Arab girls' flat torched again in less than 2 months
Palestine-Israel, Local, 12/1/1997

More than a month has passed and the Israeli police failed to locate the arsonists who set fire to an apartment in West Jerusalem's Musrara quarter where three Arab girls from the north live. Not only that, but a new attack on the house miraculously passed without any injury to the girls, though an Israeli policeman was lightly wounded in his hands and face when he touched a bag that was laid at the entrance to the girls' apartment Sunday morning.

This time, however, the Jerusalem District Police decided to set up a new special investigative team after the previous one failed to locate the assailants, believed to be extreme right-wing Jewish activists who sought the expulsion of the three Arab girls from their apartment.

Since the first arson of their house last October 13, the girls Sonia Khouri and her sister Wafa', originally from Nazareth, and their third flat mate Manal Dhiab of the town of Tamra in the Galilee, north of Israel, had been harassed by their landlord who wanted to evict them from the flat and wanted them to compensate him for the damage caused to the house. The girls said they had been looking for an alternative place to live in but "once landlords found our we were Arab girls from the Galilee, they claimed they had no more flats to rent" as Sonia put it Monday.

³This time they changed their tactics. They used a bomb,² added 26-year-old Manal. She said that about 04:00 hrs. on Sunday, unidentified persons laid a bag with flammable liquid, spray cans and rags at the entrance to the apartment and tried to set it on fire. An explosion was heard and the three girls called the police who arrived with a bomb expert. ³The moment he moved the bag it exploded in his face,² Manal said. The bomb expert was sent to the hospital and released in the afternoon.

Prior to the first arson attempt, the female Arab tenants received threats from ultra-orthodox Jews living in the neighborhood, who demanded they leave the area. But the police could not establish if Jewish zealots stood behind the attack, who were opposed to the fact that three girls, no matter Arab or Jew, lived on their own, or if the attack was the act of extreme right wing Jewish activists who decided to act because of the national identity of the three girls.

"Had we been Jewish and the assailants Arab suspects, the police would have immediately acted differently and more efficiently," said Sonia who confirmed that the landlord this time too had come to the flat and ordered the girls to leave. Sonia said she insisted she would not leave until after she finds an appropriate place to live. "We are not ready to go to the street and live there just to appease the landlord or to exempt the police from their duty," she said.

Previous Stories:
  Palestinian on hunger-strike faces life-threatening situation   (11/26/1997)
  Palestinian man killed on way back from West Jerusalem   (11/24/1997)
  The other side of conflict: a tale of three girls   (10/15/1997)

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