood, the official said.
The US State Department has been critical of Israel in recent days, he said, adding: “You can’t expect the UAE to be more pro-Israel than the USA.”