Russian Panthers against Racism in Israeli Schools
WE CANNOT REMAIN SILENT IF WE ARE TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN
The case of harassment of a schoolgirl: A group of senior class students harassed a 9-year old schoolgirl. The girl, Gila (Angelina) Khoroshevski, is in the third grade at the Afik School in Beersheba (located in the south of Israel). Miss Khoroshevski relates that she fell victim to group of the senior students who had stalked her. Her mother declares, that the harassment is of a racist nature. Despite appealing to the authorities and the police on two occasions, the young girl continues to be stalked.
Gila emigrated from Ukraine, with her mother, 2 years ago and has learned to speak Hebrew very well. Up until this last incident, Gila has considered herself accepted into Israeli society.
“It all began; when I went to cross a bridge on the way to my girlfriend, - the girl relates, - On the bridge there were two girls who began to harass me shouting "A Russian!! A Russian whore!!! ". They pushed me. I was on roller skates and could not escape. An older sister of one of girls, a high school student, soon joined them. They started to beat me, kick me. They were joined by other older, bigger girls who grabbed me and picked me up intending to throw me from the bridge " (The bridge was 6 meters off the ground). A by passer rescued me. I was shaking with fear and did not know what to do. "
Gila returned home and told her mother what had happened. Gila’s mother, Rita, decided not to ignore the incident, “The next day we went to the police and lodged a formal complaint, - said the mother, - but as of today nothing been done. " Gila thought, that the terrifying incident was behind her, but as it happened, the racists are not so quick to let her off. "A week later I was walking with my girlfriend and we again met those girls. They taunted me and said: "You see, they did not do anything to us even though you complained." Then they began to shove at me, trying to make me fall down the steps.“
Rita, the mother of the child has stated that this harassment of her daughter is racially motivated.
“This problem is not isolated to our family” - stated Rita, “we know many such instances. Recently a boy in Gila’s class was told: "Go back to Russia!" Our life here in Israel is not at all as we were lead to believe it would be."
Though the incident involved classmates from Gila’s school, the school refuses to interfere. The Ministry of Public Education has declared, that since the incident took place outside of school grounds and after school hours, the ministry does not consider itself responsible.
The press secretary for the police department has confirmed the presence of a formal complaint and has declared, that the incident is under investigation.
This sort of incident has become a common occurrence in our children’s daily lives. They are not safe on the streets, at school, or on the playground. The general attitude is, that it is necessary ignore the situation, “grin and bear it” and it will go away and take care of itself.
“Fellow co-workers brought me an article from the " Russian Panthers "”stated Rita, “entitled “They suffocated my daughter!” One of the women lost her son; he was killed in a street fight. She also told me: " Do not be silent, go and fight, fight for the truth!"
Our first complaint to the police has only generated sneers. The children who instigated the incident were merely reproached and released. Then, we went with our daughter to the Juvenile Department and filed a second complaint. And if necessary, we will file a third and a fourth complaint. I shall not be silent!
While taking our complaint, the inspector it was very kind, attentive and very professional, but as soon as we stated that the incident was racially motivated, then his attitude changed. The inspector refused to include in the complaint any reference to the racial motivation.”
Under article 144 (Dalet-1) of the Israeli criminal code: a crime committed on the basis racism shall have its punishment doubled.
The time has come to stop tolerating such behavior. We cannot be silent, especially if we want to protect children!
Michael DORFMAN.
Russian panthers against racism in Israeli schools. Article of Novosty Nedely Israeli Russian Newspaper
Materials used in this article are from Gil Levenson, journalist for the newspaper “Kol a-Negev”