Yesterday’s head title: 4 killed, 2 wounded in stabbing attack at Beersheba mall; terrorist shot dead
On Tuesday afternoon, my journalism professor asked the class to pick a headline from this week to write about. I’m going to be completely honest, I don’t follow much of the news, I pretty much just wait for my grandparents to come over for the weekend so they can ‘duke it out’ with my mother, and that’s how I catch up on politics. Little did I know, that later that day, Israel would suffer one of the deadliest attacks on Israeli civilians since June 2016.
The attached video to the article by The Times Of Israel shows the first victim, who was stabbed to death at a gas station. The 49-year-old woman, who succumbed to her wounds even before MDA reached her, was stabbed 11 times (I counted). Before the attack, I was worried that a headline from this week would resonate with me, or at least make me want to write, but watching the video of the attack in Beer Sheva, you would have to be a psychopath for it to not affect you.
There was another video attached to the article, one that showed the civilian, Eged bus driver Arthur Chaimov, who shot down and neutralized the terrorist. The most striking part of the video is the beginning, where you can see the terrorist, holding his knife, surrounded by 3 people: the man videoing, another man, shouting at him to put his weapon down, and a third, armed civilian, slowly approaching the terrorist, trying to get him under control, all while not firing. The armed civilian kept getting closer to the terrorist but did not open fire once. This lasted about 20 seconds before the terrorist got close enough to get a swing at the armed civilian when Chaimov shot the terrorist.
We don’t typically see this, as the penalty for killing a terrorist is harsh, and the process itself is complicated. In an attempt to show the nations around us how peaceful Israel can be, and to avoid any unwanted headlines, the armed civilian hesitated for 20 seconds and did not open fire on a man who had just killed 4 people and had no intention of stopping. This is a phenomenon you would only find in Israel, sadly. Cue Elor Azaria, who served 9 months for shooting a terrorist who was down, after said terrorist had just stabbed two soldiers in Hebron in 2016.
Chaimov is now under controversy, as the incident was deemed “worthy of Chaimov’s actions”, Chaimov was found not guilty. However, his firearm was confiscated, despite Chaimov living in a dangerous area, with his name and picture probably appearing in every Palestinian newspaper. The far-right are calling Chaimov a hero, for doing what no one would do, but what many think is right. And so, dear reader, I leave you with a question. Was Chaimov doing the right thing by killing the terrorist, or should he have been brought in by the police force for proper judgment and trial?
