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Jewish Man Killed by Security at Western Wall

Guard shot 46-year-old man after he allegedly shouted ‘Allahu akbar’

by
Stephanie Butnick
June 21, 2013
Israeli security forces inspect the area around the Wailing Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City on June 21, 2013 after an Israeli security guard shot dead a Jewish visitor apparently mistaking him for a Palestinian militant. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images)
Israeli security forces inspect the area around the Wailing Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City on June 21, 2013 after an Israeli security guard shot dead a Jewish visitor apparently mistaking him for a Palestinian militant. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images)

A security guard at the Western Wall shot and killed a 46-year-old Jewish man he allegedly suspected to be a Palestinian militant about to perpetrate a terrorist attack. The New York Times reports:

Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the police, said that based on the initial testimony of the security guard, the shooting victim, a man in his 40s who was not immediately identified, had shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” and had his hand in his pocket at the time he was shot, near a public restroom at the back of the plaza. The guard, from a private firm contracted to secure the entrances to the plaza, fired several shots at the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to JTA, someone who knew the man and was at the Western Wall during the shooting “told Army Radio the man came to the Western Wall nearly every day and was a volunteer cook for the Chabad movement.”

We’ll update you as we learn more.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.