Right wing Israelis stone Arab in East Jerusalem

By Peroshni Govender
Twenty-two right wing Israeli activists were arrested for hurling stones at Arabs in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal al Mukabr yesterday. Two policemen were injured in the ensuing clashes between police and protestors.

The right wingers want to avenge the deaths of eight religious students who were gunned down over a week ago by an Arab Israeli resident of the Jabal al Mukabr neighbourhood. Yesterday thousands of Israeli right wingers converged on the Arab neighbourhood.

They broke through police barricades and surged into the neighbourhood where they taunted, threw stones and beat some residents. Many demanded the gunman, Alaa abu Dheim's home be demolished and his family be expelled from Israel.

The protest was organised by extreme right wing groups including Women in Green, Itamar Ben Gvir, National Jewish Front and the Jewish Heart organisation.

Last week protestors tried to pull down the Dheim family's mourning tent. Hezbollah and Hamas flags had previously been strung to the tent. Dheim was buried in a low key funeral after police released his body almost a week after his death. They wanted to avoid the burial turning into a media spectacle.

Holy city on high alert
The Jerusalem District Police have the holy city on high alert in fear that there may be more attempts of violence in Jabal al Mukabr and in other Arab neighbourhoods.

Senior members of the Israeli cabinet, including the ministers for Internal Security, Avi Dichter and Defence Ehud Barak as well as the Speaker of the Knesset (Parliament) have called for the Dheim family home to be demolished.

House demolition is a form of punishment issued by Israel in the Occupied Territories against the families of suspected terrorists.

Meanwhile, a senior rabbi has banned Orthodox Jewish institutions, the Yeshiva from hiring non-Jews following the Mercaz Harav incident. Dheim, 25, was a former driver at the religious school and it is alleged because of his work he was familiar with the campus.

According to the Israeli wire service Ynet Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who is regarded as a top sage in the haredi religious community said: "According to Jewish law, it is completely forbidden to hire Arabs, especially in yeshivas; there is a concern of endangering lives." Kanievsky apparently made the comment when he was approached for guidance from a religious school in Bnei Brak in central Israel who wanted to know how to deal with their Arab-Israeli employee who was not suspected of any "terrorist" activities.
The rabbi responded by issuing a Jewish legal decision banning the employment of Arabs.

"After all, we are at war with them ... and are there not Jews that can work and make a living?" said Kanievsky.

He urged Yeshiva's to employ people only from the Jewish faith, "unless there exists a huge disparity between the costs of the labour."
About 20% of Israel's population is made up of Arab Israelis; these include the East Jerusalemites who live in the occupied eastern sector of the city and the Druze that live in the Golan Heights. Most of these people subsist on jobs offered by Israelis.