Israel Matzav

Jews and Arabs brawl on Jerusalem tram

According to YNet, a brawl between Jewish and Arab girls on the Jerusalem tram on Monday ended with the driver stopping the tram and letting all of the passengers off after one of the Jewish girls used a personal canister of tear gas on the Arabs.

The brawl erupted after dozens of Arab and Jewish girls clashed on one of the train cars. At one point, a Jewish girl at the site pulled out a personal canister of tear gas and sprayed it at the Arab girls.

The gas spread throughout the train and hurt other passengers uninvolved in the incident. Following the subsequent commotion, the driver was forced to stop the train and let passengers out, as the gas was bothering those onboard.

CityPass, which operates the Light Rail line in the capital, issued the following response after the incident: "We will not be accepting any act of violence. We call on all residents to show tolerance."

Good luck with that. For those of you who are wondering, the Arabs are on the tram mostly because it goes through the predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Shuafat and Beit Hanina. That was done so that we could show that we are providing services to the Arabs in our united city (which of course drew worldwide condemnation).

Twenty years ago, when we made aliya, Jews and Arabs used to ride many of the same buses. That was before the days of the suicide bombers, who started in 1994. But it's been years since large numbers of Jews and Arabs shared public transportation. I would suggest that the tram company start using security guards in every car of every train. Otherwise, a much more serious incident is inevitable.

Labels: Arab-Jewish relations, Jerusalem Light Rail

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:27 PM