Former Jerusalem mayoral candidate attacked with rocks in Silwan

"We can’t enable rock terror, which has already become too routine in parts of the capital," says Lion after east Jerusalem attack.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
Moshe Lion 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Moshe Lion campaign)
Moshe Lion 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Moshe Lion campaign)
Moshe Lion, the Jerusalem City Council member who unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Nir Barkat in October, was targeted by rocks thrown by Arab youths while walking with a Jewish group during a tour near the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan Wednesday.
Shortly before Lion and members of Ateret Cohanim, an organization that acquires property for Jews residing in the Old City, concluded the tour near the southern part of the Old City, the rocks were hurled from a nearby balcony.
While Lion and people in the group were not injured during the attack, he said the experience illustrates the dangers facing Jewish residents living near the Palestinian neighborhood.
“Unfortunately, not only was I able to see with my own eyes, but also to feel, the challenges facing the residents in the area,” Lion told an area news organization afterward.
He went on to call for a greater police presence in the area.
“I want to strengthen the security of the Jewish residents living there and call on the Jerusalem Municipality and government to do as much as possible to help,” he said.
Silwan was the location of a February price-tag attack, when the tires of 16 Arabowned cars and one bus were slashed and hateful graffiti was sprayed nearby.