A ‘tail’ of two cities

January 3, 2009 - 6:31 PM by David

It's the dog days for Jewish and Arab neighbors near Jerusalem.

It's the dog days for Jewish and Arab neighbors near Jerusalem.

Ma’aleh Adumim borders the Arab community of Azariya. There’s not much contact between the two peoples, and in fact, since 2002 Israelis from Ma’aleh Adumim are prevented by the army from entering the village for their own safety.

There are many residents of Azariya however, like laborers, construction workers, remodeling experts, who work in Ma’aleh Adumim with the proper Israeli identity card - either a work permit or a Jerusalem residency card.

However, it’s not too difficult to cross the road and climb the hill separating the two communities. And that’s what one 13-year-old Azariya youth did a couple weeks ago. My eight-year-old son’s friend Ephraim was out walking his dog near his home, when the teen grabbed his leash and ran off with the mutt.

Ephraim ran home to tell his father, who called the police. They arrived pretty quickly, heard the story, and said they would look around for the pooch. Ephraim, of course, had no idea that the thief was from Azariya, but the police warned his dad that there wasn’t much they could do if he was not from Ma’aleh Adumim.

The family put up signs and scoured the neighborhood over the next few days, to no avail. Then by chance, when Ephraim was walking home from school, he spotted the 13-year-old crook. He ran home again, his mother called the police and they picked up the youth for questioning. Aside from discovering he was indeed from Azariya, they weren’t able to get any useful information from him about the dog, and they released him.

Ephraim’s father had a lead though. The next day, he went to a construction site and asked around if any of the workers were from Azariya, and a couple of them said yes. He explained the situation to them, and they said they would try to find the kid and his family and help locate the dog.

That night, Ephraim’s dad got a call from one of the builders who told them, “We found the family and the kid, but there’s no dog here. They said he ran away.”

But, they added, don’t despair, we’re going to search around and look for the dog. Ephraim’s dad got another call a while later from the builder turned detective saying, “We found someone who said they saw the dog, so we’re getting a search party together in that area.”

The next morning, the builder called Ephraim’s dad and said, “We found him, and we’re sending him back in a taxi - he should be there in a half hour.”

Sure enough, Ephraim’s dog showed up chauffered at his home and eight days after he was abducted, had a joyful reunion with his family. Later that morning, Ephraim’s dad went to the construction site and gave the worker a cash reward for taking matters into his own hands, and helping to forge a ‘good neighbor’ policy between Ma’aleh Adumim and Azariya. It should be a lesson for all of us.

Tags: , , , , , • Category: Crime, General, Israeliness, Life, coexistence 

Comments

4 Comments on A ‘tail’ of two cities

  1. Larry in L.A. on Sat, Jan 3rd 2009 10:13 PM

    2. Nice story. Cute dog.

  2. al gaviria on Sun, Jan 4th 2009 11:37 AM

    3. Do you remember what you were doing when you were 13 years old? probably going to the movie theater to see your favor movie, may be going to your favor ice cream place, maybe talking in your cell phone with a pal?,probably that 13 year old that you call a crook was looking in a trash bing for some leftover to feed himself or his family, he is a human being exactly like you, don’t call him a crook he is a child traying to find out why some have so much while others have
    nothing

  3. David on Sun, Jan 4th 2009 1:19 PM

    4. I didn’t mean to imply that the 13-year-old was not a human being, and in all likelihood, he was looking through the trash to find something to bring home to eat. But does that excuse him from grabbing the leash out of the hands of an 8-year-old boy and perpertrating a ‘criminal’ act? I think not.
    From there, it’s a short jump to excusing suicide bombers for their actions because of the desperation that the Israeli occupation has brought on them.

  4. erik on Tue, Jan 6th 2009 7:11 AM

    5. It is easy to say something about this story. The problem is that children do thingd without knowing the results of there actions. it was not right to take the dog away from that other child. the problem is that we do not know what the intensions of this young fellow were. he surely knows good and bad. Just search for the he was doing this. The adult people did the right thing. That is what matters.

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