Mayor of Jerusalem confronts stabbing suspect near City Hall


On Sunday, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat tackled a Palestinian teenager who allegedly stabbed an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man near City Hall.
The altercation was caught on surveillance camera, with the footage showing a man "waving his arm in a stabbing motion and making contact with one individual and attempting to stab others as they waited to cross the road," Reuters reports. Then, the mayor and his security guard appeared, and Barkat lunged at the man and pinned him down before he was detained by other witnesses.
The victim was taken to the hospital and is not seriously injured, and police say the suspect is an 18-year-old Palestinian. Barkat called him a "terrorist" and said he only dropped his knife after the bodyguard took out his own weapon and aimed it in his direction.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Magazine solutions - July 4, 2025 / July 11, 2025
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - July 4, 2025 / July 11, 2025
-
Magazine printables - July 4, 2025 / July 11, 2025
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - July 4, 2025 / July 11, 2025
-
Controversial GOP plan to sell millions of federal acres hits major roadblock
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Republican Sen. Mike Lee says he'll revisit legislation to sell millions of acres of federally held land to create 'freedom zones' of single family homes
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from
-
Judges order release of 2 high-profile migrants
Speed Read Kilmar Ábrego García is back in the US and Mahmoud Khalil is allowed to go home — for now
-
US assessing bomb damage to Iran nuclear sites
Speed Read Trump claims this weekend's US bombing obliterated Tehran's nuclear program, while JD Vance insists the US is 'not at war with Iran'
-
Trump's LA deployment in limbo after court rulings
Speed Read Judge Breyer ruled that Trump's National Guard deployment to Los Angeles was an 'illegal' overreach. But a federal appellate court halted the ruling.