A group of Jewish residents of Netanya staged a racist protest outside a college dorm in the city hosting Arab students on Saturday night, accusing them of disrupting a Shabbat prayer service earlier in the day. In the evening, several hundred Jewish protesters from the neighborhood gathered outside the Netanya Academic College’s dorms, many of them chanting “Death to Arabs,” and some tried to break into the building.
The students trapped inside the building called for help Hadash-Ta’al MKs Ayman Odeh, Ahmed Tibi and Aida Touma-Sliman. Police said in a statement late Saturday that officers who arrived at the college dispersed the demonstration and restored order.
The racist protest outside a college dorm in Netanya hosting Arab students on Saturday night, October 28, 2023 (Photo: Israeli Police)
Roi Amgar, the head of the local racist settler’s Garin Torani (Torah nucleus), posted on X (formerly Twitter), “In Netanya we are not going to give up until they kick out the Arabs who are at Netanya College! The police will not stop us, nor the municipality, nor the state! We demand security for ourselves immediately! The people of Netanya are waking up, and what are the Israeli police doing? Blocking the entrance and protecting the enemies.” Likud Netanya Mayor Miriam Fierberg-Ikar issued a statement saying she asked the school’s administrators “to clear out the dorms and find those responsible” for allegedly harassing Jewish worshipers earlier in the day.
The Arab Emergency Committee, a civil society group giving relief services to the Arab community during the war, decried the “reckless incitement against our students in the recent period, which reached its peak today with targeting our students and attempting to attack them inside the student dormitories.” “We hold the police and college security fully responsible for the security and safety of our students, and we call for an end to the ongoing incitement against all our male and female students in various universities and colleges in the country,” the committee said.
The Students Protest criticized police for merely declaring that they had “secured” the incident and were not taking more vigorous action against racist violence in Netanya. “We strongly condemn the violence and the attempt to threaten Arab students at Netanya College,” the protest movement said on social media. “In these difficult days for Israel, there is no place for racism, violence, or discrimination between populations in Israel.” “The police need to deal with the trust they have lost when it comes to guaranteeing personal safety. They should allow freedom of demonstration but not secure hateful events whose purpose is to inflame the atmosphere.”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31298
