Police disperse violent mob after Arab woman arrested in Jerusalem

Using non-lethal crowd dispersal methods, police were able to disband the group without incurring any injuries.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
Updated: MARCH 7, 2016 01:57
Border Policemen check a Palestinian youth at the Damascus Gate, the scene of multiple terror attacks in Jerusalem’s Old City. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Border Policemen check a Palestinian youth at the Damascus Gate, the scene of multiple terror attacks in Jerusalem’s Old City.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A near-riot broke out by the Old City’s Damascus Gate Sunday morning when Border Police arrested an Arab woman affiliated with the outlawed Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement for creating a public disturbance.
According to police, at roughly 11 a.m., officers saw the unidentified woman shouting and chanting inflammatory statements outside the east Jerusalem entrance, where several deadly terrorist attacks have been carried out since October.
“She was acting suspiciously and provocatively and using incitement to create a public disturbance in the Damascus Gate area, and when police questioned her, she made a run for it to a nearby grocery store,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
When police attempted to take her into custody, a mob of young Palestinian men gathered and proceeded to throw rocks and bottles at officers, nearly spurring a full-scale riot.
Using non-lethal crowd dispersal methods, police were able to disband the group without injury. No other arrests were reported, said Rosenfeld.
It was determined that the suspect was a member of the radical Islamic Movement’s female Murabitat group, which, along with its male counterpart, Murabitin, was banned by the government from the Temple Mount last October.
Members of the outlawed groups were paid by the Islamic Movement to harangue Jewish visitors there with anti-Semitic taunts, and occasionally to physically attack non-Muslims.
Amid a climate of ongoing incitement propagated by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other Muslim groups alleging that Israel intends to seize the Aksa Mosque, the government ban triggered the terrorist onslaught that has engulfed the country for nearly six months.
No Sunday disturbances were reported on the Temple Mount itself.