Yet another attempted terrorist attack in northern Jerusalem’s Kalandia neighborhood: On Saturday night, an Arab arrived at the checkpoint there, and was found to be carrying a knife. Upon his arrest, he told the police that he planned to carry out a stabbing attack. This was the third such incident at Kalandia, near Atarot, in the space of just over a week. In both previous cases, Arab youths were discovered with a knife on their person – a commando knife, in one case - and said they were hoping to stab a Jew. Two weeks ago, Arabs threw rocks at a Jewish truckdriver in the same area. He sped off towards the checkpoint trying to evade the attackers, and found himself under attack from the other direction at the hands of guards who thought he was trying to ram through the checkpoint. They attempted to stop him, but when he did not listen, they shot – and injured him in the shoulder. Five attacks occurred at the Kalandia checkpoint in the month of January. Three explosive devices were hurled at the checkpoint, one bomb exploded, and a terrorist was arrested on his way to perpetrate a stabbing attack. No one was hurt in any of the incidents. Israel, under pressure from the United States, other countries, and groups within Israel, has removed many of the anti-terrorism checkpoints in and around Judea and Samaria in recent months. The terrorist murder of Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai several weeks ago ocurred near the site of one removed checkpoint; after the IDF located and killed his murderers, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas sent official condolences to their families and declared the terrorists "martyrs for the Palestinian revolution." PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad himself visited the families' mourning tents to pay his respects.
