"Spitting, hitting, and cursing": Jerusalem's "Wild West" - at the Malha Mall

Residents and business owners at the Malha Mall in Jerusalem report horrifying behavior by middle school students in the fast food area, including spitting, physical violence, and cursing at adults. Facebook posts have garnered many responses calling for parental and authorities' intervention before the phenomenon escalates into crime.

Residents, business owners, and workers at the Malha Mall in Jerusalem report horrifying behavior by middle school students in the fast food area. Posts uploaded to Facebook groups describe a phenomenon including spitting on the floor, physical violence among teenagers, cursing and insolence toward adults who reprimand them, and leaving food scraps on tables. A local business owner wrote: "The most innocent-looking ones (are the ones) who commit the biggest terror. Just today, one girl beat another girl for no reason." A mall employee confirmed the accounts and described an incident where two children ran in the area, one grabbed the other by the throat and began spitting on the floor. The posts received hundreds of likes and shares and many responses calling for immediate intervention by parents and the state. One commenter summarized: "It starts like this and could deteriorate into real crime." The article notes that this is an expanding phenomenon, and that in the past month, vandalism of a community library in Ramat Denya and teenage vandalism on a train were reported.