This latest chapter in the turbulent history of our country's capital city started yesterday morning before dawn. A security guard in his car, driving through Jerusalem's Silwan neighbourhood at about 4.30am, ran into what YNet calls "an improvised stone barrier". The guard's employer is quoted saying the young man tried to avoid an ambush by driving back from where he came. But he was then stopped by another barrier which included stones and large rocks.
"At this stage, dozens of Palestinians approached his car. The guard feared for his life and was afraid of being kidnapped. At first he fired in the air, and after the rioters moved towards him, he shot a single bullet and hit one of them."The man who was shot dead, Samar Sarchan, 32, has a criminal record. A screwdriver and a knife were found on his body. The Jerusalem District Police Commander Aharon Franco said that "according to an initial investigation, the guard encountered a preplanned ambush which put his life in danger, prompting him to open fire." Predictably the public pronouncements from the Palestinian Authority are quite different. The Director of Palestinian Government Media Center says the shooting was 'a trust wrecking move' by the Israeli prime minister. Meanwhile the guard was released from custody after being questioned.
What followed was a depressingly familiar spiral of instigated Palestinian-Arab violence with "worshippers" barricading themselves inside the al-Aqsa Mosque and rioting mobs in the Temple Mount vicinity and in other parts of Jerusalem's Old City precinct. During the funeral on Wednesday, an Israeli by-stander was stabbed in the back near the Augusta Victoria Hospital. He is being treated at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital and said to be in moderate condition.
The mainstream media describe "local youngsters" "throwing stones" and burning tires. But the reality is that what these political 'activists' and 'militants' are throwing are deadly projectiles, and exploding molotov cocktails. Their targets are Jewish homes, Jewish pedestrians and bus passengers, and Jewish vehicles. The forebearance of the Israel Police forces so far is extraordinary.
No less depressing is the media coverage which has managed to convey an impression of 'clashes' between 'settlers' and 'youths'. But as so often happens here, the clash is actually a cold-blooded attack by a lynch mob, and the follow-up is police action intended to protect innocent bystanders on both sides of the Jewish/Arab divide.
Some scenes of yesterday's and today's Arab violence in the Holy City.
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