An Israeli diplomat filed a complaint last week with police after he was pulled to the ground in Jerusalem by four security guards, who knelt on his neck for five minutes as he cried out: āI canāt breathe.ā
english.palinfo.com
There are obvious echoes of the treatment of George Floyd, an African-American killed by police in Minneapolis last month. His death triggered mass protests against police brutality and reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement. The incident in Jerusalem, by contrast, attracted only minor attention ā even in Israel.
An assault by Israeli security officials on a diplomat sounds like an aberration ā a peculiar case of mistaken identity ā quite unlike an established pattern of police violence against poor black communities in the US. But that impression would be wrong.
The man attacked in Jerusalem was no ordinary Israeli diplomat. He was Bedouin, from Israelās large Palestinian minority. One-fifth of the population, this minority enjoys a very inferior form of Israeli citizenship.
Ishmael Khaldiās exceptional success in becoming a diplomat, as well as his all-too-familiar experience as a Palestinian of abuse at the hands of the security services, exemplify the paradoxes of what amounts to Israelās hybrid version of apartheid.
Read more at
Chokehold on Diplomat Exposes Israelās Special Type of Apartheid
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