Deputy Transport Minister, MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), and MK Yoni Chetboun (Jewish Home), rode the Jerusalem Light Rail Sunday after getting on at the Shimon Hatzaddik station, where an Arab terrorist ran over innocent civilians last week. They found that passengers are now crowded behind large concrete obstacles that have been brought to the stations to offer protection from would-be car terrorists.

The passengers said that the recent escalation has led to a meaningful decline in the number of passengers using the train to get to city center from the Jewish neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem.

The passengers fear that an Arab driver will try to run them over as they stand at the station and that the train will be pelted with rocks as it travels through Arab neighborhoods.

“Fear rules eastern Jerusalem,” said Hotovely. “The Light Rail is empty of passengers. The concrete obstacles only pour salt on the wounds. He who wishes to bring back securoty to Jerusalem must adopt the heritage of Giuliani in New York – exhibit zero tolerance for all violence, arrest and mete serious punishment for every rock thrower, and network eastern Jerusalem’s with cameras to record any crime.”

Chetboun said that the Arabs of eastern Jerusalem are the ones who must hide and feel persecuted – “the people who send the terrorists on their missions and not the residents of Pisgat Ze’ev and Neveh Yaakov. As a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, I will continue to act in coordination with the military and police forces, to transfer the center of the operation from defensive concete blocks to operational activity inside the Arab neighborhoods.”

Jerusalem Councillor Aryeh King said that “the city center is the dangerous place today. The Arabs of eastern Jerusalem think that the eastern part of the city is already in their hands and are transferring the fight to the center of Jerusalem.”

The Jerusalem Municipality placed the concrete blocks near the entrances to the Jerusalem Light Rail stations on Wednesday night, in an attempt to physically block terrorists from driving their cars into pedestrians. 

The decision to place concrete blocks was issued by the Police’s Jerusalem District Commander, Major General Moshe Edri, who assessed the overall security situation after Wednesday’s attack. 

Concrete barriers were set up close to the bus stations near the French Hill/Givat HaMivtar, and later will be placed near the stations along Jaffa, Hertzl, and Cheyl Hahandasa (Engineering Corps Rd.). 

On Wednesday, Hamas terrorist Ibrahim al-Akari plowed his car into a Jerusalem Light Rail station, then exited his vehicle and beating bystanders with a crowbar before being eliminated. 

The rampage killed a Druze Border Policeman and wounded ten to fifteen others.