(JNi.media) Representatives of the Israeli Arabs’ Supreme Monitoring Committee and the Knesset members of the Joint Arab List held an emergency meeting Monday following the violent events of the past few weeks, which they concluded with an announcement of a “Day of Rage,” comprising a general Arab strike, to include all Israeli Arab schools and the services rendered by local Arab municipalities. The day will be marked by a central rally in Sakhnin, an Arab city in Lower Galilee, headlined by Joint Arab List MKs and Arab dignitaries. Joint List MK Ahmed Tibi told the Knesset on Monday: “We [the Arabs] are landlords here, anyone who doesn’t like it — should leave.”
On Monday night, during a Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebration for IDF orphans in Jerusalem, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon promised to strike at the exploding Arab terror and restore life in Israel to its proper order. “We will not allow to disrupt our lives, and we’ll act with an iron fist against terrorism,” Yaalon declared, adding it that, nevertheless, Israel is not looking to escalate and violate the freedom of worship on the Temple Mount—which, as a matter of policy, means no Jewish worship. Ya’alon praised Israeli society’s ability to deal with terrorism, acting heroically but also with restraint and responsibility.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is refusing to cooperate with Israel in a move to calm the situation, despite Israeli pleas. Security officials have told Israel Radio Monday that they detect a decrease in the number of riot focal points, but that fact is yet to impact knife-wielding terrorism. The same sources still insist that the current wave of violence lacks the features of an organized activity, pointing out that there is no central command leading those eruptions. Instead, the attacks appear to be driven by incitement to violence against Jews by Palestinian media and a complete lack of will on the part of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to curb the violence.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Monday met in Ramallah with the EU representative to the area and demanded that the EU force Israel to stop its military escalation and deter the “gangs of settlers,” as he put it. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, speaking to AFP in Vienna, accused Israel of encouraging violence, accusing Prime Minister Netanyahu of hoping to bring about a third intifada in order to “hide his shameful failures in the political and diplomatic arena.”
Capping the perfectly contradictory Arab view of recent events, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Chairman Abbas on Monday condemned the killing of one of the terrorists, a 15-year-old who stabbed two Israelis in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev, one of whom, a 13-year-old, is in critical condition. Abbas’s spokesman said the killing amounted to an executions in front of the media, a “heinous crime” that the Israeli Government must respond to with the arrest of its perpetrators. Abu Rudeineh warned that if the Israeli government continues this escalation, it would be “impossible to control the situation and everyone will pay dearly.”
A female terrorist, also 15, was shot and injured moderately on Monday after stabbing a policeman in Jerusalem. Both the terrorist and her victim are in Hadassah Medical Center on Mount Scopus. And a few young Arabs threw rocks at Border Police officers in Jerusalem’s Al-Issawiya neighborhood on Mount Scopus… near Hadassah Medical Center. The officers were not hurt, gave chase and caught two Arabs, ages 14 and a son 17, who were taken in for questioning.
Also on Monday: on Highway 65, Arabs threw stones at a bus and two private cars, no casualties, only minor damage. Police arrested three boys of about 13 who were throwing rocks at cars near the Israeli Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, no injuries or damage. Arabs threw a Molotov cocktail at an IDF unit near the Jewish town of Negohot in the southern Hebron Hills, no injuries or damages. Arabs threw several Molotov cocktails at Israeli vehicles near the village of Duma in the Shilo area, no injuries or damages. Near Rachel’s Tomb, south of Jerusalem, IDF soldiers fired at an Arab who was preparing to throw a Molotov cocktail. He sustained medium level injuries. Earlier on Monday, two Molotov cocktails were thrown into Rachel’s Tomb by Arabs from the al-Aida refugee camp. No casualties or damages were recorded.
At the central Gaza Strip, dozens of Arabs broke through the fence Monday, during a violent riot and threw stones and Molotov cocktails at IDF soldiers. No injuries were reported among the soldiers. Sources in Gaza reported that several Arabs had been injured by gunfire. Altogether, Arab sources reported about 20 injured in clashes with security forces, some of them involving gunfire.
Violent terrorist incidents continued throughout the day Monday in Judea and Samaria. An Israeli citizen was lightly wounded from rocks thrown at his car by Arab youths.
Police on Monday arrested eight Arab youths in Haifa who were throwing stones at cars on Ben-Gurion Boulevard. No injuries or damage were reported. The Acre Magistrate’s Court extended the arrest of four suspects involved in riots in nearby communities.