In recent days, Israel has suffered many severe attacks domestically and from abroad, which affect the fabric of life throughout the country in general and the mixed cities, in which Jews and Muslims live side by side, in particular.
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In recent days, we have witnessed severe riots in the city of Lod perpetrated by extremist Muslims, who want to heat the city up and harm the coexistence we have been working on for many years.
As mayor, I see first and foremost the good of the residents of Lod, Jews and Arabs alike. As a result, yesterday I came out with an uncompromising call to declare a state of emergency and bring in police and army forces in order to restore calm to the city streets.
Residents of Lod felt people could die if the government did not impose a closure on the city. This threat and the possible harm to human life is more severe than rocket fire on Israel.
I am not criticizing the police, but the situation in the city is completely out of control and endangering human life and property, and therefore requires a determined response and mobilization of the Israeli government.
The leaders of the Arab public in the city and the Arab politicians in the country must call for calm, prevent the rift between the societies and work to restore order to the streets. We will not shy away and we will work to increase governance and law enforcement without compromise.
It is important to understand that these are difficult days, after which we will look at ourselves introspectively. But now we must focus on calming the sectors within the country, along with hitting the terrorist organizations, those organizations that do not differentiate between people. Evidence of this can be found when both Jews and Arabs were killed throughout the country by rocket launches.
I ask all residents of the city to avoid violence, to choose dialogue, friendship and comradery and to promote coexistence and good neighborliness.
Lod should be a lighthouse for the other mixed cities in Israel. I am sure that this challenging period will pass, and push us to continue to intensify the momentum of development in the city across all neighborhoods and all sectors.
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