VOA慢速英语--阿拉伯人和犹太人混居的城市仍然存在紧张局势

Israel and Hamas recently reached an agreement to end 11 days of fighting in the Gaza Strip. But tension remains¹ in Israel's mixed Jewish-Arab cities.

In Lod, Israeli security forces continue to guard the city weeks after rioters set fire to police cars, synagogues and homes. Attackers also killed an Arab and a Jew in the city.

Lod is about 16 kilometers southeast of Tel Aviv. About a third of the city's 77,000 people are Arab. Many of them descended² from Palestinians that previously³ formed the majority of the city. In 1948, Arabs were expelled during the war around Israel's creation.

The working-class city is also a center of nationalist Jewish politics. In the March 23 election, nationalist parties, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, won more than 60 percent of the vote in Lod.

Any tensions between Jews and Arabs were mostly below the surface—until last month. Some Arabs were driven to protest in the streets of Lod after fighting between Jerusalem police and Palestinians near the Al-Aqsa Mosque⁴.

On the night that war began between Israel and Hamas, an Arab man was shot by a Jewish resident of Lod. The shooting set off more than a week of violence and the city was placed under a state of emergency. Similar unrest quickly spread to other mixed cities in Israel.

Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel's population. As citizens, they have the right to vote. But they have long suffered from discrimination. And their communities often have high crime, violence and poverty. They largely identify with Palestinians, leading many Israelis to mistrust them.

In Lod, two residents were killed: Musa Hassuna, 32, by a suspected Jewish attacker, and Yigal Yehoshua, 56, by a suspected group of Arab attackers. No arrests have been made and police say they are still investigating.

Some Arab residents of Lod point to the election of Mayor Yair Revivo eight years ago as a turning point in Arab-Jewish relations. Revivo has close ties with a religious nationalist movement called the "Torah Nucleus⁵."

Critics say Revivo, a Likud member, has brought more hate against Arabs and has passed discriminatory policies.

Before the rioting, Revivo called "Arab crime" a "threat to the state of Israel."

"Jewish criminals have a drop of compassion⁶. Arab criminals, you don't understand, don't have any inhibitions," he said on a radio show in December.

Ruth Lewin-Chen is with the Abraham Initiatives, a nonprofit group in Lod that supports coexistence between Jews and Arabs. She says the Arab population is concerned with the lack of effective policing, housing and planning policies. They are also worried about the growing power of Torah Nucleus.

Torah Nucleus has ties with the West Bank settler movement. During the riots, Arabs targeted property belonging to the religious-nationalist community. In return, armed West Bank settlers and other nationalists went to Lod to start more violence.

Arab politician Mohammed Abu Shikri sits on Lod's city council. "I've known eight Lod mayors," he said. Until Revivo, "the mayors always had good relations with the Arabs."

There are many signs of division. The town's community center has separate exercise and music classes for Arabs and Jews.

Rivi Abramowitz is a Jewish resident of Lod. She lives in the mostly Arab neighborhood of Ramat Eshkol. She says she has kind relations with her Arab neighbors. But she thinks there are limits to how far things can go. Jews and Arabs should "live together, but separately," she said.

Malek Hassuna is the father of the Arab killed in the unrest. He stood by his son's grave, which sits near burial places for generations of his family in Lod.

Hassuna said he hopes his grandchildren will live in peace with their Jewish neighbors.

"If it's Jew or Arab, it's one blood," he said.

Words in This Story

synagogue — n. a building that is used for Jewish religious services

mosque — n. a building that is used for Muslim religious services

resident — n. someone who lives in a particular place

descendant – n. someone who is related to a person or group of people who lived in the past

compassion — n. a feeling of wanting to help someone who is sick, hungry, in trouble, etc.

inhibition — n. a nervous feeling that prevents you from expressing your thoughts, emotions, or desires

coexist — v. to exist together or at the same time

grave — n. a hole in the ground for burying a dead body

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

3 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

4 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

5 nucleus   

n.核，核心，原子核

参考例句：

• These young people formed the nucleus of the club.这些年轻人成了俱乐部的核心。
• These councils would form the nucleus of a future regime.这些委员会将成为一个未来政权的核心。

6 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。