Even the pouring rain, which appeared unexpectedly yesterday in Yafia, in the midst of the fire, failed to lower the level of pain at Naim Marjieh's car wash complex. Five people were murdered there on Thursday in a shocking massacre that plunged violence in Arab society to a blacker-than-black peak.
The murdered were Naim Marjieh, the owner of the car wash, Ibrahim Shehadeh, Rami Marjieh, Mohammed Kanana and Louis Abu Rajab.
Family and friends in the mourning tent erected at the washing institute, photo: Gideon Markowitz
Hani Marjieh, a high school electrical teacher and uncle of the murdered Na'im and Rami, 15, left the mourning tent for a moment. He looked up at the gray sky and sighed. "Innocent people are being killed and the police are comfortable saying 'criminal organizations,'" he says painfully. "After all, who doesn't know the Bakri and Hariri families? So they are mentioned as if to say, 'In your life, criminals have been killed,' but here we are talking about a normative family, people who work day and night to build their future. Rami, an honors student at the school, just came to the yard and was killed. Why? Because they spray, not distinguishing between one and the other. If there were 20 people in the compound, they would kill them. We don't know who's against whom. We're in trouble, we feel that the state doesn't take care of us. We don't have a father. It's time for them to decide, either take us by train somewhere else, or take the problem seriously."
According to him, the problem lies in the government's approach to Arab society. "We are a primitive society, and the State of Israel knows that in such a society the rule of force and law must be exercised," he rages. "You can't trust your conscience, the sheikh or the priest. We need a strong police force to deal with crime once and for all. The state has turned us into a sector, so are we the problem of the sector alone or of the country as a whole? Let them decide. They feel that the government is helpless, weak. We no longer want promises of 'we will eliminate crime.' We want action, because it will only spread like wildfire and reach every part of Israel."
The funeral of two of the victims, yesterday. "Striving for action", Photo: Reuters
You have to be at the scene of the murder to realize the helplessness. The car wash complex is located on 141 Street in Yafia. Side alley, narrow. This is not an easy place to escape, especially after a brutal massacre. A car came opposite in the afternoon and blocked the escape route. All in broad daylight. That's how it is when the West is wild – you can make fun of the law.
"The most painful day"
"I heard everything that happened," says Tawfiq Kot, a neighbor and friend of the Marjia family. "Out of fear, I couldn't leave the room and stayed lying in bed. I was just peeking when the ambulances came to collect the bodies."
The Yafia local council, adjacent to Nazareth, is usually a quiet place, residents say. So the shock was even greater. Three days of mourning were declared in the community and businesses went on strike locally. On Friday they were closed. A mass demonstration was held at the center, whose participants cried out for help.
Khalila. Worried about
"In every civilized country, there should be personal security for the citizen," says council head Maher Khalileh. "If there is security, there is life, and if there is not, then there is no life. Arab society is bleeding, and this massacre has entered every home in our home. We must now act so that life in the community continues. But there is concern that it will not end. Think about 14:30 p.m., daylight. This is an event that has crossed every boundary, and is the product of decades of discrimination and discrimination."
Less than a day after the tragedy, three giant tents were erected in the car wash complex. One of the relatives poured us coffee and made it clear that people were very upset and that there was a lot of tension in the air. "This is the most painful day I can remember," admits Saif Kanaan, a friend and relative of the victims. "Look at the place. Some worked here, some came to wash the car. They are not even related to each other and still shot them indiscriminately. We've gotten to the point where I'm afraid to go into the store to get food for the children, because it can happen to anyone."
The vehicle allegedly used by the shooters in the village of Yafia is on fire // Use under section 27A of the Copyright Law
"Shin Bet? You have to work."
Two police investigators arrived at the crime scene to find more evidence of what happened. Someone told us that the peak of violence is yet to come, and it will appear when local elections at the end of October draw closer and power struggles heat up. This weekend marked a shocking milestone – the 100th murder in Arab society since the beginning of the year.
The Marjia family's mourning tent was entered yesterday by MK Yoav Segalowitz of the Yesh Atid party, who in the past served as deputy public security minister and in the more distant past was a commissioner in the Israel Police. "In the previous government, I coordinated the fight against crime in Arab society, and entire processes that we started were stopped," he says. "In our time there was a 16 percent drop in murders, and now there is a government that promised A, and in practice there is a world horror. Until now, the prime minister has not said, 'This is my main goal,' has not appointed a team of ministers, has not appointed a project manager in my place, and all I hear in posters and press conferences is 'We will bring the Shin Bet.' Before we go to extreme measures, we need to start working."
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