Scene of Ariel stabbing Dec. 24
Scene of Ariel stabbing Dec. 24United Hatzalah

Keren Kopler Berko, who works in the Ariel Industrial Park near the site of Wednesday morning's stabbing attack, expressed the concern of many factory employees in the area.  

"Forty minutes ago we heard shots," she recounted to Arutz Sheva shortly after the attack. "We went outside and saw it was full of ambulances and IDF forces." 

"We realized there had been a stabbing committed by a Palestinian who arrived at Ariel's gate, in the western industrial area. He stabbed two security guards who were evacuated in ambulances to the hospital."

Kopler Berko said the attack belied the real Arab response to residents' attempts at coexistence. "We receive them with warmth and love, give them employment in our factories, real coexistence and this is what we get?"

She called on the defense establishment to increase security in the area, noting she herself worked in a factory with "twenty Palestinian employees. There is a problem here, the industrial area is not protected. With the same ease the terrorist was able to arrive at a guard stand, he can enter one of the factories." 

"The factories have no security guards," she opined. "The employees have no weapons."

Kopler Berko also noted that an attack could come from someone within one of the factories. "They don't even have to come with a knife," she warned. "They work here in the manufacturing hall and they have access to tools." 

"We are like ducks in a shooting gallery," she added. "This has to change. There are many women who work here and it's frightening."