A teenager was killed in a shooting Tuesday night, March 9, in the town of Jaljulia in central Israel, becoming the 23rd Arab in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem to die in violent circumstances since the start of this year. Another boy was also seriously wounded in the incident. According to Al-Ittihad, the two were sitting outside their homes when assailants opened fire on them.
Muhammad Abdelrazek Ades, 14, was brought to the Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba with no vital signs and was pronounced dead, a hospital spokesperson said in a statement. The other victim, Mustafa Osama Hamed, 12, arrived at hospital with multiple gunshot wounds, was in “very serious condition,” and had undergone surgery, according to the hospital.
Latest victim of criminal violence and government and police neglect in fighting the deadly phenomenon in Israel’s Arab communities: 14 year-old Muhammad Abdelrazek Ades, a gifted student, was shot to death in a drive-by gangland shooting in Jaljulia, Tuesday evening, March 9, 2021. (Photo: Al-Ittihad)
“Both are victims of the criminal neglect of Netanyahu and his government. Netanyahu is responsible for the crime and the neglect of the illegal weapons phenomenon in the Arab community,” said Darwish Rabi, the Hadash head of Jaljulia’s city council, after the shooting, “What’s going on today in the Arab community has crossed all red lines, there are none left. This is a civil war. We are sure that there is no rule here, no law, and no governance.” Rabi said there will be a nation-wide protest in Jaljulia on Friday. “We are protesting against violence. We need our voice to be heard.” The Jaljulia Local Council declared a general strike in the town that was held yesterday, Wednesday, March 10, following the deadly shooting. Rabi said he knew the family of the victims. “The boy who was murdered was a gifted student, quiet. He is a victim. It could be any child, any man, any woman,” he said.
One of Ades’s teachers, Nasreen Shuahanna, said she was supposed to meet the boy for a lesson Tuesday afternoon, which he canceled. “I loved you for your high morals and how excellent you were in science,” she said. “I taught you for three years. Today we were supposed to meet in the afternoon, but fate decided that our meeting would be canceled, for some reason, and to my sorrow I will not be able to see you again.”
Hadash MK Ayman Odeh, the chairman of the Joint List, said that “there are no words to describe the magnitude of the horror and heavy loss,” Adding that “the heinous criminals are the ones who pulled the trigger, but the government’s criminal neglect policy is no less to blame.” Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman (Hadash) expressed her anger over the shooting, similarly blaming both the criminals and the government. “It’s heartbreaking,” Touma-Sliman said, adding, “the blood is on the criminals, but the blame is also on the far-right government and police who have neglected our children.”
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