A sexual attack on a nationalistic background: we fight the laws of the Bedouin jungle, with baby gloves (MakorRishon Feb.8.23)

Submitted by Raquel (United States), Feb 9, 2023 at 02:11

https://www.makorrishon.co.il/opinion/576639/

A sexual attack on a nationalistic background: we fight the laws of the Bedouin jungle, with baby gloves

17th in Shvat 5783 (02/08/2023)

Ortal Shmueli
[A former member of the Beer Sheva City Council, one of the founders of the Forum for the Promotion of the Negev]

When I heard on Friday about the shocking rape in Gedera, I knew deep in my heart, with an inner feeling - before the publication of the name of the rapist, his affiliation and origin - that this event sounded familiar to me related to the Negev. When the name of the rapist was published, who broke into the house, forced and raped a woman in front of her 3 crying children - my heart broke.

The method of operation of the rape in Gedera is similar to the rape of the 10-year-old in Ramat Negev in January 2021. The surveillance, the knowledge when to exploit a weakness, the unimaginable cruelty. This is how the father of the girl who was raped described it in an interview with YNET on February 14, 2021: "The man moved from bed to bed, checked, chose what was best for him. Everything with complete awareness, together with another person who held a flashlight and shined it on the girl's face," said the father. "You can't go into people's houses and rape girls in their bed. If I had shot him - I would be in prison right now. Something is completely screwed up here in the war against crime. This is complete anarchy, you need an iron fist, you need special units here. The court is worth nothing to me".

The State of Israel was once again caught with its pants down, only this time the writing was huge on the wall. The Abu Assa family is known for its criminality in the Negev. In the thread I posted on Twitter, from videos downloaded by user Moshe Kozak from around the web - there are disturbing records of quantities of illegal weapons, shooting, wild driving through the streets of villages and cities while shooting into the air. The Bedouin problem in the Negev - no one really wants to solve.

We try to fight the laws of the Bedouin jungle with baby gloves - but lose the battle. We have been shouting this for years - without deep plowing, without tactical teams, without special forces, without defining an internal enemy that does not distinguish between criminals and nationalists - the Negev will fall and with it the State of Israel. Greater and wiser than me, the first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, said: "If we do not stand on the Negev - Tel Aviv will not stand."

The unimaginable cruelty with which the rape was committed in Gedera and the sexually promiscuous behavior is something we in the Negev have known for many years: and the residents of Gedera and the rest of Israel are only now being exposed to them. The sexual harassment of women in the streets, the whistles from the roofs and windows. Beyond the humiliation of the woman and the sexual harassment - there is also the nationalist humiliation. For this reason, I don't call it an event. I call it an attack.

The rapist in Gedera raped the woman - only because she is Jewish. How can such an event be called if not a "sexual attack on a nationalistic background"? We are constantly hiding behind fake humanity, trying to beautify the situation - when the situation is simply bad.

As long as we do not call a child by his name or a terrorist with his intention - to act against Jews men and women - we will not be able to address the problem.

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