2023-09-28 20:46:47
“The murder was a hundred meters from my house,” he tells ‘Daver’ Mahmoud Zebidat, 71 years old from Besmet Tivon, for the massacre of the five members of the Delaika family yesterday (Wednesday). “I was in the settlement, I just went out to the nearby settlement Nofit, and I saw a police force entering the settlement. My son was at home and told me that a disaster had happened.”
“It’s shocking, the whole settlement is in shock,” he says painfully, “there is no father, no mother. You can feel the sadness in the air, in the cloud, in the moon. We had three weddings yesterday, they stopped them.”
“The police came, there were demonstrators from Kiryat Tivon, Jews, they called them ‘shame, shame’. And it really is a shame. Young people from Basmat went down to the demonstrators. It’s good, this togetherness.”
“I was in the Mourning Tabernacle in the morning. They are waiting there with cameras and people and they arrive, everyone is ‘dancing’ on the event, all the political currents and the northern Islamic movement. The area is promiscuous. The commissioner came, Ben Gabir came, they called them ‘shame, shame’ and they left. So everyone now comes to ‘dance’, and it hurts. It hurts that you see the disgusting reality, and there is no father and no mother. A very bad feeling.”
The events cause him enormous mental difficulty. “I am disabled in the IDF, hurt by the army, with post-trauma. In 1970 I was in the Gaza Strip, a fighter in the Grenadier Patrol. I served under the command of Ariel Sharon and Meir Dagan, blessed be their memory, and to this day I am in contact with their families, like a family member.
“But that period, of the Gaza Strip, is coming back to me today in my locality. At least ten people have been murdered here in recent years, and five more now, that’s 15.
“Each case puts me in the places I’ve been. There’s a dangerous animal inside me, I’m afraid of it getting out. I have to bring myself security at home, in my family, in my grandchildren. I hardly ever sleep in the settlement.”
“There is no leadership. The politicians are grinding water”
According to him, violence and crime did not always exist here. “I am 71 years old, not a child, from the transitional generation. We are the children of the state. I have lived in Basmat Tivon since 1966. Before that we were near Kibbutz Shaar Ha’amkim. It was only in 2000 that such violence started here.”
Is there anything you think the government or the police should do about violence and crime?
“What will they do? Where will they do it? The police are running away from them, they don’t have police. They know exactly what needs to be done, more than you and more than me, unfortunately. That’s the situation.”
What do you expect from the leadership in Arab society?
“There is no leadership. All around me, politicians are talking here, heads of councils. They are talking, but I am disgusted by politicians, who are watering down water.”
What can create change?
“The army needs to take matters into its own hands. We are not in a good place. The violence is a national phenomenon, and it is very dangerous for the security of the State of Israel, because in a second these crazy people can turn around.”
“The herd is not calm, scared. It will soon run out of food”
He is disturbed by the situation in the country. “The situation in the world hurts me more than what happens near home. This month I traveled 7,500 kilometers in Israel. The herd is restless, scared, soon it will lack food. I have Bedouin friends in all kinds of accommodation in the south, they said that on Rosh Hashanah 30 percent of what they used to come in previous years , they didn’t arrive. It’s sad for everyone in Israel. There’s no personal security either. We have nothing, they’re destroying everything, there’s no one to trust.”
“There is a lot to say, but why say it? Everyone knows. There is nothing to say. My feeling exists with a lot of people I know. You just have to let go and move on. Life is stronger than us, and there is no place for the weak, they will step on them, they will die. Don’t be strong , you are gone.”
not losing hope
Despite the heavy despair, he ends the conversation with hope. “I know the area, I know the land, the currents. There is something bad happening here. Bad, very bad. Darkness over the light. Someone wants to turn off our light. But even if we don’t have light from the electricity, we will have light from the moon. I look at him now. Life is stronger, we have hope. I know there is a lot of pain along the way, we will reach some place, and finally the light. With love for man and the earth, I step over the pain, and continue towards the light in our country.”
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