5-Aug-12: [UPDATED] Rock-hurling attackers again, this time in Jerusalem

How much harm can a Palestinian Arab rock thrower, slingshot
firer, cement block hurler possibly do? Depends on where you're standing

It's Sunday morning in sunny, summery Jerusalem. In the early hours of this morning, starting around 1 am, non-fatal street violence was reported starting with an incident in which a couple of East Jerusalem Arabs attacked a Jewish pedestrian in the vicinity of Sha'ar Shechem, known also as Damascus Gate. That's the Old City gate most used by residents of the Haredi neighbourhoods of Jerusalem on their way to and from the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall. 

Border Police called to the scene [source] arrested the two attackers, one of whom is a minor. Their arrest led to a Palestinian Arab mob forming and pelting the paramedics who had been called to attend to the injured Jew. They also hurled rocks at a city bus that services the Kotel. As a result of the hail of rocks, five Israelis are reported injured [source]. 

For the record, the Palestinian Arab version reads like this [Maan]: "Eyewitnesses told Ma'an that Israeli soldiers "provoked worshipers coming back from Al-Aqsa mosque after finishing the Trawih prayer." A minor from Beit Hanina and a man from Ras al-Amoud were arrested..."

The almost-pastoral image of an Arab David with his slingshot, so beloved of the photographers who daily market such images to the newswire services, is highly misleading. Palestinian Arab stone throwing, which often actually means the hurling of cement-blocks and heavy rocks, has caused the deaths of Israeli civilians on several occasions in the past, including the tragic killing a year ago of a young father, Asher Palmer, and his year-old son Yonatan. We have posted [see for instance "5-Dec-11: Attempted murder by rock", and "11-Oct-11: Living with neighbours who want us all back to the stone age"] several times about the dangerously relaxed way in which distant observers fail to understand how lethal these attacks can easily be.


UPDATE Sunday 11:30am: A Hebrew-language Israeli site [source] carries a longer and more detailed report, and says 16 Israeli bus passengers were injured on two separate Kotel-bound Egged public buses, routes 1 and 3, in the incident. Six needed hospitalization and were taken away by ambulance. Eight of the injured are children.