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Attack on Purim Highlights Trend in Israeli Racism

The attack on an Israeli-Arab sanitation worker in Tel Aviv last week has underlined racism inherent in parts of Israeli society and brought to light those who are fighting it, reports Shlomi Eldar.
A Jewish settler, dressed in costume, stands near Israeli soldiers as they guard a parade for the holiday of Purim in the West Bank city of Hebron February 24, 2013. Purim is a celebration of the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Book of Esther. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (WEST BANK - Tags: SOCIETY RELIGION MILITARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3E7ED
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“Tonight we visited Hassan Ausruf, who is hospitalized at the Department of Ophthalmology at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. ... Hassan was brutally attacked by a group of some 20 youths on the city’s seafront promenade early Sunday morning [on the Jewish holiday of Purim, Feb. 23-24] for no other reason than being an Arab.”

The above comment was posted by Talia Goshen on her Facebook wall. Goshen, the owner of one of the major video editing studios in Israel, is an active partner in the “Light Tag Forum,” set up by various organizations, movements, youth movements, schools, associations and local councils from across the spectrum of Israeli society in response to the “price tag” violence against non-Jews in Israel.

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