If You're Brown, Stick Around

I'm breaking my self-imposed radio silence to share this story with you.

Teen shot after slashing cop in face with broken bottle

A policeman shot a teen in the leg during a clash in Ramat Gan early Saturday after the teen had slashed him in the face with a broken bottle.

The incident occurred when police apprehended a group of Russian-speaking teens, aged between 16 and 17, who had allegedly attacked a couple in the central town after returning from a night out.

The article goes on but all you need to know is there. First of all, When I saw the headline, I knew that the teen was not a native Israeli. That variety is usually given much more latitude from the police. A sabra would not be shot for assaulting a police officer, even if he had a gun. Israelis feel strongly about protecting their own.

Second, when I read the first sentence in the article, I knew the teen was not Palestinian. If he were, he would have been shot in the chest or the head, not the leg. He also was not likely a mizrahi, a dark skinned Jew, because he may have been mistaken for Palestinian in this case.

This left me with one guess: he was Russian. And the next sentence confirmed my hypothesis.

Israel can parrot all it wants about being the only free democracy in a sea of corruption, but if its policies toward racial interaction are so obvious to an outsider, none of it means much.