Elderly Jewish woman says police did not intervene after assaulted on Temple Mount
"It was really painful that somebody could feel that they could come, and using the name of their god, go ahead and hurt us," says victim.
By DANIEL K. EISENBUDUpdated: AUGUST 19, 2015 02:26Elderly Jewish woman says police did not intervene after assaulted on Temple Mount
A video uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday shows an elderly Jewish woman complaining that she was just assaulted on the Temple Mount after being besieged by shouting Muslims, while her police escort does not intervene.In the video, Brenda Rubin, who moved to Jerusalem from the US seven months ago, appears shaken while walking through the contested holy site with police and other Jews, shortly after she said a Muslim woman punched her.Despite reporting that she had just been assaulted, a police officer can be seen telling the woman to “file a complaint” and ordering her to keep moving amid hostile chants of “Allahu akbar” directed at her group. No arrests were made, she said.Following the violent encounter, Rubin recounted the attack to a Temple Mount activist, who later uploaded the video.“That was my first time on the Mount and it was a very important thing for me, and this woman in black came in between our line and gave me a big punch under my rib on my side that I’m still feeling,” she said as a friend comforted her.“And I feel like we’ve come to Israel because it is our land, and we didn’t come here to be shivering Jews,” she continued. “And it was really painful just that somebody could feel that they could come, and using the name of their god, to go ahead and hurt us, and I really don’t understand it.”At the conclusion of the two-minute video, the activist who took the footage added a caption in Hebrew stating, “This time it was a punch, next time it could be a knife.”It is unclear whether Rubin filed a complaint with police.Tuesday’s incident follows several weeks of heightened unrest at the compound, where Muslims have rioted to prevent Jewish visits, and several Jews have been arrested for disturbing the public order.On Monday morning three Jewish visitors were arrested there; one for wearing tzitzit as outerwear, another for singing a Jewish song, and one for exclaiming “Muhammad is a pig” while being insulted by an Arab mob shouting anti-Semitic slurs.
Although the High Court of Justice has upheld Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount – which is overseen by the Wakf Islamic trust – the court also allows police to prevent any form of worship there if they believe such activities will incite a “disturbance to the public order.”This caveat has resulted in a contentious debate among religious Jews and the government, as any form of prayer among Jews there – including simply moving their lips to appear to be praying – is considered a “public disturbance,” and has resulted in ongoing arrests.To maintain a delicate status quo, police rarely arrest Muslims for incitement, presenting a double standard considered unacceptable by Jewish activists, including Yehudah Glick, who was shot four times last year by a terrorist for advocating for equal Jewish prayer rights there.