Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said he and his bodyguard did the right thing when they subdued a knife-wielding Palestinian on Sunday, and would do it again if he had to.
"The residents of Jerusalem are part of me," Barkat said Monday on
Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto."
"And when you run into such a situation, the last thing you do is run away."
Barkat was a company commander in the paratroopers and told Cavuto it is in his group's DNA to solve a problem when it presents itself. Had they thought the risk was larger they likely would have acted differently, he said.
"If the terrorist tried to continue, trying to stab people, we would have killed him on the spot," Barkat said. "The fact that he dropped his knife probably saved his life."
Barkat said he was on his way to work and his car happened to be first at a traffic light. His team members in the front of the car told him something was happening outside.
They thought it might be a fight, but as they got closer they saw it was a man with a knife in his hand, so Barkat and his bodyguard exited the car.
The bodyguard pointed his gun at the man, who then dropped the knife, and the mayor and the bodyguard then subdued the man. Barkat then realized someone had been stabbed, so he began to render aid to that person until the police and an ambulance arrived.
Cavuto noted that often a public figure is whisked away from such danger rather than running into it.
"Well, first of all, we didn't know what is ahead of us. So we went out very cautiously to try to figure out what is going on and we saw him five yards away from us," Barkat said. "Once we entered it, we're in it, and we have to figure out the right thing to do."
He said his bodyguard did the right thing.
"Naturally he follows me," Barkat said. "We've been in … situations before, and we've got to get close to the action to figure out how to manage the situation."
The Associated Press reported on Sunday that the Israeli who was stabbed was "lightly injured," according to the mayor.
Israeli police confirmed that Barkat was at the scene and that an 18-year-old Palestinian had stabbed a 27-year-old Israeli in the stomach, the AP reported.
Though the man, whom Barkat described as a "terrorist," was Palestinian, he said his office tries to have good relations with the Arab population.
"The vast majority of the Arab population in our city are good people that want better quality of life and we work with them very, very closely to improve quality of life," he said.
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