Aharanovitch on Silwan: Kids can't receive immunity
Palestinians throw rocks at MKs on tour of Beit Yehonatan, no injuries reported; 450 incidents since July, over 50 arrested.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, MELANIE LIDMANThrowing rocks in silwan 311 AP(photo credit: Associated Press)
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Tuesday spoke about incidents in the past few weeks in Silwan in which children have thrown stones. Aharonovitch said, "These things need to be stopped. The children cannot receive immunity," Army Radio reported.The minister said that "there have been over 50 arrests and most of them are children." He continued, "Their parents need to be arrested and the throwing of stones needs to be stopped," according to the report.RELATED:Knesset panel debates rock-throwing youths in J'lemElad director runs over rock-throwing youths in SilwanAlso on Tuesday, Palestinians threw rocks at Knesset members visiting Beit Yehonatan in the contested east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.The MKs were touring the neighborhood as part of an official visit to examine the neighborhood and the illegal building that has occurred there.Knesset members Yoel Hason (Kadima), Ya'akov Katz and Arye Eldad (National Union), Yariv Levin (Likud), and Marina Solodkin (Kadima) were in the car at the time. The MKs were not harmed in the incident but several cars were damaged.One week ago, two stone-throwing youths were run over by Elad head David Be'eri while they were throwing stones at his car in Silwan. Following the incident, an emergency meeting of the Knesset Committee on the Rights of the Child was held on Monday morning to discuss the issue of Arab minors throwing rocks at cars in east Jerusalem.“We don’t want to see any children injured, period,” said committee head Danny Danon (Likud). “But we also don’t want to see children involved in destructive activities.”The meeting degenerated into yelling matches between Arab MKs and MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union).Since July, there have been 450 cases of rock-throwing in Silwan, with an average of four cases a day. Border Police and policemen on patrol regularly face barrages of rocks. On Monday afternoon, a border policeman was lightly injured near Beit HaDvash, a Jewish-owned building in Silwan.
During that same period, the police arrested 76 people for rock-throwing incidents in Jerusalem. Thirty were aged 12- 18 and 46 were adults. Of those arrested, 17 youths and 10 adults were charged. Some of the youths are in detention, while others were put under house arrest.
