On video: a shooting incident near the Tzameret compound in Tel Aviv (according to Section 27 A of the Copyright Law)
The attack on the soldier Orian Banyan caused an uproar in the northern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv last week.
The extreme violence of the group of masked boys ignited a widespread protest, his investigation with Banyan's own warning added fuel to the fire, and it seems that there is no factor at which accusing fingers have not been pointed.
One direction of them flooded inter-neighborhood tensions that remain under the surface these days.
Southwest of Ramat Aviv III, where the fight broke out in a public garden, is the "big block".
Or by its official name - Nopi Yam neighborhood.
Several thousand residents, tall buildings, a promenade and an adjacent beach.
The neighborhoods are separated by road 2 and less than two kilometers, but also decades of seniority and tradition.
In the eyes of many, Ramat Aviv C is the symbol of the north of the city.
The unforgettable series that bears its name positioned it as a code name for the north, and famous residents such as opposition leader Yair Lapid based its status on it. Its neighbor, on the other hand, is less known outside the borders of the region.
Mainly from the older side, some call this battle "New Money" vs. "Old Money".
Modest wealth and 15% tip, in front of Shopone, logos and keep the excess.
In short, the tortillas are from a wonderful country.
"Every neighborhood here has an image. This neighborhood has a negative image, of uneducated, nouveau riche who got rich overnight from high-tech," admits a Ramat Aviv resident in his 70s.
"Those who are looking for an apartment don't come here because of the rumors that there is a poor population here. It's not nice to say, but it's the truth. When you enter the supermarket, the type of people is not the same type found in Neve Avivim or Bej and even in the new Ramat Aviv. Sometimes you can tell just by the appearance and the clothing and get a sense of the socio-economic status."
"This neighborhood has a negative image, of uneducated people who got rich overnight from hi-tech", Nopi Yam neighborhood in Tel Aviv (Photo: Uri Sela, Uri Sela)
The dam was breached
The construction of the large block began only two decades ago.
It was accompanied by strong opposition from the residents of the neighborhoods to the east, who lived on the first line to the sea and did not like the idea of high-rises replacing the dunes.
Since then, thousands of housing units have been built in the neighborhood, and another 16,000 will be built nearby, on the ruins of Sde Dov.
The new housing options opened up new opportunities also for residents who wanted to move to the city for the first time and do not come from generations of wealth.
"Rishon Lezion in Tel Aviv", they called it in the Tel Aviv media.
Others were more blunt in attributing character to its inhabitants.
"The stigma on the block is that we are criminals," admits a boy who lives in the neighborhood.
"In the past it might have been true, at first crime families came here. Today, I don't think so, but the stigma remains."
True or not, for the residents this is the state of things.
And in times of crisis the dam that separates thought from saying becomes breached.
Rumors about the identity of the boys who beat, electrocuted and stabbed Orian in the head with a knife began to circulate even before he was released from the hospital.
Dozens of names were thrown in the neighborhood groups.
Many parents and students were quick to determine: the suspects are from the big group.
At least some of them are indeed from there, but only a few of the residents really know who each one is.
A student at the Alliance school, where some of them study, even claimed that they live in Ramat Aviv in a conversation with Walla!.
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"The stigma on the block is that we are criminals", Nofi Yam neighborhood in north Tel Aviv (Photo: Uri Sela, Uri Sela)
"The writing was on the wall for 15 years," wrote a resident of the neighborhood in one of the groups that opened following the attack.
"Even back then, boys in Neve Avivim pointed to the Gush HaGadol area as a place that grows boys who bully them," he added, and qualified: "Not all of them, of course."
Other responses were "The suspects are called good boys, but some of them probably really aren't", and "At the school my daughter attended, in Naupee Yam in Gosh HaGadol, the education system failed when it didn't remove the problematic children from the school".
When we pointed out in the group that a month ago a father of children was also attacked in a public park in the area, one of the residents accused: "These are boys and that's what they hear at home. The son of a dentist doesn't talk like that. The son of an orthopedist doesn't shout, 'You know who my father is.' These are crime families and there is no They have a place in a normative community."
On the other hand, there were parents who wanted to calm down the attack.
"Pointing an accusing finger at this or that community, neighborhood or educational institution is mainly turning a blind eye of the most dangerous kind," wrote one of them.
"The easiest thing is to distance the incident from us, but it is not that far. Not everyone is the 'son of a criminal'."
First line to the sea, sea views (Photo: Uri Sela, Uri Sela)
But the image permeates deeply.
A broker who works in the block said that apartment prices have recently dropped, "also because of the image she has created".
Looking ahead, she is more optimistic, and believes that these are birthing ropes that are typical of any new neighborhood.
The old residents, for their part, believe that the integration process is already happening.
It's just the perception that doesn't keep up.
"Religious people also live in the block, immigrants from Belgium and France. More mixed than Ramat Aviv. People moved here who made exits and want to upgrade to a neighborhood in north Tel Aviv and apparently not everyone liked it," said one of them.
"The criminals have already left for another neighborhood. I don't know why some people continue to see us like that, it's really a good neighborhood."
As is the way of nature, the difference blurs and fades with the generations.
The children grow up together in the same environment, study and develop in the same high schools.
They once met at Alliance, today it's mostly high school.
The young among them were less able to point out a difference.
"We don't really feel a difference. We have friends from both neighborhoods," said four 17-year-old boys who were walking around the block's streets.
Another student, in the 10th grade, identified with their words.
"The buildings in the block are being built at a crazy pace and people are moving in who were not in Ramat Aviv before. It is natural that there is a difference at the beginning because they come from other institutions - but now it is not noticeable."
Still, less than two kilometers.
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