How Jerusalem’s Deaf Are Dealing With the Wave of Terror

Jerusalem, 2 December, 2015 (TPS) -- When a stabbing attack took place close to the Jerusalem’s open-air market, Mahane Yehuda last week, an elderly man, Yosef – who is deaf – had no idea what was going on. Yosef couldn’t hear the gunshots, and couldn’t understand why people were rushing past him. He had just left the doctor’s office and if it hadn’t been for Shaul Korman, his translator for the day, Yosef would have walked straight into the scene of terror.

Korman, 39, a sign language interpreter for the deaf, told Tazpit Press Service that the recent wave of terror attacks have left Israel’s handicapped citizens especially vulnerable. “Yosef couldn’t hear anything of what was happening. We had left the doctor’s office and I could hear shouting and saw people running past the gate.”

“From outside the gate, I saw a female terrorist, holding something silver in her hand, getting ready to stab. Yosef started going out to see what the commotion was about, and I held him back. I didn’t have time to explain in sign language what was going on and he was very startled,” explained Korman.

On Monday, November 23, two Arab teenage girls from Kalandia arrived to the Mahane Yehuda market area after they had finished school, intent on stabbing Jewish passerby with scissors. The girls, ages 14 and 16, were cousins with Israeli identity cards, who ended up injuring an elderly Palestinian from Bethlehem before they were neutralized by security forces.

Korman says the entire scene played out very quickly. “Bullets were flying and it was difficult to understand what was happening – even more so for a deaf man,” he told TPS. “I didn’t let Yosef leave, until I heard the shots stop and then I signed to him what had happened.”

An Israeli security guard, 27, was lightly hurt by shrapnel from a stray bullet.

“You see in one moment, how a quiet routine is destroyed,” commented Korman, demonstrating the Hebrew sign language for the word, terrorist attack. “Yosef felt so vulnerable. He is 70-years-old and he just started crying.”

“I go with him whenever he has to do errands. Deaf people need assistance – for example, at the doctor’s office, the doctor will tell me what Yosef needs and then I will translate to him in sign language,” he explained.

According to the Institute for the Advancement of Deaf Persons in Israel, there are around 700,000 deaf and hard of hearing citizens in the country.

During Operation Protective Edge last year, special vibrating beepers were distributed by Israel’s Social Affairs Ministry to deaf and hearing-impaired individuals who used it as a warning signal for incoming rockets. WhatsApp groups were also utilized during the war; a hearing person in areas under rocket attack in Israel, would text deaf people in the group about a siren in the area in real time.

Korman believes that there needs to be some kind of way to warn deaf people, as well as other handicapped individuals of terror attacks and stabbings as they happen. “We have to prepare deaf people on how to react in security situations; to give them a specific set of instructions so they stay away from the terror scene.”

“The public also to keep an eye out for the more vulnerable in such situations” he added.