So, what can be done?
Well, one propagandist, Dr. Hanan Chehata, turns things on their head writing:
which claims:
A strange affliction seems to be affecting settlers in the West Bank. It seems that as soon as they are granted settler status (a badge of dishonour in the eyes of the rest of the world considering the illegal nature of all settlements) these individuals lose all ability to drive in a calm and reasonable manner and instead become lethal menaces on the road.
A trend seems to have emerged whereby settlers are making a habit of careening down roads in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) and knocking over Palestinian pedestrians like bowling pins... on...a regular basis?
And that then becomes this charge
It seems that...there is only one answer and that is that there is some sort of sick trend spreading throughout the settler colonies whereby it has become fashionable or somehow commendable to target and run over Palestinian civilians.
A charge which then turns maniacal:
...some Israeli citizens are actively taking it upon themselves to enact the Israeli government's policy of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by taking part in a concerted campaign to wipe them out themselves, picking them off one at a time. How else can you explain the fact that it always just so happens to be Israeli settlers ploughing down Palestinian civilians and not the other way around?...If this racist phenomenon was to happen in any other part of the world especially in an area with such heightened racial tensions as the OPTs whereby one group of people were seen to be actively targeting another by virtue of their race or religion, for instance, if white people were targeting and deliberately running over black people or Jewish people, there would be an international outcry, and yet when it is illegal Israeli settlers running over and maiming and killing Palestinians, again, the stories barely register as a blip on the radar. It really is about time people started paying attention before this powder keg of racial tensions blows up.
This would seem to be a very serious charge. (Another long post details 'Zionist terrorism' on the roads. EoZ also commented on this theory.) Until you look around. For example, from this report a year ago, I learned:
Israel's National Road Safety Authority has concluded the ubiquitously dangerous behavior of Israeli Arabs behind the wheel stems from a sense of unfairness rather than their simply being lawless scofflaws...Drivers have been heard to shout "Allahu Akhbar" as they plow into pedestrians and other vehicles. Participants at the conference where the report was presented included the Minister of Transportation Israell Katz, CEO National Road Safety Authority Ron Moskowitz, head of the Israel Police Traffic Division Commander Bruno Stein, and the chairman of the Arab Mayors Association, Eng Ramez Grayesi.
According to the research, conducted at the Technion's Transportation Research by Dr. Roni Factor, Professor David Lal, and Professor Anat Rafaeli, a 'sense of deprivation and disenfranchisement' in the Arab sector has led to hurt feelings and 'passive-aggressive frustration' expressed by maniacal driving.
The National Road Safety Authority noted "this is the most comprehensive study conducted in Israel in recent years. Researchers studied the causes and characteristics of a large number car accidents involving non-Jews. The study was based on five main stages, which included reviewing the literature, a statistical comparison over the past 20 years, researching general qualitative depth, interviews, and a survey which was based on a representative sample of the driver population in Israel. "
The study says Israel's non-Jewish population, which is overwhelmingly Arab, does not identify with the state, a fact obvious to Jewish Israelis who observe their behavior. They feel a sense of alienation from society due, according to respondents, to perceived discrimination and their economic situation, despite their having equal civil rights in a democratic country.
Their feelings, the researcher's say, have led to anti-social feelings inspiring 'acts of resistance.' This 'resistance' leads directly and indirectly, to traffic violations and accidents.
Prodded by the death of three Jewish children by an Arab driver, IsraelMatzav noted shortly thereafter:
Recently, three Israeli kids were killed when the gas truck in which they were riding ran head-on into a tractor being driven by an Arab without lights on the side of the road...Israel is generally unable to enforce traffic law in Judea and Samaria, as many of the drivers on the roads are PA Arabs without Israeli citizenship. Last week, Samaria Regional Council head Gershon Mesika blamed the accident on, “the complete lack of law enforcement toward Arab drivers.” He described many of the PA drivers as keeping lights off at night to hde the fact that vehicles have been stolen, for not being forced to maintain their vehicles as Israelis are, for ignoring speed limits and basic safety measures.
And if you do not trust Jewish sources, try this report as but one example from an area not involved in the 'conflict':
A young male culture that views speeding, tailgaiting, cutting off cars and other reckless behaviour behind the wheel as manly is behind high accident rates in the United Arab Emirates, a new report said.
The driving habits of young male Emiratis sparked an outcry...A survey conducted by faculty members of the United Arab Emirates University found that aggressive tailgating, headlight flashing and cutting off other cars were all considered manly by young Emirati men, who took a disparaging view of traffic laws.
"Abiding by the speed limit, maintaining a clear distance behind cars in front, wearing seatbelts, and stopping to make mobile telephone calls are often considered unmanly or cowardly - or practices followed only by "unskilled drivers", the university's report on the survey said.
There's a driving problem in Lebanon, too. Saudi Arabia also and here.
And some Jews that were thought to have been killed by their own reckless driving...were killed by Arabs.
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*
'He' is a she. Works for MEMO.
(k/t=JS)
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1 comment:
I was almost crushed in my car with my family and kids by an Arab truck driver who bore down on us from the top of a hill. On another occasion, while driving around the Old City wall in Jerusalem, an Arab teenager banged into the driver's door of my car. I got his license number with help from another driver. I went to the cops who called in the owner of the truck [Abu Diab] --who was apparently not driving on that occasion. But he gave the cops some story blaming me for what happened. So it became a matter of I-said-he-said. That I had to pay to fix the car door and that the Arab driver, the teenager, had not stopped to trade insurance info, etc., as required did not sway the cops. This second incident happened in the gay, glorious days after the Oslo piece accords. On the second occasion I was alone in the car.
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