Newspaper Page Text
Page 16
Griffin Daily News Monday, May 3,1976
Lawlessness part of Israel’s fabric
By Macabee Dean
TEL AVIV - (NEA) -
Israelis woke up recently to
discover they were in the
midst of a wave of violence
and crime — in the best (or
rather the worst) American
tradition, complete with
threats, extortion, “protec
tion money”, rape, murder —
and even a corrupt police of
ficer or two.
According to official police
figures for 1974, one out of
every 21 Israelis (or 162,000
persons out of a population of
3,400,000) was the victim of a
“serious” crime. This is ap
proximately the same rate as
in the United States, accor
ding to FBI figures.
There has always been
crime in Israel, despite
stories of the “good old days”
30 to 40 years ago, when per
sons left their doors unlocked.
(As one wit said, “they were
left unlocked since there was
nothing to steal then ”)
But the crime has always
been of a “passive type,” such
as doctoring income tax
returns, dealing on the black
market, stealing cars and
breaking into and robbing
apartments. The victim, often
the state itself, would lose
financially - but physical
harm was a rarity.
But all this has changed.
The days of peaceful crime
in Israel have passed.
Police Minister Shlomo
Hillel recently told the
Knesset (Parliament) that
crimes of violence had in
creased 37 per cent in 1975
over 1974 — and were still ris
ing. Attempts at murder had
increased by 100 per cent;
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murder threats had increased
by 35 per cent. The overall
crim’e rate increased by 13 per
cent in 1975, and by a total of
32 per cent since the Yom
Kippur War of October, 1973.
The sharp upsurge in crime
was expected, for every war
brings in its wake a crime
wave. As Inspector-General of
Police Shaul Rosolio wrote
more than a year ago:
“The Yom Kippur War in
fluence was felt throughout
1974 Its results were
widespread social, economic
and political unrest, the dis
solution of moral values and
an increase in criminal activi
ty . . .”
But the roots of the present
outburst of violence go back
many years before the Yom
Kippur war, according to both
criminologists and
sociologists here. A primary
cause is the fact that Israel is,
and was, a land of immigra
tion, with a mingling of per
sons from diverse
backgrounds, cultures and
outlooks And this causes fric
tion.
Superimposed on this was
an enormous, unwieldy and in
efficient bureaucracy. And
the best way to fight this
bureaucracy, as thousands of
newcomers learned all to
soon, was “to pound on the
table.” If this did not help, “to
pound on the head of the of
ficial sitting behind the
table.”
Punishment for such acts
was generally mild —for the
public usually sympathized
with the attacker, not with the
official. Such violence
becomes away of life.
Social workers were soon
beaten up, not for inefficiency
but for not granting higher
monthly social welfare
payments. Teachers were at
tacked not for being bad
teachers, but for giving bad
marks. Doctors were thrash
ed for not giving the
medicines that the patient —
yes, the patient — demanded.
The narrow line faded
between those demanding
their legitimate rights from
the bureaucratic system, to
those actually preying on the
system, and on the public, in
some criminal form.
"Get rich” schemes by il
legal means proliferated. And
the easiest of all schemes was
the “protection” racket.
This was the state of affairs
when the Yom Kippur War
broke out — and thousands of
Israeli soldiers fell; others
came home in a bitter mood.
The entire population went
into a state of shock, casting a
bitter eye at the country’s
leaders, whom, they felt, had
betrayed them.
Yitzhak Rabin replaced
Golda Meir as prime
minister. Even a charismatic
figure like Moshe Dayan fell
in public favor.
A series of financial scan
dals rocked the country. The
Israel-British Bank collapsed
— since its director-general of
the Israel Corporation was
found guilty of fraud, bribery
and corruption. Even worse,
corruption was found in the
Israel Defense Forces, a body
which had been held until now
in the highest esteem
Faith in the country's police
and judicial system wavered,
and more persons with
grievances took the law into
their own hands.
A doctor in Nahariya refus
ed to give the treatment a
patient demanded; he was
murdered. An official in
Ashdod refused to give a man
who failed his driving test a
driving license; he was shot to
death. An irate fan at a soccer
game in Rehovot stabbed a
player to death. A kangaroo
court in Jerusalem sentenced
a member of the underworld
to death — and carried out the
sentence.
And an American couple,
new immigrants who had
settled in a small village near
Jerusalem, pulled up stakes
and went back to the States
since a pair of hoodlums were
terrorizing them and the rest
of the village.
These cases, admittedly,
were isolated and extreme.
But in Israel today the un
derworld flourishes as never
before. Conservative es
timates place the number of
citizens living off of crime —
including prostitution and the
black market in foreign
currency — at between 20,000
and 30,000.
There is much talk of
“organized crime” in the
American pattern, but so far
it has failed to materialize.
Fortunately strong public
pressure is causing an im
provement of the situation.
Some time ago when the situa
tion reached intolerable
proportions in Tel Aviv, the
police moved a unit of the
crack Border Force — whose
job is to fight infiltrators
along the border — into the ci
ty. The crime rate dropped by
some 30 per cent.
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