More details about the terrorist from the deadly shooting near the Western Wall today were provided by Maor Tzemach, chairman of the 'Lach Yerushalayim' movement, after the terrorist was defined by the Minister of Internal Security as a member of Hamas' "political arm."
"This here is a leader figure, a religious Hamas man. He was spotted many times at riots In Sheikh Jarrah. This is a teacher for Islamic religious studies and therefore we need to examine how such an extremist Hamas member was integrated into the education system," says Tzemach, noting that the Rashidiya school, where the terrorist taught, is an Israeli school under the responsibility of the Israeli Ministry of Education.
In the morning, security forces entered the school to carry out necessary investigations. Tzemach points out that perhaps unlike others he is not surprised that he is a teacher at Rashidiya school. "In the past, we have revealed that Palestinian organizations bypassed the systems and went into classrooms conveying messages in the education system and we managed to stop it. I am not surprised. The education system is not sufficiently supervised in East Jerusalem and these are the results."
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In his remarks, Maor Tzemach notes that the incident was planned in advance, as the Minister of Internal Security also noted, in contrast to previous incidents of individual terrorists. In this case, the terrorist sent his family members abroad as early as Thursday, prepared himself religiously to carry out the attack, and equipped himself with a firearm.
Do these facts indicate an intelligence failure? Tzemach is in no hurry to reach conclusions and states that the security system in Jerusalem in its various and special arms is stretched thin over many areas in Jerusalem and many of them are not published. At this point another intelligence and operational effort may be needed.