Hebron, June 02: Israeli Arab on Breaking the Silence tour to Hebron says was asked to remove ‘Muslim indicators’ for own personal safety. ‘This event is a reminder of Hebron’s prevailing policy of institutionalized ethnic separation backed by Israel’s police, state’s authorities,’ say Association for Civil Right in Israel.
A police officer instructed an Israeli Arab student to remove her head cover. The student, a resident of Jerusalem, was on Shuhada Street in Hebron with a guided tour organized by Breaking the Silence organization.
When the student demanded an explanation, she was told it was for her own safety in order to avoid “Muslim indicators.” After refusing to take off her head cover, the student was denied entry and the whole group left the area. The police claimed “the details of the incident were distorted.”
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The student, Nazek, was astonished by the officer’s request and told Ynet that it was an incident pointing to clear discrimination. “His words only reinforced the slurring I got from a settler who passed in the area a few minutes earlier and said ‘I wish you die.’
“How can you claim a person’s religious nature is a provocation? I wore a head cover before the incident, and will continue to wear one after it,” she said.
Nazek’s friends said the officer and settler’s statements were unnecessary, as the settler’s wife probably also wears a head cover as part of her religion.
Breaking the Silence claimed that Cave of Patriarchs Police Chief Arnon Friedman told them the road was “only for Jews.”
-Agencies