J'lem: 3 haredim nabbed for throwing rocks at Arabs

Haredim throw rocks at houses in Shuafat, injuring man in the head; demonstration on Neviim Street also turns violent.

By MELANIE LIDMAN
Haredim 390 (photo credit: Illustrative photo/Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusale)
Haredim 390
(photo credit: Illustrative photo/Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusale)
Three people were injured during a rock-throwing fracas in Jerusalem on Saturday afternoon.
The incident began when a group of haredim started throwing stones at the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat in the capital’s northeast. Police arrested three haredim, two minors and an adult, for throwing rocks.
According to police, about 20 haredim gathered on the ridge above the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood that looks down on Shuafat around 5:30 p.m., and began hurling stones at the Arab neighborhood. One Arab was lightly injured when a rock hit him in the head.
Border police arrived and immediately arrested a 16-year-old ultra-Orthodox boy. While they were in the process of detaining him, he attacked a female border police officer, and injured her lightly.
Arabs began throwing stones in return at the haredim and injured two haredi boys and damaged three cars.
Border police dispersed both sides of the protest a number of times, only to find Arabs and Jews returning to the site to continue throwing rocks over the course of an hour.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said police were checking whether a specific event touched off the incident, as there had been no rockthrowing at the site in recent months.
“We will question the youth and see what the story is,” he said.
Also on Saturday afternoon, extremist haredim who demonstrate weekly on Nevi’im Street against the desecration of Shabbat brought their protest up a notch when they started throwing bottles at police officers and passing cars.
The bottle-throwers did not injure any officers or damage any cars. Police arrested three demonstrators.
The demonstrators want the city to close Nevi’im Street to cars on Shabbat, saying it passes through an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. The city says cars need an alternative to Jaffa Road that was closed to traffic when the light rail was built.