http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331061642&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFullSeveral hours after the terror attack in Jerusalem, ultra-orthodox Jews attempted to lynch two Palestinians, Army Radio reported.
Haredim gather in Mea She'arim. [photo unrelated to story]
Photo: AP
Slideshow: Pictures of the week The incident occurred in the Makor Baruch neighborhood, known for its unlikely mix of religious study institutions and orthodox residents, and stores selling construction materials and power tools, carpentries, and other such outlets which draw many Arab shoppers and employees.
According to eye witnesses, two battered and bleeding Palestinians barged into the yard of a family sitting Shiva [the Jewish week of mourning], followed by a raging mob.
The family in the house protected the Palestinians and repelled the mob, which was comprised of furious yeshiva students.
A member of the family said yeshiva students yelled at him from the balcony of the yeshiva, overlooking the house, calling to "kill Jews who protect Arabs."
The two east Jerusalem residents were taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.
The family that protected them remained mostly unscathed but one of its members was also attacked. "They would have killed me if they could," he said. The two men had told him the altercation began after an argument they had with a store owner drew some bystanders who within minutes intervened and started beating the Arabs.
Waiting for the fury to subside, the man and his son led the Arabs to an alleyway so that they could escape.
But then, the man recounted, hundreds of yeshiva students stormed after the two, beating them "to a pulp," the man said. Protecting them with his own body, he was confronted by two haredi men, one of whom was brandishing a 20 centimeter-long knife.
He was wounded in his abdomen, at which point the crowd began to disperse and large police forces arrived.
"All hell broke loose. After the terror attack, the public's blood boiled, and people became hot-headed, insane. These people that call themselves religious almost killed me and the two Palestinians. I was raised to defend any person. Luckily for me, I'm strong, but [if I would be stabbed] one centimeter above or below, and this would become a murder," the man said.
Rabbi Yitzhak Bazri, of the David Bazri yeshiva nearby, said the mob did not come from his yeshiva. "We only have older students, and the attackers were young," he said.
"This is a grave incident; no one should hurt innocents, Arabs or Jews. It's against halacha [Jewish law]. I hope they find the assailants and put them to trial," he said in condemnation of the incident.
Why would a Jew save pigs?
Topic: chassidim almost lynch 2 arabs (Read 5415 times)