Shin Bet Operating In Meah Shearim To Foil Revenge Attacks On Arabs By Extremist Elements Hiding There

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Shin Bet, Israel’s secretive internal security agency, is allegedly operating clandestinely in the Meah Shearim neighborhood, according to a report published Wednesday in Behadrei Haredim.

The news outlet claimed that in the wake of a string of Arab terror attacks , including Friday night’s deadly shooting outside in Neve Yaakov that left seven dead, the Shin Bet has been operating in Meah Shearim.

The Shin Bet activity in Meah Shearim, according to the report, is aimed at assessing whether any extremist right-wing Jewish groups planning to carry out revenge attacks on Arabs have set up operations in the area. The operation is not targeting local residents but intelligence officials believe that the strictly orthodox, segregated neighborhood could serve as a cover for extremist elements seeking to attacks Arabs or Arab workers in the nearby Arab parts of East Jerusalem.

The recent wave of Arab terror attacks, in particular Friday’s horrific massacre, have sparked fears in the Shin Bet’s Jewish division of a repeat of the stabbing attacks targeting Arabs in the late 1990s.

From late 1997 through January of 1999, nearly a dozen Arabs were stabbed – three fatally – in the capital, mostly in and around the Meah Shearim neighborhood.

While police suspected the stabbings were revenge attacks by Jews, or possibly by a single serial stabber, the perpetrator was never identified.

One of the three men killed was Khairi Alqam, grandfather and namesake of the terrorist responsible for Friday’s synagogue massacre, the younger Khairi Alqam.