Arab Terror Attack at Jerusalem Temple Mount Kills Two Policemen
Two Israeli Druze Policeman Slain, Three Israeli Arab Attackers Killed
Shortly after 7:00 a.m. Friday, Israeli time, three Israeli Arab terrorists opened fire near the Temple Mount, killing two Israeli policemen, and then fled onto the Temple Mount where the attackers were killed by Israeli police. The two policemen killed were Israeli Druze.
In dramatic video, one of the attackers “played dead” only to rise to try to stab the police. He was shot dead in the act.
The attack at this location was a clear attempt not just at terror, but to stoke wider conflict.
It was the second attack in Jerusalem’s Old City within the past month. An assault a few weeks ago also resulted in the killing of a policewoman. The fact that a second terror attack has now occurred within a span of weeks in Jerusalem’s Old City, and that the attackers were Israeli citizens, will undoubtedly lead to security reassessments.
Recent data seemed to show that the current terror wave, which began in September 2015, was on the wane. But Palestinian incitement that glorifies violence and encourages attacks—especially the relentless dissemination of a wild myth that Jerusalem’s mosques are threatened by Jews and must be defended at all costs—has continued unabated. Incitement on the Temple Mount by an assorted array of hate preachers also remains common, More Temple Mount incitement: “Allah, annihilate all the Jews…enable us to kill them!”
As happened today, the incessant incitement continues to drive young people into Jerusalem’s holy sites to murder and maim.
Instead of condemning murderous #terror attack, Pal incitement & distortion of truth on #socialmedia endangers safety of ppl in the region. pic.twitter.com/KXmmoKB5H8
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) July 14, 2017
https://twitter.com/IsraelHatzolah/status/885756977741254656
The Attack
Early Friday morning (July 14, 2017), three armed terrorists reportedly moved from the holy site of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif to Lion’s Gate where they opened fire on a group of policemen. They then fled to the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount.
Footage of the shooting attack has now emerged. Warning: some readers may find the graphic footage below disturbing:
The assailants were identified by Israel’s Shin Bet security service as two Israeli 19-year-olds and one Israeli 29-year-old from the Umm el-Fahm village in the north of the country. They used homemade (Carlo) rifles to carry out the attack.
[Weapons used in terror attack | Jerusalem Old City | July 14, 2017 | credit: Times of Israel]
[credit: Times of Israel]
Back in September 2015 we highlighted how Muslim assailants fled there and barricaded themselves into the mosque with homemade explosives, holing up inside in order to avoid arrest. On those occasions, the Israeli police foiled the attacks. Worshippers were then allowed to enter the holy site, Israel Thwarts Planned Attack on Jewish Temple Mount Worshippers.
Current wave of violence in #Israel also began 9/2015 w/attackers violating sanctity of their al-Aqsa mosque, abusing #ReligiousFreedom ?? https://t.co/I0MhpkYiue
— Miriam F. Elman (@MiriamElman) July 14, 2017
All Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims should denounce these violations of the al-Aqsa mosque’s sanctity which are routinely turning the sacred site into a battlefield and running roughshod over the religious freedoms of devout Muslims (Israel regularly facilitates tens of thousands of Muslims to pray unimpeded at the Temple Mount on Fridays).
But on those previous occasions, as we noted in our post, instead of condemning the perpetrators, Israel was blamed for carrying out measures to secure the site and the would-be victims—religious Jews who just want the opportunity to visit the most holiest site to Judaism—were chastised for “provoking” Muslims to violence.
Today’s terror attack garnered the same kind of twisted responses.
The Victims
Two Israeli police officers were wounded during the exchange of gunfire, and two were killed.
Israeli police have now confirmed that the two officers killed in today’s Temple Mount attack were members of Israel’s Druze community. The slain officers, Hail Stawi (30) and Kamil Shanan (22) lived in northern Israel.
[Slain Israeli Police Officers | Kaamil Shanan & Hail Stawi]
[credit: FaceBook]
Israeli officials across the political spectrum came together on social media to mourn the losses of the policemen and to send condolences to the families. (However, MKs from Israel’s Arab Joint List reportedly were shamefully silent, releasing no statement).
Total silence from the MKs in the Joint List following this morning's terrorist attack on the Temple Mount by Israeli Arabs.
— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) July 14, 2017
Education Minister Naftali Bennett said in response to the attack that “The Jewish people are connected in a covenant of life with our Druse brothers.” He also changed his avatar on Twitter to an image of the Israeli and Druse flags.
The Palestinian Response
In a “rare occurrence”, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas actually reportedly condemned the attack noting that he rejected “any violent incident by any party, especially in houses of worship.”
But Abbas also unhelpfully expressed his disapproval of Israel’s decision to close the Temple Mount following the attack and is now reportedly trying to get Jordanian officials to reopen it.
Nor did Abbas’s rejection of the violence stop his Fatah party—the dominant political group in the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank—from denouncing the Temple Mount’s closure today. Taking to social media, it used its official FaceBook page to call on Muslim worshippers to “set out for the al-Aqsa mosque” in defiance of the Israeli police decision:
We call on our people to go to the al-Aqsa Mosque, pray there, and break the Israeli siege that aims to change he historical sites of the holy city and Judaize them.”
Sheiakh Akrama sabari call upon all arab and Muslim to liberate #Jerusalem and Palestine in his Friday Carmen in lion gate . pic.twitter.com/JbJzGbR9Ie
— Nasser Atta (@nasseratta5) July 14, 2017
In order to prevent harm to innocents by searching for any remaining weapon caches and to secure a crime scene, Israeli authorities wisely kept the gates to the Old City sealed.
Worshipers congregated in the streets outside it, praying there instead. They looked angry, but it’s an anger that’s unfortunately misdirected toward Israel and its security forces.
Muslim Shiekh setting in Salah al Deen street vow to stay here until the al Aqsa mousqe is open to prayer by Israeli security pic.twitter.com/wwDqBoZi20
— Nasser Atta (@nasseratta5) July 14, 2017
[credit: Jerusalem Post]
[credit: Jerusalem Post]
No further violence was reported in the Old City on Friday, but an Israeli infant was among three lightly injured when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a car near the Mount of Olives, just hours after the Temple Mount shooting.
Conclusion
The terror attack today (July 14, 2017) resulted in the closure of the Temple Mount to Muslim worshippers, reportedly the first time that Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque were canceled since 2000.
Police have said that the compound will remain shuttered for an undisclosed amount of time. This makes sense because an investigation into the incident has to be concluded, and searches and sweeps of the area need to be conducted before people can allowed back onto a crime scene.
[Israeli policeman stands guard | Jerusalem Old City | July 14, 2017 | credit: Jerusalem Post]
You can’t get more ironic than that.
As we’ve highlighted in multiple posts, Israel facilitates freedom of religion to devout non-Jews on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount even as Jews are prevented from praying there as a means to avoid provoking Arab and Muslim sensibilities.
This afternoon PM Netanyahu again told PA President Mahmoud Abbas that there would be “no change to the status quo on the Temple Mount”.
He was referring to the five-decades-old bizarre “status quo arrangement” on the Temple Mount. It’s resulted in a wacky situation where Jews are harassed or even thrown off the site, arrested, and barred for long time periods from the place just for bringing in a prayer book, saying the Hebrew name for the sacred site, shedding a tear, or moving their lips in prayer:
- Non-Muslims Banned from Temple Mount During Ramadan–Including ME!
- Jerusalem Day of Mourning Greeted by Palestinian Riots on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount
- Temple Mount, Passover 2016: Muslims Riot, Harass Visitors
- Israel Finally Outlaws Temple Mount Screamers
In light of today’s terror attack, both Culture Minister Miri Regev and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan have reportedly suggested a review of the status quo on the Temple Mount as a way to prevent further attacks.
[credit: Jerusalem Post]
The arrangement is supposed to prevent violence. It’s not working out too well.
Israeli police officers Stawi and Shanan were buried today, where they were mourned by thousands of family, friends, and the entire nation. Stawi was reportedly not even meant to be on patrol—he was filling in for a friend.
Staff Sergeant Major Hail Stawi, age 30, policeman murdered in terrorist attack on Temple Mount is buried in Maghar. May he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/xVGRLQZoCu
— Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) July 14, 2017
Israel: U/D Photo, Hundreds attend funeral in village of Mughar for police officer shot and killed earlier today by terrorists in Jerusalem pic.twitter.com/lvo32BUs0g
— Yiddish News (@YiddishNews) July 14, 2017
At son's funeral frmr Knesset member Shachiv Shnaan says he "raised him to love the country, love life &love people" pic.twitter.com/C3vA3sxXqE
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) July 14, 2017
May their memories be for a blessing.
Miriam F. Elman is an Associate Professor of Political Science and the Robert D. McClure Professor of Teaching Excellence at the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Syracuse University. She is the editor of five books and the author of over 60 journal articles, book chapters, and government reports on topics related to international and national security, religion and politics, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She also frequently speaks and writes on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) anti-Israel movement. Follow her on Twitter @MiriamElman
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Comments
In 1983 i and my young family visited the Temple Mount with a tour group. At that time, with the exception of areas which were questionable if a Frum Jew may not stand, due to Holy ground, we were able to Pray, take pix etc.
It is crazy that now, we would be harassed instead.
We need to retake authority over the Holy sites including the Cave of the Patriarchs – where the Fathers and Mothers of the Jewish nation are interred.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs
how long can this idiocy continue ?
ROPMA. Drop them in Mecca.
Such a Islamic terror crime again on the Temple Mount convinces me that it was a great mistake for Israel to have handed over the Temple Mount to Jordanian Islamic Waqf after the ’67 war as a gesture of peace. The beautiful Dome of the Rock is not even Islamic but was built by the great Arab ruler abd-al Malik, an Arab Christian (of sorts – Jesus not divine) – not a Muslim Caliph – who completed the Dome of the Rock in AD 694. In both its construction style and layout, it is a Byzantine-Syrian church with Roman style pillars and cupola. The Islamic narrative about it is false and even the translations of the beautiful inscriptions inside the dome are false: not done in the Koranic Arabic (of 1924 Cairo) but in Syro-Aramaic.
“Traditionally, these inscriptions, attributed to Malik, the builder of the dome, are read in a way that echoes basic Islamic ideas, despite the fact that even just a quick-but-unbiased look at them would have to raise red flags about this approach. Apparently, for the longest time, nobody bothered to take an unbiased look—until linguist Christoph Luxenberg came along. He translated the inscriptions by reading them in the language that was used at that time—and triggered off a tsunami in the field of Islamic research. By applying the language of Syro-Aramaic that was used by the writer of the inscription, he brought to light interpretations of key messages that differed [a great deal] from the traditional Islamic translations.”
They in fact are about the “messenger of God”, Jesus, not Muhammad!
See Pressburg’s bombshell book ” What the Modern Martyr Should Know: 72 Grapes and not a single virgin” for details an much more you didn’t know because of extremely bad dogmatic Muslim scholarship.