Israel Matzav

Children used for terrorism

When I reported on Friday's ambush of David Be'eri and his 13-year old son, I asked what you would do if you were (God forbid) in a similar situation. I'm not the only one asking the question. On Monday, an emergency session of the Knesset Children's Rights Committee asked it as well.

The meeting degenerated into a yelling match between MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List – Ta’al) and MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union). “Even a child, if he is endangering someone’s life, should be shot at,” said Ben Ari. “This meeting was organized because a kid was thrown into the air, and you guys are like a party of drunk people who have lost your heads!” said Tibi, calling the east Jerusalem residents a “company of fanatics.” Ben Ari repeatedly called Tibi a terrorist and told him to “go wear a dress with [Libyan leader Moammar] Kaddafi.”

In the past six months, the police have arrested 76 people for rock throwing incidents in Jerusalem. Thirty were youth, between the ages of 12-18, and 46 were adults. Of those arrested, 17 youth and 10 adults were served with indictments. Some of the youth are in detention, some are under house arrest. A representative of the Jerusalem police insisted that the police are doing everything possible to halt the rock throwing incidents, but the young age of the rock throwers makes stopping them difficult.

At the meeting, Jewish residents from east Jerusalem neighborhoods including Ma’aleh Zeitim and Beit Yonatan in Silwan shared stories and videos of frequent rock throwing episodes. The residents noted that every day past two weeks, groups of kids had been at the main intersection at Ras-al-Amud, near the Mount of Olives cemetery, and throwing rocks at passing cars for the entire day.

Rock throwing is nothing new in the area but it has picked up in intensity since a private security guard killed a Silwan resident on September 22 after he threw rocks at the security vehicle during an early morning patrol. Because of the high number of security cameras in the area, almost every rock throwing incident can be taped and made public almost immediately.

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Meir Indor, the head of the Almagor Terror Victim’s Association, testified about his experience on September 29, when he said he was a victim of a lynch situation on the road between the Mount of Olives cemetery and Hebrew University, when he was stuck in a traffic jam with taxis on all sides and students from a nearby school pelted his car with rocks. “This is an area where Jews have been buried for 3,000 years, and now people are afraid to go to the cemetery.” He said he had been at two funerals of terror victims where people leaving the ceremony had been stoned at the same intersection. “Both times it’s happened when the funerals end at the same times as the school lets out,” he said. “It’s like [rock throwing] is part of their school program.”

“Every time a child throws a stone, they should arrest the father,” Indor told the Post. “This worked in Yehuda and Shomron and it could work here.” Indor is starting a citizen’s forum to enforce security in the area near the Mount of Olives cemetery, following his attack.

When the IDF was in Lebanon in the 1980's, there were incidents when children came up to IDF outposts with explosives strapped on themselves and attempted to blow themselves up. Eventually, the IDF issued orders to shoot.

Obviously, kids throwing stones are not quite the same situation as someone with explosives strapped onto their body. But stones thrown at cars can be deadly. I'd rather be alive in jail than dead (God forbid). If you ever find yourself in that situation, I would advise doing exactly what Be'eri did, especially if you don't have a weapon.

But these kids' parents ought to pay a price.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:48 PM