Religious Zionist Party MK Itamar Ben-Gvir moved his office to Sheikh Jarrah to decry the lack of police protection for Jews.

Religious Zionist Party MK Itamar Ben-Gvir moving his office to Sheikh Jarrah, February 13, 2022. (photo credit: Courtesy)
Religious Zionist Party MK Itamar Ben-Gvir moving his office to Sheikh Jarrah, February 13, 2022. (photo credit: Courtesy)

 

Religious Zionist Party MK Itamar Ben-Gvir set up an office in Sheikh Jarrah on Sunday to decry the lack of police protection for Jewish residents. Chairs were thrown as violence broke out between the groups.

Palestinian factions continued on Sunday to warn of an aggressive response towards Israeli actions taken in Sheikh Jarrah – including Hamas, which warned that acts like these are tempting an explosive powder keg, saying “All of Palestine will burn because of Jerusalem” – as a group of left-wing protesters met Ben-Gvir in the neighborhood crying, “There is nothing holy in an occupied city.”

Last night, clashes broke out between Jews and Arabs in the tense neighborhood, with police attempting to disperse the rioters. By the end of the night, six were arrested for disruption and stone-throwing. A few were injured. One man had been pepper-sprayed and was trying to drive away when he hit someone else as a result.

Ben-Gvir said that he would be setting up the office in the garden of the Yoshvayev family whose house was set on fire over the weekend – and whose car was set aflame nine times – adding that he would stay there until the family receives 24/7 security.

“When Ben-Gvir says he’ll open an office in Sheikh Jarrah, he isn’t thinking about the family whose home was burnt or the young man who was hit by a car. His only concern is with cheap politics; from his end, it can all burn down,” said Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharrar.

“[Ben-Gvir] is setting the neighborhood [Sheikh Jarrah] aflame and he is not actually protecting its residents, he is setting the Middle East on fire,” tweeted Yesh Atid MK Yoel Razvozov.

“By some miracle, the family wasn’t home during the weekend,” Ben-Gvir tweeted. “Where are you, human rights protectors? Where are the Israel Police and the failing police chief? Why are you waiting until disaster breaks?”

The terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad warned that “the continuation of the occupation and its settlers with the Israeli aggression against our people in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is a brutal attack that cannot be tolerated,” according to Palestinian media.

Tensions surrounding planned evictions of Arab families in the neighborhood were one of the reasons Palestinian terrorist groups cited for launching rockets at Jerusalem on Jerusalem Day last year, sparking the nearly two-week-long conflict.

In November, the four Arab families threatened with eviction rejected a High Court of Justice compromise to solve their property dispute with the Jewish-owned Nahalat Shimon Company.

As reported by The Jerusalem Post