A mob of Arabs threw rocks at Border Police officers stationed at the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives on Wednesday night, wounding one of them lightly in the head. The soldier was treated on-site by a police doctor.
Border police were forced to disperse the crowd using riot dispersal measures.
Minutes earlier, Arabs threw rocks at a bus carrying worshipers traveling to the site to commemorate Rabbi David Cohen, the “Nazirite,” who is buried there. There were no casualties, but damage was caused to the bus.
“We, the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs, have invested large funds to restore and bolster security on the Mount of Olives,” Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) stated to Arutz Sheva following the incidents. Elkin noted that the Ministry has boosted patrols in recent weeks and installed more cameras at the site. “We intend to continue to invest to develop the Mount of Olives and bring order to the broader public.”
“We can succeed only when the Israeli police put the defense on the Mount and East Jerusalem as top priority,” he continued. “Our national heroes are buried there, and the most important task is to protect our national honor.”
“I toured there this week and will continue to work with the Internal Affairs Committee, and Ministers of Housing and Internal Security, to bring change,” he concluded. “I am not willing to accept the status quo.”
MK Uri Maklev (United Torah Judaism), who also visited the Mount of Olives tour this week with the Internal Affairs Committee, condemned the affair as a “security failure.”
Deputy Defense Minister MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) said that the situation in the Mount of Olives is intolerable.
“The Israeli police will take strong measures against rock-throwers whose sole purpose is to kill Jews and prevent them from visiting their loved ones buried on the Mount of Olives,” Ben-Dahan fired. “It cannot be that, in the heart of Jewish Jerusalem, visitors will be subject to daily rock-throwing.”
“I turn to the courts to use the law for stricter punishment for throwing rocks, as Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked recently passed in the Knesset,” he added.
