Israel sets up East Jerusalem roadblocks in bid to stem attacks

Israel’s internal security minister says the bodies of dead Palestinian attackers should not be returned to their families for burial. Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital.

Israel gave police authority to seal off Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem on Wednesday and will deploy soldiers on main roads to combat the worst spate of violence across Israel, Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank in years.

Human Rights Watch said the measure – which has not yet been imposed but could be carried out if the wave of violence continues – was “a recipe for harassment and abuse”.

Police said both the attacker and the victim were Jews from Kiryat Ata province and were investigating whether the stabber thought the man was an Arab, due to his “Middle Eastern appearance”, according to Haaretz. In 2000, 13 local youths were killed by Israeli police while demonstrating in solidarity with the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

Notably, on October 12, 13-year-old and 17-year-old Palestinian terrorists seriously injured two Israelis in a stabbing attack in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev.

And the Israeli government appears ready to fight back.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday sought to convey how close he was to India and its leadership, calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “friend”, whom he was in regular touch with.

According to Khalil Shikaki, director of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), the Oslo Accords take on different meaning for the younger generation of Palestinians than those who were adults at the time of the signing. The attacker was fatally shot by a security guard.

In the central Israeli city of Ra’anana, four people were stabbed in two separate attacks, though the suspects were ultimately caught.

Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers meanwhile continued in the West Bank after Palestinian activists called for a “day of rage”.

In this situation, he says, the Israeli authorities have to concentrate on two types of efforts: first, the stabilization efforts, meaning all the efforts that are required to calm the atmosphere, to decrease the level of violence. In a new step, Israeli forces placed makeshift checkpoints in Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem to monitor traffic leaving the areas.

New checkpoints for East Jerusalem ©V.

The deaths of minors have sparked an outcry among Palestinians; they have included teens that the Israelis have claimed were assailants as well as a toddler.

“Israel is an occupier in Jerusalem”.

“In the next stage, more Israelis will take to the streets and take the law into their own hands, and we have no shortage of hotheads”, cautioned Alex Fishman, security correspondent for Israel’s top-selling daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

Rivlin, in his response, said that India and Israel were “making history” by working together in a variety of fields and also in keeping “our peoples safe in the face of terrorism and fundamentalism”.

What’s behind the latest unrest? It was fuelled by rumours among Palestinians that Israel was attempting to alter a long-standing religious arrangement governing the site.

Zoabi, whom Netanyahu wants investigated for alleged incitement, said such calls miss the point.

Gilad Erdan said the funeral processions of Palestinians who killed Israelis often turn into “an exhibition of support for terror and incitement to murder”.

There have been two organised uprisings by Palestinians against Israeli occupation, in the 1980s and early 2000s.

The last US-backed peace talks collapsed in April 2014 following nine months of back-and-fourth negotiations.