This time – I do!
Last night, kids from Maale Adumim joined thousands of others to walk around Jerusalem – walk…walk…and to finally stop at the Western Wall and pray. Pray for peace, pray for Jerusalem. At one point, they stopped near the Gate of Compassion (Sha’ar Rachamim) and sang. Then, as they got up to continue on their walk around the Old City and towards the Western Wall, Arabs began pelting them with rocks. One young person was hit in the head, on the side of the face and required medical treatment.
This is the “holy” month of Ramadan – this is how the Arabs behave to honor their god and their culture.
With much thanks to God, David and his friends were not hurt, though a girl from Maale Adumim was. Her parents would have gotten a call last night and gone running to meet her at the emergency medical center where they took her.
David is a bit upset with himself because since he joined the ambulance squad, he’s been carrying some first aid supplies with him and last night he forgot to take anything with him. Why should he think he would need it? As when Elie and Shmulik were in the army, I’ll just tell myself again that he is fine. He’s safe. The girl will be fine as well. There were people there with guns, but while they pointed them towards the Arab rock thrower, they did not open fire.
The police knew about the kids walking but didn’t escort them and were not nearby when the attack began. There was no provocation on the part of the Israeli teenagers, only songs in one location, prayers in another. It was their very existence, you see, that set the Arabs off. The reason for the attack was simple – our children were WALKING in the capital of our country. They were doing nothing and they were attacked.
Next time you hear of a rock attack – imagine what a parent feels to know that while they slept in their bed…their child was being pelted with rocks. Yes, I am comforted that as with the missiles, the cowardly Arabs seem to have bad aim and missed my son and most of the others. But it was enough that one child, because yes, at 16, they are still children, required medical treatment.
Was this a terror attack? It was done in violence to instill fear. That makes it a terror attack. The fact that the children came home more annoyed than scared; more determined to continue going to our capital and to our holy sites means that they failed. It doesn’t mean the Arabs didn’t try.
I’ve just heard that tonight at 11:00 p.m. at the Western Wall, a group, hopefully a large one, will be gathering at the Western Wall to honor the memory of the Munich 11 athletes. I’m going to ask David if he wants to go with me. To our capital, to our holy place. To our Jerusalem.
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