Clashes in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah; cop hurt, 2 arrested
Police say dozens of people rioted, hurled chairs at officers in flashpoint neighborhood
Fresh unrest was reported Friday in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, which has been a flashpoint for demonstrations and rioting in recent months.
Police said dozens of people were rioting and hurling chairs at officers at the scene. A cop was lightly hurt after being hit in the head with one of the chairs and was taken to receive medical care.
Police said they arrested two suspects, one for throwing the chair that hit the policeman and another for making threats.
Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood that is a 10-minute train ride away from Jerusalem’s city center, has emerged as a symbolic flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Over the past few years, a handful of Jewish nationalists have moved into the mostly Palestinian neighborhood, mostly through complex eviction cases.
Tensions in the neighborhood have risen in recent months due to long-simmering court battles over dozens of homes in the neighborhood in which Palestinian families have lived for decades, but which Jewish groups claim legally belong to them.
Many Palestinians and their supporters see that conflict as part of a larger effort by Israel to expunge their presence from the contested capital. The dispute — along with clashes at the Temple Mount — played a role in the Hamas terror group’s decision to fire a barrage of rockets at Jerusalem in May, sparking a brutal 11-day conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday police said prosecutors plan to indict a 14-year-old Palestinian girl who allegedly stabbed a Jewish woman in Sheikh Jarrah last week.
According to police, the girl planned the morning of the attack to carry out the stabbing, and followed her target — 26-year-old Moriah Cohen — for several minutes before stabbing her in the back in the neighborhood, where they both live.
Cohen — who was with her children at the time of the attack — was treated at the hospital and released the same day.
The past few weeks have seen a rise in Palestinian terror attacks, with four taking place in Jerusalem alone.
The Times of Israel Community.