On July 9, 1959, police confronted a Wadi Salib resident, Yaakov Elkarif, who was drunk and disturbing the peace. When he began behaving wildly and hurling empty bottles at the police sent to arrest him, he was shot and seriously wounded. Residents surrounded the police vehicle and dragged an officer out of it. He was released only after shots were fired in the air. Conflicting testimonies arose from the event. One witness claimed Elkarif provoked the officer through threats. Another witness offered that Elkarif, perceived as a stereotypical Moroccan immigrant, violent and hot-tempered, was shot for his lack of standing in society. Lastly, another witness claimed that the officer fired with the intention of calming the situation which resulted in Elkarif's accidental shooting. After false rumors circulated that he had died, several hundred Wadi Salib residents marched to Hadar HaCarmel, a predominantly Ashkenazi district, smashing shop windows and setting cars on fire. Back in Wadi Salib, the angry demonstrators targeted the headquarters of Mapai and the Histadrut. The police tried to disperse the demonstrators by force, leaving 13 police and 2 demonstrators wounded. 34 demonstrators were arrested. On July 11, riots broke out in other locales in Israel, particularly in large communities of Maghrebiimmigrants, like Tiberias, Beersheba, and Migdal HaEmek. It was claimed the riots were not completely spontaneous, and that a local movement, Likud Yotsei Tsfon Africa was involved in planning some of them. David Ben-Haroush, one of the movement's founders, was sent to prison. Ben-Haroush ran for the next Knesset elections while incarcerated, on the Union's list, though he failed to cross the electoral threshold.
Ashkenazi-Mizrahi relations
The perceived discrimination against Mizrahim is believed to have been one of the main catalysts to the riot. This event was the initial recognition of an existing ethnic discrimination among Israeli Jews. The Mizrahim were viewed as passive recipients whereas the Ashkenazim actively contributed to the creation of the Zionist vision of a Jewish-national community in Israel. The Wadi Salib riots still resonate in Israeli society as a symptom of the social malaise that led to clashes between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews.
Legacy
In 1979, Amos Gitai produced a film on the subject - Me'oraot Wadi Salib. The Wadi Salib riots have been discussed in many scholarly articles.
