Following the Thursday morning 9 Cheshvan stabbing attack in Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel, Mayor Moshe Abutbul announced a police presence will be established in that new neighborhood in the city. Residents of RBS Gimmel as well as other areas are increasingly concerned amid the reality the city is full of Arab construction workers, many PA (Palestinian Authority) residents inside the Green Line illegally.
Abutbul held a meeting following the attack during which a number of decisions were made including the establishment of a police substation in RBS Gimmel. According to Beit Shemesh Police Chief Shlomei Toledano, during the last year police activities in construction sites in the city have doubled.
After the AM stabbing attack, the mayor convened his emergency forum that included senior police commanders, councilmen, city managers, and others in relevant positions to make the necessary decisions. Also present were representatives of MDA, Ichud Hatzalah, Zaka and the Shomrim.
The mayor was briefed on security in the city as well as the particulars of the stabbing attack. The mayor explained that due to the security crisis, the city has professionals visiting the city’s kindergartens to allay the fears of the younger ones.
Abutbul explained the B’chasdei Hashem the attackers on Thursday did not kill or seriously injure anyone but the city must nevertheless change from a theoretical plan to actualizing new realities in the streets of Beit Shemesh, with a security emphasis on construction sites.
The mayor turned to city legal officials to take the necessary steps, to probe the legality of halting construction if need be or to charge contractors for providing security at construction sites. He called on the city’s engineering officials to provide a detailed list of contractors operating in the city. They mayor calls on police to pay extra attention to RBS Gimmel, which hosts many construction sites at present.
Security for the city kindergartens was also discussed along with other matters of security in the city. Beit Shemesh Police Chief Toledano announced that over 300 PA illegals have already been arrested in the city this year as opposed to 150 in 2014. City security officers briefed those present on security in the schools and elsewhere in the city.
The forum agreed an emphasis will be placed on construction site and educational institutions, acknowledging the national security crisis presents new challenges and dangers.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
This is absurd. The only reason an arab would come to Bet shemesh is for work yet they are continuing to employ arab workers. In the har nof tragedy, The terrorists worked in local store, In Rehov Malkhei Yisrael, it was a telephone engineer. They can monitor and check israeli and palestinian arabs as much as they want, yet when they are working for jewish companies, they are trusted and therefore can do what they want. I am sure Many of them work just so they can one day infiltrate.
It is time for israeli society to stop employing arabs!
Not only they will be indirectly saving lives but also thousands of unemployed jewish people will be able to make a living. Why employ an arab? I never understood.
People tell me its because they work harder.
They may work harder but who wants to support angry people who deep inside wants to murder jews.
blah blah blah. Abutbol is useless. The police station is miles away from RBS A,B, & G & it took them nearly an hour to show up this morning. A tiny substation – what good will that do? I don’t even know if there is one in Aleph, and I live there.
#1, there are very few Jews who want to work in construction, but Arabs are not the only solution. Israel should permit as many foreign workers as necessary from Ukraine or China who are known to work double as fast as Arabs (just witness construction rates in China,) and not put any limits or useless regulation on such imports. Perhaps if contractors were permitted to hire who they like and they insist on bringing Arabs, either it should be outlawed as they are a potential security threat, or there may be room for a law that they must pay for security. Otherwise, it is really the unfair regulation that is leading to the presence of terrorists and the state must provide security.
The Arabs laborers make peanuts. Unless there is a law forbidding contractors from using them, they will continue to optimize their profits.
This has long been a risk, and many residents have been complaining for quite a while about this risk. It’s a shame it takes an actual attack for someone to listen.
The only viable solution is to demand that contractors employ one armed security guard for every ten laborers. Shifts of no more than seven hours, and there must be guards with laborers at all times, even over night. The cost of shomrim is substantially lower than the added price of hiring non Arab labor.
The city awards tenders, and can insist that contractors who want to win tenders for G2 and the other projects must sign on, or forget the lucrative tenders to come.
Shomrim? What shomrim? Where are they? How does the average non-Ivrit literate resident of gimel contact them if they see or suspect something? Gimel is filled with new residents, many of them recent olim, and there are no clear civilian plans of action in case of an ‘event’…much less an effective prevention plan. As for ‘looking into the legality’ of halting construction? This fall far short of what needs to be done. Every site should be immediately closed until an effective security program is established. Loss of profit, loss of work? What about the loss of life that comes of leaving the community wide open to attack? Yes, nothing really terrible happened yesterday – but it should have been a wake up siren as to the vulnerability of the community. Yesterday was an open miracle – a clear demonstration of Hashem’s rachmonos. But we are not supposed to rely on miracles or to be utter fools and think that the arab workers of RBS are all men of goodwill, grateful for the jobs they can get. Remember, for those who are working illegaly,there are no labor protections- they are open to exploitation and abuse by the contractors – a sure recipe for disaster when the government allows insult upon injury to be piled on the very people who are being encouraged by their own leaders to commit murder. And you better believe that Hamas was paying attention to yesterday’s defense failures – they pay attention and they plan accordingly.Those were no lone wolves yesterday, they were monsters on a mission – and their commanders remain active. An inadequate prevention/defense is supplies the PA/Hamas with the means,motivation and the opportunity to wreak further havoc, commit mayhem, and embolden them.
Response to your question: GELT. No Jew will work for the money they make. Greedy kablanim (contractors) won’t pay more even though they make huge profits . That’s all there is to it.