As thousands of mispallalim made their way to the tziyun of the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh on Har HaZeisim, one man and his daughter found themselves under attack by blood thirsty Arabs who did not wish to miss another opportunity to attack Jews visiting the beis hachaim.
At about 01:00, as mispallalim were leaving the area they got stuck in a traffic jam due to the volume of visitors. As they sat in traffic a number of Arabs approached passed their vehicle [apparently in the other direction], traveling faster than conditions permitted. The Arab driver hit the car, which sustained considerable damage. The driver got out, not to apologize, but to assault the Jewish driver and his daughter who was in the vehicle with him.
Other Arabs gathered around the vehicle and they became unruly. The lone policeman’s efforts to distance the crowd were in vain. The policeman used teargas to distance the crowd hoping to buy time until back up forces arrived. The daughter of the driver was transported to a Jerusalem hospital for her injuries.
Shlomo, an eyewitness is quoted by Kikar Shabbat confirming what occurred, explaining it could have gotten very ugly very quickly and the Arabs “acted like murderers. They wanted blood”.
Baruch Hashem the situation ended as it did, not worse, and the intended victims escaped relatively unharmed.
Police have promised to step up efforts to prevent vandalism of kevarim and to protect Jews traveling to the site but area Arab residents appear undeterred in their determination to attack Jews who they wish to distance from Har HaZeisim.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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Hey, here’s an idea to take care of 2 birds with one stone. Maybe the chareidi tzibur can volunteer to do guard duty on Har HaZeisim, at Kever Rachel, etc so that they can fufill the current request to help serve. In fact, I think we can nail a 3rd bird with this stone. The guards should volunteer in groups and bring their seforim with them so that they can learn b’chavrusa while keeping an eye on things to make it safe for all of the mispallelim. Ok, ready for this? How about a 4th bird with the one stone? How about they dedicate their learning to the cause of pleading with the Rebono Shel Olam to bring all of the Jews who are not yet frum back closer to Him so that we can all bring Moshiach soon!