Israeli President: ‘Lod pogrom unforgivable’

May 13, 2021 by Aryeh Savir - TPS
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“The sight of the pogrom in Lod and the disturbances across the country by an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob, injuring people, damaging property and even attacking sacred Jewish spaces is unforgivable,” President Reuven Rivlin stated Wednesday, following two consecutive nights of  Muslim riots in the city.

The Maoz Military Preparation Yeshiva in the city of Lod was set on fire by Muslim rioters in Solidarity with Hamas. Lod, May 11, 2021. Photo by Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS

Muslims rampaged through the city on Monday and Tuesday night, threw rocks and attacked Jews, set fire to cars, vandalized property, desecrated synagogues, and clashed with police forces.

The city experienced scenes residents described as similar to the Kristallnacht in 1938 in Nazi Germany.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced the immediate transfer of Border Police battalions from Judea and Samaria to Lod to help regain control of the city.

Commenting on the harsh incidents, Rivlin said that “tearing down the Israeli flag by Arab rioters and replacing it with the Palestinian flag is a brutal assault on shared existence in the State of Israel.”

He further assailed the Arab leadership for their silence over the violence as “shameful, giving support to terrorism and rioting and encouraging the rupture of the society in which we live and in which we will continue to live once all this has passed.”

The vast majority of the Arab-Israeli political and local leadership remained silent despite Muslim riots around the country and despite pleads by Rivlin for them to intervene.

He called on the government to “pursue the rioters with a firm hand restore security and order while fighting terrorism from Gaza without compromise.”

The police arrested some 270 rioters across the country on Tuesday night.

“This is the choice of our life – to be ready and armed, strong and determined, prepared to defend our home. We will overcome this testing time and will come out of it full of confidence and strength. This country belongs to us all, and more than anything we must be loyal to it and its laws,” he said.

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