Life has been imitating art, at least for Arye Nuriel, a 34-year-old resident of Jaffa, who says he is being persecuted by a crow, or by several of them. Everytime he attempts to leave his house, a bird or birds attack him. By curious coincidence, the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, “The Birds” is having a revival run at a Tel Aviv cinema. The film is about birds who go berserk and attack humans.
The crows perch on a tree outside Nuriel’s home, as if waiting. According to Nuriel one of them pursued a police car taking him to safety. The crow attacks no one else and he has never harmed it, he says.
The incident has received wide media coverage here and abroad. This has drawn throngs of the curious to Nuriel’s home, apparently to witness bird against man. Police ironically advised the victim to appeal to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They told him it was “difficult to detain and interrogate a crow.” But one feathered assailant was shot by a police sniper. Other advice has poured in from ornithologists and nature lovers, many offering to capture and train the bird.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
