Friday, December 28, 2007
If a Jew takes a wrong turn into Ramallah, he gets lynched. If an Arab takes a wrong turn into Tel Aviv he gets...what? Welfare? Two Arab heroes here as well: Israeli nearly lynched in Ramallah
Twenty-eight-year old Israeli ends up in Ramallah after GPS system goes haywire. Driver rescued from stone-throwing mob by two east Jerusalem residents he calls ‘his guardian angels’
And you thought your GPS system was trouble? For 28-year-old Bat Yam resident Amir Ochana flawed GPS navigation nearly proved fatal. Instead of a planned return trip to Jerusalem, Ochana’s GPS system directed him towards the West Bank City of Ramallah.
Ochana had just finished work in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood of Jerusalem, and wanted to give his secretary a ride home to the Adam settlement northeast of Jerusalem. He plugged in the coordinates for a return trip to Jerusalem into his GPS system and set of on his merry way.
The Bat Yam resident recounts the horror that followed. "I ended up at an army checkpoint…and they let me through even though I was wearing a kippah and had Israeli license plates… I ended up in the center of Ramallah, stuck in traffic and surrounded by Arabs," he says. "I still didn’t realize where I was because I relied on my GPS."
Soon, however, Ochana was spotted by the local Arab residents. "One Arab merchant came up to my car and started rapping on my window….He asked me if I was Jewish and I answered ‘yes.' I immediately knew that something was wrong."
The Arab merchant then entered Ochana’s vehicle through the window, punched him in the testicles and stole his cellular phone. "He began to yell ‘a Jew, a Jew’ and other Arabs soon approached me. They stole my GPS and my other cellular phone," said Ochana.
This mugging was soon the least of Ochana’s problems, as a lynching lmost ensued afterwards. "An entire mob approached me and began to throw rocks at my car….they broke both the front and back windows….I began to cry and ask ‘why me?’" Ochana recalled.
Just as Ochana began to fear the worst, however, help came from an unexpected source. "Two Arabs came out of nowhere…One of them pulled me out of the car and asked me if I was insane. They ran with me to the Qalandiya checkpoint while we were chased by rock-pelting Arabs the entire way, and handed me over to Israeli soldiers," he recounted...
Holy Shi'ite! I hope those two Arabs will not be treated as traitors to "The Religion of Peace"!
The article ends with:
"IDF officials commented on the incident noting that the Border Police is responsible for the crossing into Ramallah. The Border Police responded that the crossing is the IDF’s responsibility."
There's nothing like taking responsibility!
1. I saw the report about this on Israeli TV. I know the area quite well and it is not really understandable how by accident somebody can get into Ramallah!?
2. One good thing is that it seems that there are some arabs that have civil courage.
Those two unknown Arabs should rightfully be hailed as heroes.
That said, and while I am certainly happy that this man escaped relatively unharmed, what kind of an idiot is he? You go through an IDF checkpoint and you still don't think that somehing is amiss? I have a GPS system too, but I still try to use my eyes and brain when driving...............
BHG