Baruch Marzel (file)
Baruch Marzel (file)Flash 90

Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel revealed on Tuesday that he was at former chief rabbi of Hevron and Kiryat Arba Rabbi Dov Lior's Jerusalem home during the Arab rock attack earlier in the day, and announced he is organizing security patrols in the area.

Marzel was among the students and associates of the rabbi who were visiting his home in the Beit Orot neighborhood, located east of the Old City and to the north of the Mount of Olives. The rabbi bought the property in 2012, and moved there several months ago after announcing last October he was retiring to Jerusalem after 37 years as chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and Hevron.

Arab assailants passing by the home as they all stood on the porch began hurling rocks at the students, hitting one in the head and lightly wounding him.

"Today I visited our teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Dov Lior shlita (lit. may he merit good and long days - ed.) in Beit Orot," wrote Marzel on Facebook. "There were several Arab rioters there who tried to throw rocks."

The nationalist activist from Hevron noted he didn't let the Arab attackers off without "returning" their rocks, writing, "I took advantage of the situation to fulfill the mitzvah (Torah commandment) to return lost property...and to return to them their recompense."

Marzel's post included a video message shot at Beit Orot, in which he said, "the time has arrived to put things in order in this region - the police fold and run."

"We will start to establish patrols here on a fixed basis, because we can't leave the security in the hands of the Israeli police, they're busy with all kinds of servility before the Arab enemy," he said, announcing the establishment of a security patrol.

The video message in Hebrew can be seen by clicking on the image below.

Rabbi Lior served as the rabbinical counsel of the Otzma Yehudit party in the last elections, when it ran with Marzel on a joint list with the Yachad - Ha'am Itanu party and just missed out of the recently raised threshold percentage.

The rabbi previously was on the rabbinical counsel of the Tekuma faction that merged with Jewish Home, but switched over to Otzma Yehudit citing ideological differences. In the previous elections he supported Otzma Leyisrael, the forerunner of Otzma Yehudit.

Rabbi Lior has been a key leader in the religious Zionist community. He issued a Halakhic (Jewish legal) ruling in 2008 forbidding renting a house to Arabs in Israel or employing Arab workers, citing the Arabs' status of enmity and occupation of the land of Israel according to Jewish law.