New Stage in Terror: Shooter Acts Brazenly with Jerusalem Assassination Attempt
IS IT REALLY PEACE THEY WANT?PALESTINIAN BANNER. ILLUSTRATIVE. BY JOSHUA SPURLOCK
The assassination attempt on a well-known Jewish rights activist in Jerusalem was more than the second terror attack in just a week in Israel’s capital—it was a brazen and aggressive strike at the Jewish people. According to Israeli Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld’s Twitter account, the shooting is being labeled an attempted assassination, and that sets it apart from past terror.
Jerusalem has been the scene of far too many attacks in its history, but they generally target random groups of people. Sometimes a specific type of Israeli is targeted—such as Yeshiva students or soldiers—but Haaretz reported that the apparent target of this hit job was Yehuda Glick, the leader a group that promotes Jewish rights to pray on the Temple Mount.
Furthermore, Haaretz quoted an Israeli legislator present at the shooting, Moshe Feiglin, who said the gunman asked Glick about his identity with an Arab accent before firing.
Rosenfeld’s Twitter account said the police was searching for a motorcycle that fled the scene. He further said that the victim was in serious condition.
The attack comes just a week after a terrorist rammed into a crowd with a vehicle in Jerusalem and less than three months after another motorcycling shooter attacked a soldier.
Lenny Ben-David, an Israeli consultant who publishes IsraelDailyPicture.com, highlighted the similarity between the motorcycle attack from August to the Glick shooting on his Twitter page. Ben-David pointed out that the Glick shooter had solid intelligence to know that Glick was at the conference.
In other words, this was no random act of violence and it came even as Jerusalem was on heightened security, according to Rosenfeld. Because of that, this attack is more than another act of terrorism.
UPDATED REPORT:
Israeli police have killed a Palestinian suspected of shooting a prominent right-wing Jewish activist hours earlier in Jerusalem.
The man was shot after opening fire when police surrounded his home in the Abu Tor neighbourhood, police said.
Rabbi Yehuda Glick was seriously hurt after a meeting where he urged greater Jewish access at a disputed holy site.
Police have taken the unusual step of closing the site to all worshippers and visitors until further notice.
The incident is the latest in a series which have led to an escalation of tensions in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Glick has had surgery for gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen.
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