Arieh King in eastern Jerusalem (file)
Arieh King in eastern Jerusalem (file)Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Following the wave of terror in Jerusalem over the Rosh Hashanah holiday - including the murder of an Israeli in a rock attack in the southeastern neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv and violent riots on the Temple Mount - Jerusalem Councilman Arieh King decided to inspect the security situation.

King wrote on Facebook late Tuesday that "due to the failures of the government and the police in everything related to providing security to residents of Jerusalem, I went out after the recitation of selihot prayers for the Fast of Gedalyah for a tour of the terror strongholds of Jerusalem."

Noting on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's promise on Tuesday night to make changes, improve deterrence and enforce stricter security measures, King wrote that he "went out to the dens of terror in hopes of finding changes on the ground."

The councilman's tour lasted from 1:20 a.m. to 2:10 a.m., and started on Wadi Joz Street northeast of the Old City and not far from the Mount Scopus Campus of Hebrew University.

There, King reported that not a single police patrol car or police officer were spotted.

In the northeastern neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Shuafat, King found the same total lack of any police presence.

"In the neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber: not a single officer or patrol car were seen within the neighborhood, in the seam area between Armon Hanatziv and Jabel Mukaber I came across a patrol car and a response team waiting within Armon Hanatziv," he said, noting the neighborhood where the lethal rock attack occurred on Sunday.

"In the neighborhood of Tsur Baher (from which the terrorist came, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah): I didn't see a patrol car or an officer in the neighborhood," reported the councilman.

Summing up his findings, King said, "it seems that Netanyahu is continuing to wave slogans and make declarations, while in practice he's disengaging from eastern Jerusalem as he has done for the last five years."

King has long warned that Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat's policies of allowing rampant illegal Arab construction, expanding Arab neighborhoods, neglecting law enforcement and freezing Jewish construction in eastern Jerusalem are leading to a de facto division of the capital.

"I hope that the Internal Security Minister, Gilad Erdan, won't be a partner to this show of the greatest destroyer of Jerusalem - Netanyahu," concluded the councilman.