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May. 13, 2021 12:00 AM
As if the air was not sufficiently saturated with gasoline fumes from the violent riots in Lod, Ramle, Acre and other cities, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana comes and urges Israelis to take the law into their own hands. This is what he felt compelled to write on Twitter Wednesday in response to the arrests of Jews suspected of involvement in the fatal shooting Sunday of Moussa Hassouna, an Arab resident of the city: “The arrest of the shooter and his friends in Lod, who apparently acted in self-defense, is terrible. Even if there are details the public doesn’t yet know, law-abiding citizens bearing arms increases the authorities’ power to immediately neutralize threat and danger.”
In an uncustomary phone interview with Channel 12, President Reuven Rivlin implored Israelis of all ethnicities and religions to stop the “madness” unfolding on the streets of Jewish-Arab cities.
President Reuven Rivlin meets with the Yesh Atid party at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, April 5, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“I am very worried,” he said, adding that he was “crying out” for internal peace.
“I call on and beg of all local leaders, religious leaders, on citizens, on parents. Do all you can to stop this terrible thing that is happening before our eyes,” he said. “We are dealing with a civil war between us without any reason. Please stop this madness… I beg of you. This country belongs to all of us. Desist.”
In the coastal city of Acre, Arabs critically injured a Jewish man with rocks and iron bars, and then the crowd attacked the ambulance taking him to the hospital, the AP reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said his government would begin using administrative detention - imprisonment without formal charge - against those involved in civil unrest. Human rights groups have criticised Israelâs broad use of it against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The triggers for this unrest have been the armed conflict between the Israeli military and Hamas militants in Gaza and the preceding weeks of Palestinian protests in Jerusalem.
Police tell court the investigation supports assertion by the four that they fired at Musa Hanusa in self-defense, after initial probe indicated he was dozens of meters away