Middle East
The wails of the two bereaved mothers intertwined. They were waiting for their sons’ bodies to be released from the morgue, to be buried side by side.
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
A concrete wall and half-finished fence divide the homes of Muhammad Khatib, 20, and Leith Nasra, 19, who were gunned down in the early morning of March 19 in the Arab city of Qalansawe, in central Israel. Their names joined those on a growing list of Palestinian citizens of Israel killed by surging gun violence in Arab communities. Though they make up one-fifth of Israel’s population, Arab Israelis say police and politicians are ignoring the high rates of crime and poverty in their neighborhoods.
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
“Nobody is safe,” said Nasra’s aunt, Sawsan. She held the Israeli government responsible. “We are supposed to be living in a democratic country with laws, but where are the police?”
In the meantime, large pots, in better times brimming with food for celebrations, were now once more filled with water for cleansing the dead.
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
The violence has crept up alongside the pandemic and despite pledges for change by politicians. On Tuesday, Israelis vote for the fourth time in 23 months to try yet again to break an electoral impasse that’s paralyzed the politically polarized country.
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, struggling to stay in power, has both allied himself with an extreme-right party that calls for the expulsion of Israel’s Arab communities — and tried to court these same voters by promising to fight crime if reelected.
It’s a gamble unlikely to resonate with the thousands of residents of the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, who took to the streets in early March waiving Palestinian flags and protesting claims of police brutality and neglect.
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
More violence, and more mourning tents and protests, followed in the weeks since.
Fourteen-year-old Mohammed Adas was killed March 9 while eating pizza with a friend outside his home in the central city of Jaljulia. There was a police station nearby. But they still do not know who fired those fateful shots and why, his father said.
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press
Heidi Levine/Sipa Press