Jerusalem Arab murdered while walking in Mea Shearim

JERUSALEM, May 13 (JTA) — Israeli police believe that one person may be responsible for a series of attacks on Arabs in a religious Jewish neighborhood here. A 51-year-old Arab was stabbed to death in the Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood Wednesday in what was the sixth knife attack on an Arab in four months. None of the other five attacks was fatal. Police said Khairi Musa Alkam was repeatedly stabbed in the back as he walked through the neighborhood on his way to work. “There is a link between all these attacks, which are perhaps being carried out by a man seeking to avenge the spate of knife attacks on Jews in eastern Jerusalem,” Jerusalem’s police chief, Yair Yitzhaki, told Israel Radio. Earlier this month, a 28-year-old yeshiva student was stabbed to death in Jerusalem’s Old City. Another Jewish man was also killed there in February. Shortly after Wednesday’s stabbing, police arrested a man in the area for questioning about the attack. He was later released after police concluded that he was not linked to it. Yitzhaki also said that it was possible the knifings were being carried out by the same person or persons responsible for firebombing an apartment inhabited by three Israeli Arab women in a neighborhood adjacent to Mea Shearim. The apartment has been attacked three times. But Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said the knifings and firebombings were being considered “entirely separate incidents.” Olmert condemned Wednesday’s murder, saying in a statement that police should “act with the same determination that they employ when responding to attacks on Jews.”