Ramallah: Attacks against Palestinian taxi drivers and Palestinian drivers of public transportation in the occupied East Jerusalem have increased markedly with tens of Israeli colonist youth groups targeting Palestinian drivers and preventing them from loading their vehicles with passengers.
A detailed report by Israeli Channel 2 TV has documented several cases in which Jerusalemite drivers have become a key target for Israeli colonist youth groups. In these incidents, the youth spend a long time near the vehicles of targeted drivers preventing passengers from getting in the vehicles. Their only motivation is that the drivers are Arabs. If a driver utters a word or asks the colonist youth to go away, the colonists do not hesitate to attack the driver brutally.
The report said that in several cases, attacks by colonist youth had resulted in the hospitalization of their target. The report cited the experience of Zeyad Al Qawasmi and several other Palestinians as examples of the attacks.
The Israeli TV channel said that this kind of attack against the Palestinian drivers in the holy city has recently become a phenomenon and that the number of attacks has sharply increased. It added that the occupation’s police in Jerusalem had arrested five colonist youth for similar charges.
The report said that the clash usually starts with ugly words by the colonist youth and insults to the Palestinian drivers who do not answer back. Later the Israeli youth start preventing passengers from getting in the Palestinian’s vehicle. Whether physical assault occurs depends of the reaction of the Palestinian driver and whether he chooses to not speak.
Israeli Channel 2 said that attacks on Palestinian drivers in occupied East Jerusalem are highly organized and designed to disturb the incomes of Palestinian drivers.
The report said that several human rights and legal organizations in Israel have attempted to end this phenomenon, but without success.
The report stressed that for the human rights organizations in Israel, attempts to raise public awareness about the Israeli youth actions as a way to spare the Palestinian drivers were a waste of time and effort. The organizations recommended drivers call in the police when such incidents occur on the streets.
Palestinians of the occupied East Jerusalem have said that even the presence of the occupation’s police in Jerusalem is useless because the police forces do not take actions against the colonist youth.
“Occupation police in Jerusalem usually turn a blind eye to the actions of the colonist youth. To avoid embarrassment, the police forces take them in for a couple of hours and later they are unconditionally released,” said Fakhri Abu Diab, a member of the Higher Committee in Defense of Jerusalem (occupied). “The law enforcement authorities in the holy city differentiate between Jews and Palestinians and act in a clearly racist manner.”
