Jerusalem – Violence flared on Saturday after an Arab infiltrated the Jewish community of Yitzhar, set a house on fire and stabbed a 9-year-old boy before fleeing back to the neighboring Arab village of Asira Kabaliya.
Within an hour, 50 Yitzhar residents, some of them armed, ran into the Arab village, some of them shooting in the air. As a result, four Arabs were injured by that gunfire.
The Arab infiltrator was not caught. The boy who was stabbed is recovering in the hospital from four stab wounds in his back and his spine.
Residents in Yitzhar said that they were incensed by the ineptitude of the Israeli troops stationed around their community and by those soldiers’ failure to prevent the attack.
An Arab Member of Israeli Knesset, Ahmed Tibi, PLO leader Yassir Arafat’s former chief of staff, maintained that it was the Israeli security forces who encouraged the incursions into the Arab village. Appearing on the Voice of Israel Radio newsreel, Mr. Tibi described the residents of Yizhar as “two-legged animals, vigilantes who riot against the Palestinians, while the IDF turns a blind eye,” Mr. Tibi said.
Chairman of the “Council of Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria,” Danny Dayan said the background to the event must be borne in mind. “They are dancing on the blood of a wounded Israeli 9-year-old boy, in an attempt to promote a political agenda,” he said. “Violence of any kind is unacceptable, but the fact that they totally ignore the attempted murder of a Jewish boy proves that they are not people of peace, but propagandists in the Palestinian cause.”
David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com.
©The Bulletin 2008