An officer arrived just as Arabs tried to kill the Israeli driver and his passengers outside Jerusalem’s Old City.
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News
A dramatic video uploaded to social media on Monday showed an Israeli police officer firing his gun in the air as dozens of Arab men attacked the passengers of an Israeli car outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.
His white shirt covered in bright red blood from an apparent head wound, the driver identified as Ephraim, who appeared to be in his 20s, described how the windows of his car were smashed and the Arabs tried to drag him and his passengers from the vehicle as they were continuously pummeled by rocks.
“The streets were empty of police and full of Arab youth, and the entire way we got hit with rocks and more rocks and more rocks,” Ephraim said in a video interview uploaded to YouTube shortly after the attack. “I passed on the right, on the left against oncoming traffic, through an intersection on a red light and continue to get hit by rocks the whole way.”
With a bandage tied around his head to staunch the bleeding, he described how beside the Lion’s Gate on the south side of the Old City and with nowhere left to flee, he lost control and his car ended up on a concrete barrier on the sidewalk as rocks continued to fly through the windows.
“The windows were smashed and more and more rocks were coming into the car and pepper spray,” he said. “They opened the doors and continued to beat us – tens of Arabs, murderers, animals beating us until one policeman…arrived and ended the incident.”
The attack was part of a wave of violence by Arabs in Jerusalem and Gaza staged in a bid to disrupt Jerusalem Day celebrations marking the 54th anniversary of the unification of the city.
Jerusalem police later posted a video taken from a security camera showing dozens of Arab men attacking the car with rocks and repeatedly trying to drag the people out.
After more rocks hit him, the car lurched off the road and smashes into the concrete barrier, knocking down one of his attackers.
As the attack escalates, a police officer is seen running towards the car, fires his gun in the air and the attackers move back. As Ephraim emerges from the car, the officer is forced to point his gun at the Arabs who want to continue the lynching, and they eventually back off with the dramatic ending also captured by a news photographer who happened to be on the scene.
In a comment uploaded to social media from a Palestinian and reported by Kan News, a man was heard saying in Arabic: “We beat the settler and he [the policeman] started firing, [they were about to] slaughter him, and he [the officer] started firing in the air.”