When life's a racist beach

About two weeks ago, on a Friday, Taghrid and Ismat Shbeita, Wafa and Jihad Bishara, Ghadir and Ihad Iraqi of Tira, Lubna and Mahmoud Khadija of Kalansua, and their young children went for an afternoon to the Givat Olga beach at Hadera. The Bisharas are both physicians and Ihad Iraqi and Mahmoud Khadija are attorneys. Ismat Shbeita is a merchant and his wife Taghrid is a civic activist.

They arrived around four o'clock, parked in the parking lot and settled their things on the lawn. Like everyone else relaxing around them, the children and adults went swimming, played soccer, had a game of chess, ate and drank, nibbled on roasted sunflower seeds, talked, and (mainly) rested. Some in the group knew the location from previous visits; others were there for the first time.

"Being outdoors like that was refreshing and relaxing. The kids were happy and we adults felt great, except that an unplanned and violent incident ruined our evening," related Taghrid Shbeita subsequently, sitting in her living room in Tira with most of the friends who had been present when the afternoon at the beach ended so badly.

Around ten o'clock, the account goes, a group of some 15 or 20 young people in their early twenties suddenly stood over them and demanded to know if they were Arabs. When they said yes, the youths instructed them in a threatening manner to leave the beach. One said: "Get up from here immediately or it will come to blows." Another said: "Get lost nicely, or the shit hits the fan."

Behind the young toughs, relates Taghrid Shbeita, stood a group of children who evidently knew them and knew that something unpleasant was about to happen. Ismat Shbeita, who got up to clarify what the youths intended, was kicked in the chest. Immediately all hell broke loose. The youths began fighting with Ismat Shbeita's friends, who came to his defense. According to attorney Mahmoud Khadija, they were armed with knives and a bottle.