Wednesday 22 June 2011

Looking for trouble...

Jerusalem's an amazing place, you know. Jews, Arabs, Christians, Armenians, Greek Orthodox: all crammed inside the walls of the Old City with tourists coming from left, right and centre to marvel at the holiest of shrines. I thought it was fascinating. The Western Wall so close to the Dome of the Rock;  Arabs flocking to Friday prayers,  Jews heading off to celebrate Shabbat.. the ebbs and flows of peoples' lives and beliefs. So if you were an Israeli, would you start shouting abuse at Arabs as they came away from Friday prayers by the thousand, especially if you were in a car flying an Israeli flag.. stuck in a traffic jam? That's exactly what one guy did, and I walked past just after an Arab mob had smashed the car up and him with it. I crossed over to have a closer look when I saw the ambulances, police cars and photographers at the scene. At first I thought it was a road accident, and that maybe a motorcyclist had hit the car, gone into the windscreen and shattered it. But when I saw the back window out too I started wondering, and asked one of the photographers what was going on. "An Israeli guy," he said as he snapped away. "Shouting abuse." One man from the car was being treated for superficial facial injuries by the paramedics at the scene.. my guess is he was the driver and his mouthy mate was in another ambulance.. and judging by the damage to the car he got off lightly.

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