Neglect, provocation feed East Jerusalem unrest
Coping with the growing violence requires more than increased policing in East Jerusalem, where discrimination and neglect deprive residents of infrastructure, education and services.
After the hit-and-run terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Oct. 22, in which 3-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun was killed and eight other Israelis were wounded, Minister of Internal Security Yitzhak Aharonovich said, “I don’t discern an intifada, but rather difficult events that must be stopped. … Calm must be restored to the city.”
Since the July 2 murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, from Jerusalem’s Shuafat neighborhood by a group of young Jewish men, the city has been rocked by unrest. In addition to the daily clashes in the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem between young Arab men and Israeli police, two deadly attacks have been carried out by what police describe as “lone” terrorists.
On Aug. 4, during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, a resident of the neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber drove a piece of large construction machinery along Moshe Zaks Street in Jerusalem and ran over a pedestrian, killing him and injuring five other Israelis. This week, another such attack took place, this one at a light rail station, by a young man from the Silwan neighborhood identified with the Hamas movement.
What appeared some 2½ months ago to be retaliation by a lone terrorist for the murder of Abu Khdeir and for Operation Protective Edge is now looking like an urban intifada that has erupted after simmering just under the surface for a long time.
