A historic Jewish building in Jerusalem’s ancient City of David was firebombed by local Arabs , with supporters recording and posting the videotape on YouTube.
Arabs living in Shiloach/Silwan, just outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City and just a few hundred feet from the Kotel Plaza accosted the historic Meyhuchas House, uploading the video to YouTube courtesy of the “Bustan Cultural Center”.
The white stone house was built by Rabbi Rachamim Natan Meyuchas, a sephardic Jew who settled his family outside the Old City in the City of David in the late 1800s following at least 200 years of his family’s residence inside the Old City. Soon after Rabbi Rachamim bought the property, Jews of Yemenite origin began arriving in the area and founded Kfar Shiloach. By 1920, approximately 200 Jewish families lived in the area. However, local Arab riots from 1936-1939 forced Jews to abandon their homes.
Arabs continued to maintain control in the area until recent years, when Jewish families began re-establishing a connection to the area, living in homes purchased by Jewish philanthropists from the Arabs who had possessed them. Jewish residents are forced to maintain a high level of security in the area, and exercise caution when travelling on the local roads, due to concerns of rock and Molotov cocktail attacks.
The attack was conducted using crude firebombs and fireworks, which Arabs in eastern Jerusalem frequently fashion into ignited projectile weapons.
A letter published by Arutz Sheva and written by Rabbi Rachamim states: “We are establishing our home from now on in the village of Shiloah near the city. There we will live and there we will have light and breathe fresh air. We will no longer drink murky well water, and we will no longer eat purchased vegetables, but rather our water will be living water from the spring, and with our own hands we will sow vegetables and will partake of them.”