Lynch at Prophet’s Tomb: ‘Seeing Arabs you know with murder in their eyes is horrifying’

(A7) Following a brutal attack against a Jew at the Tomb of Shmuel Hanavi (the Prophet Samuel) near Jerusalem on Friday, Ephraim Moreno, the director of the Tomb of Shmuel Hanavi, told Israel National News that Arabs have been holding protests at the site every single Friday for at least the past six weeks.

Five Arabs have been arrested for their role in the attack.

Last Friday, unlike previous weeks, the protest took on a different character, Moreno stressed. “From the start, the Arabs were shouting ‘Allah Akhbar’ and ‘Itbah al Yehud’ (‘Allah is mighty’ and ‘Slaughter the Jews’)” he said. “It was different from previous weeks. I don’t know if that was due to the presence of [Joint List MK Ofer] Kassif or because there were Jews among the protesters, but the atmosphere was charged from the beginning.”

Kassif is the sole Jewish member of the otherwise Arab Joint List party and the rights organization Betsalmo has now demanded that he be investigated for possible racist incitement in last week’s incident.

The ostensible reason for the protests is the Israeli government’s intention to link the nearby Arab village of Nebi Samwil to the wastewater infrastructure. “But around two weeks ago, the protests took on a nationalist character, with Palestinian flags suddenly appearing and Arabs singing protest songs. When Kassif arrived last Friday, the pent-up tension exploded,” Moreno said.

Police special forces were present throughout the protest and behaved “in an exemplary manner,” Moreno added, stressing that criticism of the way in which they handled the incident was unfounded. At one point, however, special forces entered the site and the Arab protesters approached the Jews present and started to curse them and then attacked them before security forces could reach them.

“They attacked brutally, violently, with scenes reminiscent of very disturbing past events,” Moreno said. “Thank G-d, our security forces acted swiftly and averted a tragedy. A large number of the Arabs who participated are people I’m familiar with – they live in the nearby village and work in Israel. Seeing people you encounter on a daily basis with murder in their eyes is shocking, horrifying. Throughout Shabbat I stayed home, still traumatized from what I saw there.”

Moreno has been in charge of the holy site for the past six years. He notes that during vacation and holiday periods, the site sees around forty thousand visitors, and that over a hundred thousand Jews are expected to visit during the month of Tishrei, when many Jewish festivals fall. Despite what occurred last week, he remains confident that security forces will remain present at the site and that Jewish visitors will be able to visit safely.