Arab rock attackers have entered their fifth day of targeting Jewish vehicles just a 3 minute drive from Jerusalem’s Old City, using local minors to alert them as to which cars contain Jews so they can pelt them with stones and cinder blocks.

Residents of the Jewish neighborhoods of Maale HaZeitim and the adjacent Maalot David have expressed outrage that Jerusalem police and security officials have not taken steps to protect them, failing to send a patrol car or place any security personnel at the scene, a single location from which attacks have occurred daily, damaging private property and contributing to a sense of danger in the region.

Residents of Maale HaZeitim expressed outrage that Jerusalem police and national security forces failed to provide protection after four days of consecutive rock attacks threatened residents at the same time and same place each day.

For years, a single traffic circle connecting the Mount of Olives Jewish community of Maale HaZeitim with the rest of Jerusalem has been a center for terror operations, with local Arabs issuing rock and projectile firecracker attacks on pedestrians and drivers to and from the neighborhood.  Maale HaZeitim is located on the historic mountain across from Jerusalem’s Old City, just a few meters into the Arab neighborhood of Ras al-Amud.

Local Arabs have received the Jewish presence with scorn and animosity, despite the property being owned by Jews – purchased from previous Jewish owners for the purpose of building the six-building neighborhood.

For the last four days, Maale HaZeitim’s residents have been accosted by rock attacks which have issued from the same place – behind a conveniently situated garbage receptacle – and at the same time, smashing windows, terrifying children, and lending to a sense among neighbors that there is a lack of security – and municipal concern – for the families making their homes next to the oldest Jewish cemetery in the world.

According to a resident who witnessed the attacks, Arab children selling corn on the cob at the traffic circle watch as cars drive by.  When they identify passengers as Jewish, they signal to waiting rock throwers, who hurl broken cinder blocks and rocks at the windows in an attempt to hit and injure the driver and passengers.

While many of the attacks have damaged private cars, Egged buses have also been targeted in recent terror attempts.  In a recent attack occurring in the early afternoon, a bus full of Jewish children on their way home from school was hit, smashing a window, narrowly missing a young passenger, and scattering glass all over the screaming group.

Despite insistent phone calls to police, no police cars or other police or security presence have been sent to prevent further attacks – all of which have occurred between 7 and 8pm.  Police who were made aware that the children were aiding the terrorists refused to detain the youth.

Residents expressed disbelief that the Jerusalem municipality and the state would show such a low level of concern for their safety.  Some men of the community said they would take to the streets around the time of the anticipated attacks to personally prevent any harm coming to their Jewish friends, families, and children.

Just a couple of weeks ago, residents of the neighborhood were invited to attend a meeting with a high level Jerusalem security official, who assured them that more steps would be taken to provide stability and normalcy for citizens in the area.

Following a stabbing incident in which a visitor to the Jewish community of Maale HaZeitim adjacent to the historic Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery was attacked by Arabs in the Ras Al-Amud neighborhood, an Egged bus transporting Jewish residents to and from the enclave was smashed by rock-throwers, who committed the attack from the same place at which the stabbing took place.

Damage to the bus indicates that the projectiles were large, and hurled at a high rate of speed by more than one perpetrator.

Despite a meeting between leaders of the Jewish community and leaders of the Arab community, and urgent phone calls from Jewish residents to the Jerusalem police, neither have attacks been minimized through pressure by local Arab residents , nor has an increased security presence been put into place by Jerusalem’s municipality.

Jewish residents of Maale HaZeitim and the adjoining Jewish neighborhood of Maalot David have expressed their anger and concern that mayor Nir Barkat and Jerusalem police chief Yossi Friyanty have not responded to threats on their lives.

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Yishai and Malkah kick off this week’s show by discussing the American elections and how it could affect Israel. They move on to talk about the stabbing of a young man in their Jerusalem neighborhood of Maale Hazeitim and how the stabbing affects the Fleisher’s day-to-day life in the neighborhood. They end the segment talking about the current situation for Jews in Hevron and an upcoming trip to the city.

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In response to the stabbing of a Jewish man on Friday night, scores of Jewish residents of the historic Mount of Olives in Jerusalem took to the street in protest, demanding to be afforded the peace and security found in other parts of Israel’s capital city.

Walking back from prayers at the Western Wall on Friday night, a man in his 30s and his friend were attacked by two Arab men who leapt from a waiting car. One of the assailants stabbed the Jewish man in his back and both fled. The victim was treated at the scene by a Magen David Adom paramedic and an emergency room physician from Shaarei Zedek hospital, both of whom are residents of Maale HaZeitim, one of the Jewish neighborhoods in the area.

The victim was taken to Hadassah Ein-Kerem  hospital by ambulance in moderate condition, with a stab wound to his kidney. This marks the first time a Jew was stabbed in the neighborhood since its establishment, more than a decade ago. It is an escalation in the violence which includes numerous rock throwing and other attacks. Residents demanded more police presence and stricter measures against anti-Jewish incitement and violence.

At an emergency meeting held by the Jewish community’s security committee, residents expressed their outrage at the Jerusalem Police department’s failure to provide basic protection to citizens, and issued a list of recommendations for local law enforcement, who they say do not take security threats or calls for police assistance seriously.  Among complaints were inability to reach officers in a timely manner via the national police phone service, unwillingness for police to investigate charges of threats or harassment against Jews by Arab neighbors, and an overwhelming lack of police presence in an area known to be hostile toward Jews within the Jerusalem municipality.

Maale HaZeitim, and the new adjacent community of Maalot David, are a 15-minute walk from Jerusalem’s popular and ancient Old City, and enjoys a view of the Temple Mount.

A group of over 20 Jews consisting of men, women, children, and elderly  returning to the Maale HaZeitim neighborhood on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on the Sabbath were attacked by a group of Arabs hurling rocks and cinder blocks.

Reports indicate that Jewish men in the group responded by punching assailants, who returned lobbies with their own fists.

Guards were called immediately to the scene, no serious injuries were reported.

A Jerusalem Day attack on Jews near the community of Maale HaZeitim in the Arab Ras al Amoud  neighborhood has increased tension between Jews and Muslims in the region, amid intensified demands from Jewish residents that Jerusalem police forces crack down on threats to security.

At approximately 10pm on Wednesday night, as the music of the celebrated flag-dancing “Rikudegalim” festivities in Jerusalem’s Old City reverberated on the Mount of Olives, a family returning from Jerusalem Day celebrations was brutally attacked in their car by 5-7 Arab men throwing large pieces of stone and firing firecrackers at the vehicle from the traffic circle preceding the entrance to Maale HaZeitim.  Most of the men wore kefiyyehs and other face coverings.

The traffic circle at the top of Ras al-Amoud, lined with an Arab restaurant, billiard hall, hair salon, produce store, mini-market, and taxi company dispatch center, has become a haven for terrorist activity against Jewish families, with Arab attackers hiding out behind a large green dumpster located at the far end of the circle.  Despite statements by store owners that they are not involved in the attacks, periodic assaults have reached a new level recently, with little children and other pedestrians being targeted by the terrorists.

The traffic circle is the only way to reach the Maale HaZeitim neighborhood from western Jerusalem, and despite the vulnerability of families there and their repeated reports to police of problems in their neighborhood, the Jerusalem municipality has not stationed a regular police presence on the site.  And despite occasional visits by border police and city police to Maale HaZeitim, the traffic circle 30-40 yards away from the neighborhood has remained dangerous, as security forces cannot see the circle from the neighborhood, nor reach it in time to stop an ongoing attack.

According to reports by the attacked family, the car ahead of them, driven by an Arab, slowed down during the duration of the attack, in order to prevent them from getting away. While the family suffered no physical injuries, their car suffered serious damage.

Border police were called in, arriving approximately 15-20 minutes later.  When they arrived, residents reported that they remained at the entrance of the community, until a few insistent residents urged them to go out to secure the circle on behalf of the many children and teenagers who would be returning by foot from Jerusalem Day celebrations in the Old City, just a 20 minute walk away.

Despite no emergency warning system in the community, news of the attack quickly spread between neighbors.  Approximately 20 minutes after the attack took place, some 15 to 20 men from the community walked to the circle and remained there for an undetermined amount of time.  No violence was reported.

Residents expressed outrage that guards stationed at the entrance to the neighborhood were aware of the masked men, but did nothing to either warn residents of the danger of travelling at the circle, or to remove the threat from the area.

“Instead of installing two or three cameras that will protect the people that are visiting the graves on the Mount of Olives, the government wired the mount of olives with hundreds of cameras protecting the dead, but where are the cameras protecting the living people?  It’s insane that after tens of cars and pedestrians in the last few months have ben stoned from the same place and from the same street, the police are not stopping it,”  Aryeh King, veteran resident of Maale HaZeitim and CEO of the Israel Land Fund told the Jewish Press.   “There’s no question that if the police and the authorities responsible for the security of the Mount of Olives really wanted, they could have stopped it a long time ago.”

“What happened last night, that on the day of the liberation and the unification of Jerusalem, it took more than 20 minutes for police to get to the place where Jews were being stoned, when at the same time there were thousands of police securing this special day in other parts of the city, is something that is unacceptable,” King said.  “Whoever cares about the Mount of Olives and for the people that are visiting the Mount of Olives, their voices need to be heard.”

Shani Hikind, the executive vice president of American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, and the honoree of Monday night’s 3^rd annual Ateret Cohanim Yom Yerushalayim Dinner, told the Jewish Press that the Jews of New York and across the world “cannot abide” attacks against Jews in Jerusalem.  ”On behalf of Jews throughout the world, we deplore any acts of violence directed toward any citizen in Jerusalem. Nothing will be accomplished by efforts to intimidate and physically harm people in the capital of Israel,” Hikind said.  ”Jerusalem will always be the united capital of our beloved Israel, and we are happy to celebrate Yom Yerushalyaim in New York City this evening.”  Her organization would respond to the attacks by “strengthening Jewish communities and neighborhoods throughout the capital – building more houses, bringing in more families.”

A group of Jewish children and their parents were targeted in a fierce rock attack Friday night outside the Maale HaZeitim neighborhood in Jerusalem, miraculously escaping serious injury.  Jerusalem police who arrived to investigate were also pelted with stones – and left.

The two families from Maale HaZeitim were returning at approximately 9:30pm from a special pre- Jerusalem Day Sabbath prayer service at the Seven Arches hotel at the top of the Mount of Olives, sponsored by Pirsumei Israel and featuring well-known Israeli musician Chaim Dovid.  As they passed by a series of Arab store fronts in the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood, adjacent to their homes on Jerusalem’s historic Mount of Olives, large hunks of stone and bricks began flying all around them.

“My friend and I were strolling behind our husbands who were walking with the children and pushing our baby carriages,” one woman said.  “Suddenly, giant rocks began whizzing past our heads and smashing all around us.”

“I saw my friend’s husband get hit by a rock.  I yelled out for my own husband, who whirled around and was also hit,” the woman said.

According to the female resident, her husband than began to scream and charged at the two hooded men, who fled the scene.

“I grabbed my 4 year old daughter by the hand, took hold of my 8 month old son’s carriage, called out to my friend and her 4 children – all of whom are aged 6 and younger – and we ran home,” she said.  “As we ran, my daughter was crying – she told me she had been hit by one of the massive stones, and cried in fear for her father, who had stayed behind, along with my friend’s husband, to deal with the situation as we escaped.”

When the women and children arrived at the gate of the community, they called out for help.  “I screamed at the top of my lungs, ‘Guards! Guards!’”, the woman said.  The community’s guards – who are stationed in shifts on premises 24 hours a day – ran out of the building to where the attack had taken place.

“I examined my daughter, and discovered that she had miraculously only been hit in the elbow, probably by a rock ricocheting off the ground.  The baby was also ok, as were my friend’s little children,” the woman said.  “I spent the next few minutes – as we waited anxiously for our husbands and the guards to return – calming down the children, promising them that their fathers were alright, and encouraging them to be proud that their fathers were telling the neighborhood that we refused to be treated that way.”

“As I spoke to our sweet little children – all dressed in their beautiful Shabbat clothes – and saw my daughter look up at me with her big eyes, in her favorite flowery Shabbat dress, with just a bruise on her elbow, I realized that we had just experienced an absolute miracle,” the woman said. “There is no way, other than through divine intervention, that we had gone through such an attack and all the children were unharmed, and that our husbands had not suffered serious wounds.”

“We celebrate this Jerusalem Day knowing that the God of Israel is protecting us, and all the Jews of Jerusalem.”

Following the attack, police reportedly arrived on the scene, only to be met by more stone throwing.  The police did not question the victims of the rock attack, and left a short while later.

On Sunday morning, Jerusalem Day, the two men went to file a complaint at a brand new regional police station, located close to the Seven Arches Hotel.  Officers took down the information and said they would investigate the incident.  According to the men, they also said they might post additional police guards and coordinate an operation to nab any future attackers.

The Friday night event at the Seven Arches hotel was organized by Pirsumei Israel, a PR and marketing company which began doing what they call “cultural tours” in Israel, connecting participants with Jewish experiences, historic places, and meaningful content throughout Israel.

CEO Yisrael Goldberg told The Jewish Press that he coordinated a special Shabbat gathering at the Seven Arches Hotel to highlight the importance of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and to take advantage of the magnificent view of the Temple Mount from the site. “There is a great thirst to hear about the Temple in Israel,” Goldberg said.  “After a Shabbat like this people connect. They live all over the country, and they just don’t know about the situation in eastern Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. When you bring them in, it helps them understand.”