Mount of Olives Jerusalem skyline panorama 390 R.
(photo credit: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters)
Firefighters who attempted to put out a dumpster fire were attacked on Saturday
on the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem, another stone-throwing attack in a
series of incidents at the cemetery.
According to Jerusalem firefighter
spokesman Asaf Abras, after a number of people started throwing rocks, the
firefighters tried to reverse their direction but the “rain of stones” continued
while a crowd formed at the scene.
Firefighters left the scene after the
rocks smashed the windshield and other rocks damaged the sides of the firetruck.
The firefighters filed a complaint of the incident with security
forces.
Abras told
The Jerusalem Post that when the security situation is
unstable firefighters sometimes will face violence when responding to calls in
east Jerusalem, including attempts to damage the firetrucks, puncture the tires,
or attack firefighters.
In January, Public Security Minister Yitzhak
Ahronovitch announced that Jerusalem police would open a new police station on
the Mount of Olives with 25 police officers in mid-February. The police station
will not open until the end of March at the earliest, Jerusalem police spokesman
Shmuel Ben- Ruby said on Saturday.
A recent Knesset hearing two weeks ago
focused on the deteriorating security system at the Mount of Olives, which has
seen a number of attacks in recent months.
On February 24, Malcolm
Hoenlein, head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, visited the cemetery with US Congressmen Eliot Engel (Democrat-
New York) and Jerrold Nadler (Democrat-New York). A large rock was thrown at the
group as it examined some of the recently vandalized graves, though no one was
injured.