The images from Sunday night's massive brawl, which took place in the parking lot of Be'er Sheva’s Soroka Medical Center between two feuding families, is proof of how the lawlessness is running rampant in Israel.
The Soroka Medical Center is southern Israel’s main hospital, and is situated on the city’s main street, meaning the brawl took place in plain sight, near residential buildings, with no fear of the law, the police or the repercussions of arrest.
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Shattered windows outside Soroka Medical Center's emergency room
(Photo: Ilana Curiel)
The brawl, which may I remind you, included stone throwing, brandishing of knives and even gunfire.
With fear of the law all but eroded, those responsible for the violence can seemingly do as they wish.
Even though some people were arrested over the incident, all they have to do is claim they were walking down the city’s streets when suddenly stones started flying around them.
With our justice system being as inept as it is, this ramshackle excuse would have surely satisfy the judge, who would hurriedly order the release of the violent perpetrators.
The video showing the brawl looks as if it was captured during a separatist riot in Chechnya. You can see security guards in glowing vests running away from the fight, with no police cars are in sight.
Where are the platoons of Border Police soldiers, who the government promised will be brought to the lawless south?
How are the residents supposed to feel safe when the police fails to respond to a major fight happening in the city’s center, near one of the country’s main and most heavily populated hospitals?
Massive brawl breaks out outside Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva
Last week I visited an IDF live fire training area in the south, where criminal elements erected hundreds of greenhouses to grow thousands of cannabis plants in plain sight.
IDF reservists deployed in the area talk about how military and personal equipment is being stolen en masse, not allowing them to let down their guard for even a second.
A senior officer from the south even told me how electricity and telephone poles were being stolen from training centers, set up by the IDF with an investment of tens of millions of shekels.
It has gotten so bad that some military officials suggested the IDF start paying protection money to Bedouin criminals so that they would stop stealing from their bases.
For now, at least, the idea has been rejected.
The video from Soroka is deeply upsetting, mostly because it accentuates the lawlessness in our country, as well as the indifference and the helplessness of the authorities.
It is a depressing proof that maybe, just maybe, paying protection to criminals is the best we can currently hope for.