Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

WATCH: Hundreds Of Jewish Teens Riot, Attack Palestinians In Jerusalem

Hundreds of Orthodox Jewish teens rioted on Wednesday overnight in central Jerusalem, attacking Palestinians that drove by them and vandalizing their vehicle.

Seven were arrested by police on suspicion of causing property damage.

Azmi Dari, who lives in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyah, told Haaretz that he was attacked at about 5 A.M. by ultra-Orthodox youths on his way to work.

“An older man wearing a Jellabiya was riding with me,” he said, referring to the traditional Arab garment, “so they recognized that we were Arabs and began to shout: ‘Arab, Arab,’ and threw a rock through the window.”

“We were lucky and it only hit the radio. Hundreds of people were there, and no police at all. It’s lucky that nothing happened,” said Dari.

Some of the rioters were under the influence of alcohol and disrupted traffic in the streets nearby, said the police in a statement.

In a video posted on social media showing part of the incident, teens can be seen throwing stones at a car driving past them.

Last year, Palestinians were attacked in the area during the Sukkot holiday as Ultra-orthodox Jews threw chairs and tables at restaurants and cafes in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.

They also attacked passersby and business owners near the Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem, according to video clips and eye witnesses. The rioting went on for a long time, until they were dispersed by the police.

A week later, two Palestinian teens, 16 and 18, reported they had been attacked in Jerusalem, near the ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim neighborhood, by the home of Rabbi Eliezer Berland, the leader of the Shuvu Banim community.

The boys said that a few Haredi youths cursed them at one point, and kicked and hit them.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.