Fights began immediately, with Arab rioters standing opposite the march.
By World Israel News Staff
Dozens of civilians marched with Israeli flags Wednesday evening in the Shimon Hatzadik (Sheikh Jarrah) neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem, where, in the morning, a teenage terrorist stabbed a young mother who was taking her children to school.
Chanting “We are not afraid” and “Terrorists out!” the protesters called for tougher measures against Arab terrorists and rioters. Some signs read “Death sentence for terrorists.”
Clashes began on the spot, with Arab rioters standing opposite the march. IDF and police security were present; they eventually began to disperse the protesters, pushing them onto a bus to remove them from the area, TPS reported. There were arrests on both sides.
The Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood has experienced serious Arab violence, especially since last May, during Operation Guardian of the Walls, when the IDF was fighting Hamas terrorists who, together with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Gaza-based terror groups, were firing rockets continuously at Israeli cities.
A property dispute that has nothing to do with the State of Israel is the excuse for the Arab violence in the neighborhood, where Jews had been living since the late 19th century – not including 1948-1967, when eastern Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan.
The legal battle over the Sheikh Jarrah property goes back decades. Jewish ownership dates back to the Ottoman period. The four Arab families at the heart of the dispute had fled to Sheikh Jarrah from other parts of Israel during the 1948 War of Independence, when Jordan took control of eastern Jerusalem.
The Nahalat Shimon Company, which owns the properties, is permitting the Arab families, or squatters, to remain there but wants them to pay rent. Subsequent Supreme Court decisions have ruled in favor of Nahalat Shimon, however, the government has not enforced the ruling.