A prominent religious-Zionist rabbi was injured in a rock-throwing attack on his car north of Hevron on Friday.
79-year-old Rabbi Levinger is one of the founders of the modern-day Jewish community in Hevron, whose ancient Jewish community was wiped out during the 1929 Hebron Massacre by local Arabs. He is also one of the founders and a former leader of the Yesha Council, which represented the Jews of Judea and Samaria.
Rabbi Levinger was among several Jewish motorists targeted as they traveled along Route 60, close to the Jewish village of Carmei Tzur. A gang of Arab youths ambushed his car and pelted it with rocks, shattering his window as well as the front passenger window. The rabbi was treated for light head wounds at Kiryat Arba medical center.
His son and head of the Kiryat Arba-Hevron Regional Council, Malachi Levinger, condemned the attack, saying: "Terror has reared its head and dared to indiscriminately attack Jews in every city and settlement in the country."
"It is important that those murderers know that every rock like this only deepens our roots here in the land of our forefathers, and every blow plants more firmly and strengthens our beliefs and our hold on the land," he added.
Levinger termed the fact that his father had emerged relatively lightly from the attack "a miracle", but warned that that fact should not lead to complacency. Many others had been killed or maimed in similar attacks, he said, "and therefore I call on the security forces to act with as firm a hand as they can against these rioters, and bring to bear the fullest extent of the law against them."