| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/29: In 1967, as the Israeli army took control of all of Jerusalem, the Israeli Flag flew on what the Jews call "the Temple Mount" for the first time since Christ and Mohamed walked the area. Sensing what this could lead to General Moshe Dayan quickly ordered the flag lowered, turned the area that the Muslims call "the Noble Sanctuary", al Haram al Sharif, back over to the Islamic authorities, and though Israel claims sovereignty it's flag has never flown again over the area of the Temple Mount.
In the early 1980s, just a slow 10-minute walk from the Temple Mount in an area known as "the Jewish Quarter", the Israelis built and displayed a scale model of the third Jewish Temple which the fanatically religious among them aspire to build one day where the ancient Jewish temple once stood and without the two revered Mosques that today dominate the same area.
In 1991 the Israeli army massacred Palestinians on the Temple Mount as they demonstrated against Israel's military occupation and their ongoing subjugation and dispossession which has become far worse since.
Last September, the Prime Minister of Israel to be, much hated by the Palestinians for his bloodthirsty and war criminal past, pushed his own way onto part of the Temple Mount with hundreds of armed soldiers. In this way Ariel Sharon purposefully helped spark what is being called Intifada II and demonstrated, so he said, Israeli sovereignty and the right of Jews to visit the Temple Mount. Even so, the Muslim authorities, the Waqf, have since then restricted the area to Muslims only and escalated a somewhat mysterious excavation and building effort.
Today, on the special Jewish fastday holiday commemorating the destruction of the ancient Temple, a group calling itself the Temple Mount Faithful bought a massive cornerstore for the Third Jewish Temple within shouting distance of the Temple Mount, then removed it. Thousands of enraged Muslims gathered to "defend the mosque" and the Israeli army charged the Noble Sanctuary area injuring a number of journalists and many Palestinians.
Oh yes, then there is the matter of the Israeli Embassy in Israel -- still formally in Tel Aviv.
The U.S. Congress, dominated as it is by the Israeli/Jewish lobby, has mandated and funded moving the Embassy to Jerusalem. A plot of land has been designated and this cornerstone has in a sense actually been laid -- land previously owned and still contested by Palestinians actually. The American Ambassador has occassionally taken up residence in a nearby hotel, de facto demonstrating American recognition of Israel's reality that Jerusalem is the capital as well as American intentions. The U.S. President must by law every year now report to Congress on why the Embassy is not moved to Jerusalem. And this particular American President publicly promised during the campaign to do just that..
At least 15 policemen and 10 Palestinians were injured inside the hilltop compound, the sensitive site where Israeli-Palestinian violence erupted 10 months ago during a similar confrontation.
About 400 police with helmets and shields clashed with hundreds of young Palestinians heaving stones near the two mosques on the compound. Palestinian medical workers said Israeli forces also fired rubber bullets, but the Israeli police denied the charge.
The compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is the third holiest site in Islam. It is built atop the ruins of the two biblical Jewish temples, the holiest site in Judaism, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
On a tense day in Jerusalem's Old City, the first confrontation took place when the large police contingent blocked about 30 members of an ultranationalist Jewish group from marching on the mosque compound.
Shortly afterward, Muslims inside the compound began throwing stones, bricks and bottles at hundreds of Jews praying down below at the Western Wall, which forms an exterior wall of the compound.
Many of the Jews, both men and women, fled the barrage, with some holding plastic chairs or prayer shawls over their heads for protection. The stone-throwing prompted police to rush inside.
``We're here to prevent the throwing of stones on Jewish worshippers,'' Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy, who joined the operation, told Army radio. ``The Palestinians were just looking for an excuse for a party. I really hope the Palestinians will not try to ignite things again.''
The initial police action took only minutes and drove most of the Palestinians back inside the mosques.
However, a tense standoff ensued. Palestinian medical workers, clad in white, formed a human buffer between the police and the stone-throwers in a bid to prevent additional clashes.
Some elderly Muslim worshippers also urged the youths to stop throwing stones. However, the Palestinians periodically tossed rocks at the police, who charged the youths to disperse them. The police remained inside the compound for hours, though they did not enter either of the two mosques.
``The Jews are bullying us and no one is able to make them stop,'' said Abdullah Mohammed Abdullah, 53, one of the Muslim worshippers. ``They are not going to quit until they take everything.''
Because the compound is so sensitive, incidents can spark a much larger conflagration between Israelis and Palestinians.
Sunday's confrontation prompted several Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank. Near the city of Ramallah, three Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were injured in an exchange of fire. The Israeli army said Palestinian gunmen opened fire, and the troops shot back.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the mosque compound last Sept. 28 - he was the main opposition leader at the time - and provoked outrage among Muslims.
Violence broke out the next day when police clashed with Muslims inside the compound. Since then, more than 500 Palestinians and 100 Israelis have been killed.
Sunday was the Jewish holy day of Tisha B'Av, when observant Jews mark the destruction of Jewish temples at the site in the years 586 B.C. and 70 A.D.
Police were deployed by the hundreds to block the ultranationalist Jews, the Temple Mount Faithful, from reaching the compound and planting a cornerstone for a future Jewish temple.
In a compromise, police permitted the group to hold a short ceremony in a nearby parking lot outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City.
After the ceremony, the huge cornerstone, weighing several tons, was taken from the area in a bid to calm tensions. The Temple Mount Faithful demonstrated near a gate leading to the mosques, but the much larger police force easily turned them back.
Muslim groups had called for worshippers to come to the mosques in large numbers, and several thousand turned out to prevent any attempt by Jews to enter the compound.
Israel claims sovereignty over the site, though the Waqf, an Islamic trust, has day-to-day control of the compound. Since the violence broke out, only Muslims have been allowed inside the compound.
The compound was one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations that broke down in January amid the current fighting.
Israeli police stormed the site, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, after Palestinians threw stones at Jewish worshippers below.
Israeli police were on heightened alert because of a plan by an extreme right-wing Jewish group to lay a 4.5-tonne marble cornerstone at the site, which Palestinians said would lead to violence.
"The developments which the al-Aqsa mosque compound is witnessing are serious and indicate the extent of (Israeli) bad intentions," Moussa told reporters. "Bad intentions will have serious consequences." The head of the 22-member Arab League did not elaborate.
At least 15 policemen were wounded by the stone-throwing Palestinians, an Israeli police spokesman said. A Reuters television cameraman at the compound said at least one Palestinian was hurt when police fired teargas and stun grenades at the worshippers.
Clashes at the site, Judaism's holiest and one of the most sacred to Muslims, could further inflame passions in the uprising against Israeli occupation in which more than 600 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed.
Asked about Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's call for an emergency Arab summit to deal with the bloodshed, Moussa said: "This subject is being discussed and there are contacts between the Palestinian president and Arab leaders."
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| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/7/313.htm |