A quiet Tuesday morning in the Western Jerusalem neighborhood, Har Nof, was shattered by the sounds gunfire as two assailants entered Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue on Shimon Agassi St. (approximately five kilometers from Yad Vashem memorial) and began open firing on the worshipers who were just finishing the 6:30 A.M minyan. These two assailants are suspected to be Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal, cousins from Jabal Mukaber, an East Jerusalem neighborhood. With axes, knives, and guns, the two assailants killed five Israelis and several others were wounded. In response to the attack, three police officers showed up at the scene where they ended up killing the two assailants.
Lara Fuhrer, a current student on the gap-year program Young Judaea’s Year Course who is currently living in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem, a mere 20 minutes from where the shooting took place, describes the news as completely sickening. She and her friends, also on the gap-year program, sat around and read the news, naturally beginning to panic due to their close proximity to the fatal attack.
As result of the many recent terror attacks, students on Young Judaea’s Year Course have already been strictly forbidden to go into the Old City, including the Jewish Quarter. After the attack on Tuesday they are now forbidden from going to Machane Yehudah (Jerusalem’s outdoor marketplace) and to the downtown area of Ben-Yehudah.
These terror attacks are only escalating, resulting in more and more casualties. Lara puts it best when she says, “Israelis and Jews around the world will not stop fighting to protect our land. Israel is our home. I condemn all acts of terror globally; however, what is currently happening in Israel hits close to home, as Israel is my home. I stand for humanity, I stand for peace, but most importantly I stand with Israel.” These attacks have surely made us all sick to our stomachs; so let us all unite, change the brand, stand for peace in this time of senseless hatred, and continue to condemn all acts of terror.