Jalal Bana

Jalal Bana is a media adviser and journalist.

Denounce terrorism and take stock

Every family whose son has joined the ranks of ISIS has a duty to ask itself how the education and values it instilled in its sons were replaced with hatred and the desire to commit such heinous acts.

 

Sunday's attack in Hadera in which two Border Police officers were murdered was a horrid, hateful act and words almost fail to describe the difficult feelings one experiences when watching footage from the scene.

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The attack was unanimously condemned by the Arab leadership and Arab society in Israel, including by the families from which the two terrorists hailed, although Arab society is in no way responsible for it as a collective.

Arab society in Israel has many beautiful faces, and many in it display good citizenship and total loyalty to the rule of law.

Just look at the Arab medical staff at the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera under the leadership of ER chief Dr. Jalal Askar, who fought to save the lives of those wounded in the attack and cared for them with devotion. See Acre Magistrates' Court Judge Jenny Tannous, who immediately granted the police search and arrest warrants following the attack; or the Arab police officers who were at the scene in Hadera, or the faces of the Arabs who work in the various businesses in Hadera.

Since the Islamic State and its murderous ideology crashed into our lives, its main goal has been to kill those different from it and propagate the hatred of others in the name of Islam. No other organization has inflicted greater damage to Islam and Muslims.

ISIS, like its predecessor, al-Qaida, is based on brainwashing young people seeking a different life, and recruiting members from all over the world, including Israeli Arabs. For years, ISIS's funding has been obscure as it made a play for parts of Iraq and Syria. It was only by luck that there were some who were resourceful enough to prefer to maintain the regime of President Bashar Assad, who was fighting ISIS, rather than see it rise in northeastern Syria.

Despite the condemnation of this organization and the two cousins from Umm al-Fahm who carried out the Hadera attack, and the revile over the fact that a few dozen Israeli Arabs have affiliated themselves with ISIS, the Arab sector as a whole must take stock and ask itself how it is possible that such elements have grown in its midst.

Every family whose son has joined the ranks of ISIS โ€“ and they all know where their children have gone off to โ€“ has a duty not only to denounce their son's acts and ideology publicly but to also ask itself how the education and values it instilled in its sons was replaced with hatred and the desire to commit such heinous acts.

Sunday's attack in Hadera is a stain on Arab Israeli society as a whole โ€“ not just the city or clan from which the terrorists hailed.

It takes courage on the part of the leaders of the society and the citizens themselves to deal with the aftermath of such an incident. First and foremost one must ensure that this act will not happen again. After that, relations must also be mended with the Druze community, which has lost one of its sons in this terrorist attack.

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