A shooting last night in Tel Aviv left two Israelis dead and approximately a dozen injured. A masked gunman entered a gay-lesbian support event for teens, began shooting indiscriminately, and fled the scene.
Even though police determined that the crime was anti-gay in nature, and not with nationalistic motives, the reaction to the event within Israel demonstrates the population’s immediate response to any potential terror attack.
The shooting occurred, according to witnesses, at approximately 10:40 p.m. on Rothschild street in the heart of Tel Aviv. By 11 p.m. media organizations began reporting the event on television, radio, and internet news sites. For example, Haaretz posted articles in both English and Hebrew, updating information every few minutes. The publication even sent out an advisory bulletin approximately an hour and a half following the shooting to inform the population of the event. Moreover, the telephone numbers of the hospital and the gay-lesbian support group were disseminated throughout the media in order to provide family members of potential victims an avenue to obtain information.
Alongside the media’s response, the police launched an immediate man-hunt to try and catch the suspect. Police officials, understanding the anti-gay sentiments of the attacker, requested the temporary closure of other gay and lesbian venues in the city.
Aside from the reaction of the media and police officials, even average citizens quickly mobilized. The gay community held an impromptu parade hours after the shooting in order to show solidarity. Moreover, minutes after the shooting before police ruled-out nationalist , I personally received phone calls and texts messages notifying me of the event, on the off-chance that I had not yet heard. One of the texts simply read, “F*ck. Rothschild. Check the news.” Further, Israelis began posting messages on Facebook to inform other Israelis of the event and express sympathies and sorrow.
The reaction of the Israeli population to last night’s attack represents a preview of the response to any nationalistic-related incident. In the event of a terror attack on a major Israeli city, the population would mobilize to disseminate information and show solidarity at an alarming speed.
Photo taken from Walla! news.
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