A Jewish woman arrested for stating to a crowd of rioting and threatening Muslims that "Mohammed is a pig" spoke to the press for the first time on Sunday, after winning a court battle over her subsequent arrest.
"I went up to the Temple Mount on Thursday, with women and babies," Avia Morris, 20, stated to Arutz Sheva. "Throughout the walk, for about 40 minutes, we were surrounded by dozens of Arabs screaming at us and following us - they shouted 'Itbach al-Yahud' (trans: 'slaughter the Jews'), Allah Akbar ('God is great') and made the ISIS gesture."
"We were surrounded by police, and because of that the police let them run wild," she added, noting that police were also allowing the crowd to get very close to the Jewish visitors despite the threats. "The police ignored our requests, and said if we were to say one word they would take us down from the Mount and arrest us."
"They did not stop their attempts to hurt our feelings and to try to insult Judaism - at one point, after more than an hour of provocations and humiliations, I decided to respond," she recounted. "Only after we began to respond and I said, 'Muhammad is a pig' - then the police distanced them from us, suddenly they were able to keep them at bay."
Leftists filmed the entire exchange and handed it over to police, who later arrested Morris at her Binyamin-area home hours before Shabbat. In a court hearing, police then claimed Morris provoked the entire riot, but she was eventually vindicated by the presiding judge after the full video was presented as evidence in the case.
Morris received a temporary ban on visiting the Old City of Jerusalem, but regrets nothing.
"It is impossible to remain silent over humiliation of the Jews on the Temple Mount, and the incitement to murder against us," she said. "When we accept it, the police chief does not address it. Only if we begin to respond back will the police know how to silence them."