Tzabar group satire shows reality

Thursday, November 30, 2017, 15:48 The Tzabar satire group along with the Derech Chaim movement has produced a new video clip (Hebrew only) presenting the intolerable reality of rock-throwings in Yehuda and Shomron (Yosh), contrasted with the helplessness of the police and the bureaucracy faced by anyone whose car is damaged by a thrown rock. The video exposes the viewer to a small segment of the hardships anyone who has suffered a rock-throwing on the roads of Yosh must endure.
In the video a Yosh resident is seen leaving his home for work. On his way a rock is thrown at his car and the windshield is shattered. A drowsy policeman refuses to come to the scene of the attack, despite the driver’s pleas that his life is in danger. The policeman repeats the mantra: “File a complaint”.
The driver does file a complaint, and thus begins a series of exhausting procedures: The driver must report to the property tax office, which is open only during specific hours. He must also meet with an appraiser, who very suspiciously examines the damage to the car, and at most grants him a new windshield. On his way home the driver has another rock thrown at his car and again his windshield is shattered. This time the driver does not file a complaint, but rather takes the law, or in this case, the rock, into his own hands and throws it back. This time the police do arrive on the scene… to detain the driver.
Matanya Gavrieli, one of the video’s creators, explains the thought process behind it: “The issue of rock-throwing in Yosh is felt strongly by residents of Yosh, who experience it on a daily basis. The media silences the issue, which is neither discussed nor reported, despite the fact that it is genuinely life-threatening and is in every way a terror attack. There have been many incidents in which people have been seriously injured and even killed by thrown rocks.
“Whoever experiences it sees a lot of foot-dragging by the system, which doesn’t take care of it like they should. This causes a great deal of distress. The police treat the issue with disregard and do not detain whomever should be detained, but rather tell the driver to file a complaint as if the matter were an argument between neighbors.
“Only today we saw the helplessness of the police in handling the rock-throwing and attempted lynch experienced by the boys in the Shomron, which adds to the dozens of minor incidents occurring every week.
“The continuous neglect of handling rock-throwings is liable to cause people to do things for which they will ‘pay the price’ after all they did was defend themselves. The video presents an exaggerated situation, but one that absolutely could occur when this is what the police create with their lack of response.”