13-Dec-18: On Jerusalem's Hagai Street in the Old City, another Arab-on-Israeli knifing attack this morning

Image Source: Haaretz

A little before a chilly dawn in Jerusalem's Old City today, a 26 year-old Palestinian Arab is caught by a security camera pushing a recognizably ultra-Orthodox man to the ground in Hagai Street, one of the pedestrian lanes running down the hill from the Damascus Gate (in Hebrew, Sha'ar Shechem).

That location is the favored entry point for observant Jews on their way to early morning prayers at the Kotel.

It has also become a popular site for recent Arab-on-Israeli knifings and is heavily patrolled. (Clich here for past Hagai Street attack reports.)

Times of Israel describes how the surveillance footage from the scene shows the attacker using a  knife to try to stab the worshiper. This does not work out, and an instant later [as the video shows] the assailant's attention is directed at two nearby Border Guard police. 

The male officer is (in the favored manner of Palestinian Arab knifing attacks) stabbed in the face, near his eye. The female border guard is stabbed in the leg. Ynet says she is 19, the male 21. The attacker was shot dead by the officers. His weapon was recovered at the scene.

Haaretz, quoting Arab sources, says the knifer's name is Majd Matir. He was a resident of the Qalandiya neighborhood on Jerusalem's north side.

The Arabic edition of the European-financed Ma'an News Agency (but not the English) names him as Majed Jamal Mutair, 25, and in traditional terror-incitement fashion calls him a martyr.

18-Mar-18: Near Lions Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, an Israeli is stabbed by an Arab attacker

Image Source: Reuters

The Palestinian Arab days of rage continue to exert their hideous influence.

There has been a late-Sunday-afternoon stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City near the ancient and famous Lions Gate. Times of Israel's report says a terrorist attacker stabbed and critically injured an Israeli on Hagai Street in Jerusalem’s Old City Muslim Quarter. He was quickly shot dead at the scene by an Israel Police officer.

The victim is said to be in “very serious” condition with multiple stab wounds to the upper body. He is about 30 years old. He was rushed from the scene of the attack to the trauma center of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment.

What we know about the stabber is that he was 28 years-old and from the village of Aqraba, near Nablus, known in Hebrew as Shechem. His name is given as Abd al-Rahman Bani Fadel. It's a common Arab surname in the Nablus area.

Arab-on-Israeli attacks in the vicinity of Lions Gate are far from unknown. We have reported on these in the past three years (and there may have been more): 13-May-17: In Jerusalem's Old City, a Jordanian stabs an Israeli and the Jordanians are outraged (so are we, for different reasons); 13-Mar-17: Jerusalem and the (alleged) knife-men; 03-Oct-15: Arab violence escalates in Jerusalem: Multiple stabbings in Old City tonight.

The Arab view, as exemplified by this quote from a Naharnet news report, is that "tensions" are high

after Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas called for a day of rage on Friday to commemorate 100 days since U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Yes, tensions. Tell that to the family of the young Israeli fighting for his life this evening.

Image Source

UPDATE Monday morning, March 19, 2018 at 12:15 am: We're sorry to have to report that the Israeli victim of today's stabbing attack has died. Israel National News says he is Adiel Kolman, a resident of Kochav Hashahar, originally from the community of Keshet in the Golan Heights - married and the father of four children.

The Jerusalem Post says

Kolman, 32, a father of four, was killed in a terror attack on Sunday evening as he left his job at the City of David museum in the Old City and headed in the direction of Jerusalem’s light rail. It was a route he took every day to return to his home in the Kokhav HaShahar settlement, just outside of the capital. A terrorist stabbed him in the upper part of his body as he neared the area of the Lion’s Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. He was rushed to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in serious condition and died just before midnight. Kolman grew up in Moshav Keshet in the Golan Heights. He leaves behind children in third and second grade as well as in kindergarten and day care. His wife, Ayelet, is a social worker.

01-Apr-17: Jerusalem's Old City: A Sabbath afternoon stabbing attack

The visibly-wounded Israeli victims of the stabbing,
shown in a video clip posted to Arabic media. 

Another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing in Jerusalem's Old City.

Based on a 4:15 pm Israel Police statement, two young Israeli men, dressed in identifiably Haredi clothing, evidently yeshiva students, were attacked on Hagai Street by a male Arab armed with a knife and suffered stab wounds to the upper parts of their bodies. From images posted to social media sites, at least one of the Israelis was stabbed from behind in the back between the shoulder blades.

The attacker, pursued by members of the Israeli security forces, ducked into a home near the Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva to try to evade them. They caught up with him and a struggle ensued in which one of the Israelis, an officer in the Border Police, was seriously injured. The knifer was then shot and killed.

Israelis came under rock-throwing attack shortly afterwards in the vicinity of the Old City's heavily-secured Damascus Gate (Sha'ar Shechem in Hebrew). Stun grenades were reportedly used to neutralize those attackers. Another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack was foiled at Damascus Gate this past Wednesday.

The civilian victims of this afternoon's stabbing, males aged 18 and 20 (they're in the photo above), were taken to the hospital emergency room at Hadassah Ein Karem for emergency treatment and are reported to be in good condition and fully conscious. The Border Guard officer, in his early twenties, is recovering in hospital, and also said to be in good condition.

In the plaza outside Jerusalem's Damascus Gate this afternoon,
rock throwing and clashes [Image Source]

The attacker is reported, according to the PA's Ministry of Health, to be a 17 year-old Arab male, Ahmad Zahir Fathi Ghazal from the Nablus area which is some 50 km north of Jerusalem. Arabic-language Posters celebrating his deed [here] were quickly posted to social media, along with a pre-martyrdom selfie [via Twitter] he evidently took earlier in the day and shortly before embarking on the knife attacks showing him standing on the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock in the background.

In its Arabic version of the news report, but not in the English, the Ma'an News Agency, a notorious and controversial Palestinian Arab publisher, describes the attacker as "martyr" and his death as an execution by the Israelis. This is a fairly standard approach in their reporting of Arab-on-Israeli terrorist attacks.

We have no details of his family's reaction but know, on the basis of what has been published over the past several years about the Palestinian Authority's Rewards for Terror scheme (known also as Pay-to-Slay), that they now become entitled to substantial payments from the PA. As we noted recently, the relatives of the Palestinian Arab stabber who killed an American visitor to Tel Aviv, Taylor Force, a year ago now receive monthly payments equal to several times the average Palestinian wage.

Despite the PA's constant denials, the funding for this scheme and the fat payments it makes to terrorists and their families is made possible only because of the generosity of Western governments and via the polite blind eye they turn to this unconscionable abuse of foreign aid.

There are more details and background in our recent blog post: "28-Mar-17: The US can end the Palestinian Arab bureaucracy of terror".

23-Oct-16: Vengeance is ours, say these Israeli Jews

A new cafe opens on Jerusalem's Hagai Street [Image Source]

A year ago, a murderous Arab-on-Israeli terrorist attack in Jerusalem's Old City took the lives of two young Jewish men:

The two died of their wounds shortly after being stabbed in Jerusalem’s Old City by a Palestinian terrorist. Banita’s wife was in serious condition and their two-year-old baby was lightly wounded. She was taken to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and was undergoing surgery. The toddler was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment where he remained in stable condition. Lavi, a Jerusalem resident, leaves behind a wife and seven children. A rabbi at the Old City’s Ateret Cohanim yeshiva who lived nearby, he had rushed to the scene when he heard screaming in the street. ["2 killed in Jerusalem attack named as Nehemia Lavi, Aharon Banita", Times of Israel, October 3, 2015]

A year has gone by - twelve months filled with who-knows-what weighty challenges, unthinkable difficulties and corrosive, unfathomable, endless pain for the parents and families the two murdered Jews left behind.

In the conventional way of thinking about such matters, the minds of those irretrievably damaged family members are undoubtedly filled with thoughts of vengeance, of bloodshed and of evening the score.

That, at least, is how some ostensibly well-informed people view those of us who have been at the receiving end of Arab-on-Israeli savagery. As one prominent Jewish leader in the United States wrote publicly just a few weeks ago, in supporting a local fund-raising activity of Parents Circle Families Forum, a terror victim group about whose activities we have written critically several times, Israeli victims of Arab terror are entitled to

their natural right to revenge, after losing the most precious thing...

We wrote to that leader and told her that her comment was sharply at odds with what we have experienced:

We know many other Israelis who are bereaved through acts of hideous Arab-on-Israeli terror [and] don't believe we have met even one of whom we could say they are pursuing "their natural right to revenge"

The widow and orphaned children of Rabbi Nehemia Lavi Z"L
celebrated Purim earlier this year [Image Source: Ynet]

Is it possible to identify a pattern in the way Israeli victims - those who themselves survived acts of Arab-on-Israeli savagery and the families and loved ones of whose lives they were part - react? 

We think it is. And we have plenty of anecdotal evidence to back that up. 

Here, from today's Israel National News, is an instance that describes how an informal group of Israeli Jewish youngsters, living in Jerusalem's Old City -

have dedicated a coffee kiosk for guards and security forces on duty in the location where, one year ago, an Arab terrorist murdered Rabbi Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Benita. The dedication was held last night... Every week, the youths held birthday celebrations for Border Police, and would pass out coffee, cakes, and other snacks to the security forces stationed around the Old City. Recently, the youths decided to intensify the initiative, and raised 50,000 shekels to renovate a store, located right at the scene of last year’s murders, that would become a coffee kiosk for the benefit of security forces. Michael Benita, the father of murder victim Aharon, came to the dedication event for the coffee kiosk, and expressed his excitement at the initiative: “The efforts of the youth are not something to be taken for granted, the establishment of this corner is not to be taken for granted. I am happy that, in this fashion, they are memorializing Rabbi Nehemia and Aharon.” Hadar Katzover, one of the youths of the Old City who contributed to the effort, shared her impressions: “We worked very hard on this. This is our way of continuing [the legacy of] Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, and this is our way of dealing with what happened. Where they cut life short, we will add goodness!". She invited "the entire public" to come to celebrations following the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah on Monday night at 9:00 PM on Hagai Street, adding: "Come and strengthen residents of the Old City.” The daughter of Rabbi Lavi cut the ceremonial initiation ribbon, while the brother of Aharon Benita fixed a mezuzah to the doorpost.["Where they cut life short, we will add goodness", Israel National News, October 23, 2016]

The sister of murdered Aaron Banita Z"L farewells him prior to the funeral
[Image Source]

Being really blunt about this, and speaking as parents of a child whose murder at the hands of Hamas terrorists led to the creation of a charity that does highly effective work, reading and writing about this Old City cafe and the acts of chesed on the part of those who created it makes us just about burst with pride and admiration.

Is this the only way to deal with life after everything is turned upside down by barbarism, bigotry and hatred?

No, there are certainly other ways. 

This way, for instance:

As the Jerusalem Post reports, the Palestinian Authority controlled by Mahmoud Abbas has just decided to honor Muhannad Halabi by naming a street after him. Halabi is the 19-year-old murderer of two Jews killed close to the Old City's Lion's Gate on October 3, 2015 in a stabbing and shooting "operation" that took the lives of Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Benita and seriously injured Benita’s wife, Adele, and their two-year-old son. The assailant was shot dead by police at the scene. Palestinian Media Watch reported several days ago that the Palestinian Bar Association has already grotesquely bestowed an honorary law degree on the deceased stabber/shooter/attacker. Now the municipality of Surda/Abu Qash, in the suburbs of Ramallah, will name a street for him "to emphasize the national role played by Palestinian municipalities." Can a society ever be rehabilitated from pathologies as deep and all-pervasive as theirs? ["28-Oct-15: The Pal Arab passion for knife attacks isn't just for social media: they sincerely mean to kill"]

The barbarians (and those who stand with them) have their ways and their values. And we have ours.