As part of a group brought to Har HaZeisim to get a firsthand look at the damage from Arab vandalism, MK Rav Yisrael Eichler lamented the dangers to the kevarim in the beis hachaim today are worse than during the British Mandate period. The participants saw broken and smashed matzeivos, burned matzeivos. Simply stated, widespread damage to kevarim. They were taken to the areas of Chassidus Gur and the rebbe ZY”A and the kevarim that head down towards the Arab areas of Har HaZeisim.

The delegation was protected by police, border police and a private security firm as they walked around, shocked and outraged over what is permitted to occur to the holy site in the nation’s capital.

Eichler stresses it would be incorrect to point a finger of blame as the limited number of police personnel stationed in the area, for these officers by and large do the best they can under the circumstances. He recalls the attacks against the Jews when he was a child as they returned from levayas on Har HaZeisim, lamenting that today, 50 years later, the situation has worsened. He decided the fact that police and soldiers are refused requests to act, to defend themselves, to take action to halt the desecration.

Eichler added that without a change in policy and harsh punishment for those apprehended and jailed, “it won’t help bringing the IDF in. If Theodore Herzl was buried there for example, then it would be closed off, protected and only person with special permits would be permitted into the area” Eichler stated.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)