Stink bomb streets

There’s a new tactic on the streets of Jerusalem. When faced with stone throwing Arab youths, let’s call them ‘rioters’, as well as firing warning shots in the air, and tear gas into the ground, get the cannon out, and spray the crowd with ….. stink bombs with essence of raw sewage.

Sewage. The smell clings to the ground, to the streets, the pavements, the trees, cars, and of course to the people…..for days. Pilgrims on the Mount of Olives could smell it days later, as I did today, and I guess it takes some scrubbing off, and out of clothing, out of hair and off body, and property.

Sewage. It marks an area, and it guess for a while marks a rioter. This area stinks, this person stinks. Literally, we produce the dirty Arabs. And they riot, why? Because they see the body parts not in our media, the colour red on the ground our eyes need shielding from, the footage from the hospitals with the painful screaming that we must not hear, of people they identify with, are linked to, are their family. And so they ‘riot’, as the body count goes up, and no-one seems to speak out for Gaza with the word ‘enough’. And from a great height essence of sewage is sent their way.

So what are we saying here when we spray someone with a stink bomb of sewage, with essence of their own waste, and the waste of others. They deserve it?

Meanwhile we watch our adverts for lemon fresh kitchen cleaning products, lavender deodorants, and vanilla air sprays and breathe in the perfumed air, easily and sweetly.