There is a taxi company in the Israeli city of Lod, which employs both Jewish and Arab taxi drivers. Upon the release of the 1027 terrorists in the "Gilad Shalit" exchange, some of the terrorists were Israeli Arabs...who returned to their hometown of Lod. The Arab taxi drivers partied publicly, honking and celebrating in the streets of Lod at the heroic release of their terrorist-brothers, Mohammad Ziada and Mochlis Borgial.
Ziada and Borgial were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for throwing a grenade onto a bus full of IDF soldiers. Luckily, the grenade didn't explode.
The Jewish residents of Lod, were disgusted by this behavior and started a boycott of their own; when calling the aforementioned taxi company, they openly request a Jewish driver. As a result, for the past 2 weeks, the number of calls to this particular taxi company has decreased dramatically, almost to the point of many drivers sitting around all day, doing nothing.
It's probably illegal under Israel law for the Jewish residents to boycott the Arab taxi drivers, and I wonder how long before someone is brought up on charges for this.
The Arab drivers do not see anything wrong with their support for the released terrorists:
"In the recent weeks, people specifically request a Jewish driver," said an anonymous driver. Like all the taxi drivers in this article on MYNET, every single driver spoke only on the condition of absolute anonymity for fear of hurting their livelihood.
"We feel are significant drop of work in the taxi station, and currently I am searching for additional work. On the other hand, this is infuriating. Who are these people boycotting the taxi drivers and telling them how to behave? Drivers have the freedom to behave how they wish. Its true that some of the drivers went to visit [released terrorist] Mochlis, because they are friends of his family. What's the big deal?"
Another driver commented, "We went to visit Mochlis just to wish him well and say, "Welcome home to your city", we just wanted to see him. But now we are talking about our livelihood, and we don't deal in politics."
"We the driver respect Jews and Arabs alike, but when a customer requests only a Jewish driver, it is very humiliating.It's pretty telling that the Station manager has no clue why the behavior his drivers giving a heroes welcome to convicted terrorists might be a turn off to some people. To say "its all politics" shows how little they really understand what terrorism really is...
One Lod resident saw on TV the tax drivers that she usually drivers with, when they were celebrating the return of the 2 terrorists. "Even if there is no other taxi available, I will never go into one of those [Arab-driver] taxi. It was extremely offensive to their joy and celebration [when the released terrorists returned to Lod....]"
Like her, there are many similarly-minded residents. "Should I need to worry then they drive me, because they lifted the released terrorists onto their shoulders as heroes?", said one of the residents who now refuses to use that taxi service.
"Why did they behave like that -- I thought they respected their customers...their neighbors..."
The taxi station manager replied: "We don't understand politics and don't want our drivers will be politically active. We live here in mutual harmony between Arabs and Jews and see no reason for this issue... (MYNET)"
Here's a short video clip of the day the terrorists were released in Lod (note all the Palestinian flags being waved by the Israeli Arab residents of the city).
So...would you boycott these taxi drivers?
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Absolutely.
ReplyDeleteAnd I speak aas someone whose Jerusalem taxi rides are often as not with Arab drivers.
I wouldn't boycott them; how do you know that the drivers you are boycotting are the same as as those who celebrated the release of their friends?
ReplyDeleteI found the video very upsetting.
ReplyDeleteThe people in the video regarded themselves as Palestinians not Israeli, not just the Palestinian Flags, but they referred to the Palestinians as their "People" and Gilad Shalit as "Theirs not ours".
I wonder what their reaction would be if these people were given the choice to leave Israel and move to a Pelastinin state, or have Lod ruled by the PA instead of Israel.
I never use an Arab driver!! I don't need this story to tell me not to use them.
ReplyDeleteSarah >> you dont. But all the dancers in Lod when the terrorists-drivers were released were arabs. Therefore, its perfectly rational to boycott all arab drivers.
ReplyDeletesometimes its hard to know who is Jewish and who is arab. I used choose the ones with the orange bands on their antennae
ReplyDeleteVery disturbing! And it isn't just in Lod that our citizen Arabs celebrated.
ReplyDeleteWould I boycott these drivers after this demonstration? You BETCHA!! Economic pressure is a legitimate form of protest. You play with terrorists, you pay for it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not one to hate on any body because of past events or stereotypes. But I don't understand the tension between these two groups. And I would boycott the taxi company to send a message to them about the situation. I'm African/Indian. (Native American and Indian) American, and I hate seeing a group especially ethnic groups hating each other for past conflicts.
ReplyDelete