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Police arrest 30 in wave of Arab attacks on Jews in Jerusalem

With the lowering of coronavirus restrictions, Arab youth come out at night and film themselves attacking Jews, then upload the videos to social media.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Israeli police have arrested at least 30 Arabs in a wave of recent attacks on Jews in the cities of Jerusalem and Jaffa, Israel Hayom reported Tuesday.

With the confluence of the onset of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan last week and the lowering of coronavirus restrictions, groups of Arab youth in the capital have been recording themselves attacking Jews in the streets, then uploading the videos to social media.

“Immediately with the first incident that was found on social media, the Jerusalem area commander … instructed all those in the district in the fields of investigation, cyber, intelligence and operations to take immediate and firm action against these incidents,” a senior police source told Israel Hayom.

“The district command sees these incidents as being very severe and is taking action in each event to get to all those involved … both those who filmed them and those who distributed them,” the source said.

On Monday evening several brawls broke out in the area outside the Old City when gangs of Arab youths attacked several Orthodox Jews identifiable by their particular mode of dress.

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Police arrested two teenage Arab residents of the city who were among those who attacked a Jewish youth, knocking him off his bicycle as he rode up the sidewalk beside the Old City walls. The video of the attack was uploaded to social media.

Last week, police in the city of Jaffa arrested two Arab men who attacked and beat a rabbi and his colleague in the city. That incident sparked several nights of unrest in a city which has a large Arab population.

The attacks in Jerusalem led to counter-demonstrations in the capital, with videos uploaded Monday night to social media showing several dozen right-wing Jews on Jaffa Street in central Jerusalem chanting “death to Arabs.”

“We are concerned by recent days’ attacks of Jews by Arabs in Jerusalem, Jaffa and elsewhere,” tweeted the ADL’s Jerusalem office. “Authorities must act decisively to uproot this violence before it escalates further and leadership – political and religious – must act responsibly to assuage tensions between Jews and Arabs.”