“Morte aos árabes!”, gritavam os jovens judeus no “Jerusalem Mall”

Centenas de jovens judeus ultranacionalistas invadem shopping e atacam palestinos, gritando “Morte aos árabes!”

Baby Siqueira Abrão

*Baby Siqueira Abrão

“Morte aos árabes!” foi o grito de guerra da torcida do Jerusalem Beitar, time de futebol israelense, ao invadir o shopping Malha Mall, de Jerusalém ocidental, e atacar os funcionários da limpeza, os lojistas e os compradores palestinos. Os torcedores do Jerusalem Beitar são conhecidos pelo racismo e pelo ultranacionalismo. Centenas deles foram ao shopping, também conhecido como Jerusalem Mall, depois de um jogo de seu time no Teddy Stadium, ligado ao shopping por uma passarela para pedestres. Muitos usavam uniformes com as cores do time.

Veja, aos 2min30 e aos 5min21, no vídeo, o grito “Mavet la 'aravim” ("Morte aos árabes") em hebraico.

Agora, imagine essa turba enlouquecida com a farda do exército sionista e armas na mão. Não, não é ficção. Todos os jovens de Israel, mulheres e homens, devem servir o exército por 3 anos depois de encerrado o ciclo escolar que para nós corresponde ao ensino médio. Os jovens torcedores do Jerusalem Beitar não são exceção. Os israelenses aprendem, desde pequenos, que palestinos em particular e árabes em geral são seus inimigos, pessoas “inferiores”, como mostra o estudo de Nurit Peled-Elhanam nos livros didáticos usados em Israel. O ódio dos judeus fanáticos, portanto, é fomentado pelo governo israelense. Uma lástima.  

O jornal liberal israelense Haaretz publicou matéria sobre o ataque quatro dias depois de ele ter acontecido (!), sob o título “Hundreds of Beitar Jerusalem fans beat up Arab workers in mall; no arrests”:

Hundreds of Beitar Jerusalem supporters assaulted Arab cleaning personnel at the capital’s Malha shopping center on Monday, in what was said to be one of Jerusalem’s biggest-ever ethnic clashes. “It was a mass lynching attempt,” said Mohammed Yusuf, a team leader for Or-Orly cleaning services.

Despite CCTV footage of the events, no one was arrested. Jerusalem police said that is because no complaint was filed. Witnesses said that after a soccer game in the nearby Teddy Stadium, hundreds of mostly teenage supporters flooded into the shopping center, hurling racial abuse at Arab workers and customers and chanting anti-Arab slogans, and filled the food hall on the second floor.

“I’ve never seen so many people,” said A, a shopkeeper. “They stood on chairs and tables and what have you. They made a terrible noise, screamed ‘death to the Arabs,’ waved their scarves and sang songs at the top of their voices.”

Shortly afterward, several supporters started harassing three Arab women, who sat in the food hall with their children. They verbally abused and spat on them.

Some Arab men, who work as cleaners at the shopping center and observed the brawl, came to their rescue. “How can you stand aside and do nothing?” said Akram, a resident of the Old City’s Muslim Quarter who was one of the cleaners who got involved. CCTV footage shows that they started chasing the rioting youths, wielding broomsticks.

It seemed the workers managed to chase the abusers away, but a few minutes later supporters returned and assaulted them. “They caught some of them and beat the hell out of them,” said Yair, owner of a bakery located in the food hall.

“Death to the Arabs” chant common

Unchecked racism against Arabs is endemic in Israeli soccer. “In the late 1990s and onwards, ‘Death to the Arabs’ became a common chant in almost every football [soccer] stadium in Israel” wrote Amir Ben-Porat, a professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Ben Gurion University in an academic article I quoted in a piece I wrote in 2008. Ben-Porat, who authored a study on the use of the chant, says that because of the importance of soccer in Israeli society and its high profile in the media, “This chant is heard far beyond the stadium” (Amir Ben-Porat, “Death to the Arabs: the right-wing fan’s fear,” Soccer & Society, Vol. 9, No. 1, January 2008, pp. 1-13).

On last year’s “Jerusalem Day,” an Israeli government sponsored ultra-nationalist festival, hordes of Israeli youths were also caught on video marching through eastern occupied Jerusalem chanting “Death to the Arabs” and “Muhammad is dead.”

The shocking incident at Malha Mall is an indicator of how far it has spread. Malha Mall is built near the ruins of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village of al-Maliha.

*Thanks to Ali Abunimah and #Storyful for posting the video.