Ra’anana school principal filmed throwing rocks at Arab protestors in Lod riot

The Education Ministry filed a complaint on Thursday against a school principal who was filmed throwing stones at Arabs in the central city of Lod amid intense riots that swept the city.

Sagi Rosenbaum, the principal of a Ra’anana state-run religious school, was identified by his students and their parents in footage seen in a short documentary produced by the Kan public broadcaster on the violent clashes in the central city.

In Lod, a city with Jewish and Arab populations that had become an epicenter of the ethnic violence wracking the country, a nightly curfew had been issued to attempt to curb the clashes.

In the Kan footage, which documented the rioting after the 8 p.m. curfew, Rosenbaum can be seen (at the 02:00 mark) hurling stones toward what is said to be Arab protesters in the city.

Tensions between Israel’s Jewish and Arab communities had spiraled into mob violence, turning some ostensibly ethnically integrated cities into veritable war zones, as police appeared unequipped to handle the most serious internal unrest to grip the country in years.

“We expect, and instruct all teaching staff to act only in accordance with the law,” the Education Ministry said in a statement, adding that “a complaint was filed over the matter, as directed by the legal authorities. Law enforcement authorities have the tools to investigate the incident, and the Education Ministry will act under its guidance.”

In response to the footage, Rosenbaum, in a letter to his students said, “The reality I found myself in was a mistake in judgment, and in retrospect, as a leader of education and a public figure, I should not have traveled to such a complex place.”

Lod is some 35km south of the city of Ra’anana where Rosenbaum’s school is located. It was unclear where he lived.

There was no immediate comment from Education Minister Yoav Gallant.

Tensions have significantly calmed since Saturday after police began mass arrests of those involved in the rioting, and the Shin Bet internal security agency announced it would be assisting in efforts to prevent violence between Jews and Arabs.

Over the course of the clashes, some 112 Jewish homes have been torched and another 386 looted amid the rioting, according to the Walla news site. It said there has been one case of an Arab home being torched, which resulted in the injury of two children — a 12-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl in Jaffa.

The firebombing in Jaffa was allegedly committed by Arab Israelis, in an apparent case of “mistaken identity,” an unnamed police official told Walla. On Monday, the police announced the arrest of a 20-year-old Arab resident of the city on suspicion of being involved in the attack.

According to the Haaretz daily, the first 116 suspects indicted for incidents related to the unrest were all Arab, drawing accusations of discriminatory policing from left-wing lawmakers. Only on Tuesday were the first charges filed against Jews suspected of involvement in assaults on journalists from the Kan public broadcaster last week, and of participating in the mob-beating of Saeed Mousa in Bat Yam.