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Violence Heats Up in Jerusalem, Once Again

Police warn over tensions in the city

[Jerusalem] Israeli police are concerned by growing tensions in Jerusalem following a day of marked violence and an increase in the number of lone wolf attacks by Palestinians. Though the level of violence has not reached that of last summer, when a Palestinian kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, and Jews burnt a Palestinian teenager to death, sparking clashes throughout the city, there has been a visible escalation in June and July, police said.

In the first of two serious incidents, a Palestinian man attacked a group of border police at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate in the Old City, injuring one slightly before being overpowered. The attacker was previously convicted for the murder of an Israeli in Jerusalem in 1989 and released along with other prisoners in 2013 as part of attempts by Israel and the Palestinian Authority to restart the peace process.

In a separate incident, a border police vehicle was set ablaze and destroyed after several petrol bombs were thrown at it in the Arab neighborhood of A-Tur. Of the police officers in the vehicle at the time, one suffered from smoke inhalation, but all were able to exit otherwise uninjured.

During the summer of 2014 and throughout the fall, Jerusalem was marked by continuous unrest in east Jerusalem. This ended after “strategic police decision making” and was replaced by lone wolf attacks in February and March, Mickey Rosenfeld, the Israeli police spokesperson, told The Media Line. Following this the city experienced relative calm, Rosenfeld said, until the recent upsurge in attacks in June and July.

Disturbances and attacks on police have often come in the form of rioting, stone throwing and attacks with petrol bombs. These have been focused in certain east Jerusalem neighborhoods, such as Silwan and Isawiya, Rosenfeld said.

In addition, stabbing attacks targeting members of the security forces or Jewish Israelis have risen in the same timeframe. Three separate attacks, all in the last two months, have occurred in close proximity to the Damascus Gate – the natural border point between east and west Jerusalem – Rosenfeld explained.

The day after the stabbing attack Damascus Gate appeared calm with only a very light police presence. This contrasted with the large numbers of officers that local shopkeepers reported were present in the area in the hours after the incident.

“Once, a guy tried to stab a police officer and they shot him. It happened right over there in front of us,” Muhannad Alresha, who runs a phone shop in front of the Damascus Gate, told The Media Line. Alresha was at a loss to explain why an individual would conduct such an attack but said that Palestinians should not be judged on the actions of individuals. “You have to take care of your business, your family, that’s it – not less, not more. That’s what I’m doing,” he said.

Attacks against the security forces are always bad for business at Damascus Gate. Checkpoints are closed, preventing goods from passing between businesses in Jerusalem and the West Bank and potential customers are unable to enter the city, Alresha said. In comparison during Ramadan, when Israel allowed access to Jerusalem for a large number of Palestinians in the West Bank, trade was booming, the shopkeeper explained.

“I think it’s ridiculous, (the attacks) make things worse, definitely,” a Palestinian shopkeeper, who asked to remain anonymous told The Media Line. The impact on local business were easy to see he explained, adding that tensions had been high all year since the Gaza conflict. “It is a stupid thing to go and attack a police officer while he’s on duty. But at the same time the police officers they are a bit aggressive (following an attack),” the shopkeeper said.

Although such attacks have been described as lone wolf, on a number of occasions attacks have followed one after the other. This has led to the use of the term “popular terrorism” to describe the manner in which attacks committed by individuals can appear to be part of something broader.

“There are triggers, specific triggers – last summer it was the murder of (Mohammed) Khdeir and also the incidents on the Temple Mount,” Lior Lehrs, a researcher with the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, told The Media Line. Although stabbing attacks are carried out by individuals, they do not occur in isolation, he suggested. At other times frustration with a lack of progress in the peace process can appear to cause increases in attacks, the researcher said.

The Jerusalem Municipality declined to comment on the topics addressed in this article.