Police are reporting that three Arab residents of the Silwan were arrested overnight as a result fo a targeted operation. The three are suspected of being responsible for throwing molotov cocktails at a Jewish security vehicle in the neighborhood. Although the vehicle burned, the security team escaped unharmed.
Firebombs in Old Yemenite Village (Silwan), #Jerusalem #Israel last night…shows the unrest is still real. @CarolineGlick @glennbeck pic.twitter.com/vmq4Z3eTIu
— Israel Rising (@israelrisingnow) August 7, 2017
“Immediately after the incident, a targeted operation was carried out in the village. The area was closed and evidence was collected from the site. Investigators and police detectives soon arrived to identify the suspects and arrested them while they were at home.,” a statement from the Israeli police said.
Incidents in the Yeminite Village now renamed Silwan by the neighborhood’s Arab squatters have increased since the beginning of the riots over the Temple Mount. The neighborhood was built in the 1880s by Jews coming from Yemen. The Yemenite Village ultimately destroyed by marauding Arabs in the riots of the 1920s and 1930s. The British colonists agreed to eventually return the Jewish population, which never happened.
In recent years Jews have begun to move back into the neighborhood, most times under great difficulty and danger. Despite this, the Jews of the Yemenite Village have succeeded in reclaiming a number of buildings as well as the original Synogogue built in the 1880s.
Daniel Luria, Executive Director of Ateret Cohanim said the following concerning the incident:
“Why the silence from the authorities when the Jewish residents Shiloach (Silwan neighbourhood) which number over 100 of the Shiloach in the heart of Jerusalem near the Temple Mount, Ir David and the Old City, are under constant attack from some of the local hate-driven, violent and intolerant Arabs? I say enough is enough.”
The latest attack comes after five Jewish vehicles were firebombed in recent weeks. Despite the neighborhood being a national landmark, the government has never put in the kind of infrastructure needed to ensure the violent Arab clans would have less leverage on the residents.
“The time has come for a major switch in thinking in the heart of Jerusalem near the Old City. If we are truly the sovereign body here in united Jerusalem, then a message of strength and conviction must be given to the Arabs in these neighbourhoods. The weakness and capitulation recently shown by the Government has not helped in the slightest and in fact has caused great damage,” Daniel added.