Dozens of Jewish children/teenagers (even though only a handful of them have been arrested) were involved in what looked like a "public lynching" of various Palestinian youths, right in the middle of Jerusalem, in Zion Square, an emblematic site meters away from the Old City of one of the holiest places in the world. One of the Palestinian boys nearly died, had not been for the emergency services. It looked that outcome had already crossed one of the attacker´s mind: according to The New York Times, one 15 year-old suspect was heard saying "For my part he can die, he´s an Arab". Moreover, scores of by-standers (most of them probably Jewish Israelis sympathizing with the criminals) witnessed the episode without intervening. On the same day, Jewish assailants tried to set fire to a Palestinian taxi (in which a Palestinian family was traveling) throwing what looked like Molotov cocktails. On top of that, a group of Palestinian journalists were allegedly attacked with batons by Israeli soldiers when they were trying to report on a demonstration taking place in the Northern West Bank. Israeli authorities (Mark Regev, a spokesman for Mr Netanyahu, said of the beating “We unequivocally condemn racist violence and urge the police and law enforcement community to act expeditiously to bring the perpetrators to justice") and the country's public opinion in general, have expressed their concern and have qualified this action as a blatantly outrageous one. Is it? I mean, is it a shocking event, an unprecedented attack, or is it, as it looks to me, only one in a million?
I would never dare to think I have enough knowledge so as to freely talk about this issue and produce a meaningful article, but I will try to write down what I have understood so far (I already had to edit as I misunderstood some facts, thanks Louis!). Lebanon and Syria have always been deeply interconnected. Both countries were part of the Ottoman Empire, both countries were under the dominance of France's colonization, both countries share an extremely complicated ethnic/religious division, and both countries political scenes still depend on the other's. More recently, Syria was a key player in the brokering of the 1989 Taif Accords putting an end to Lebanon's civil war, and its troops (and many authorities) stayed in the country (allegedly guaranteeing the non resumption of violence) until 2005, when the country's population unanimously demanded their retreat. It all started in Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, next to the country's northern borde
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