Posted on 04/10/2005 6:54:34 AM PDT by SJackson
22 far-right activists detained by police; three policemen lightly wounded in clashes with Arab youths.
Fears of violent clashes at Jerusalem's Temple Mount were all allayed Sunday, after police barred both Jewish ultra-nationalists and Arab men from entering the bitterly contested site, temporarily ending weeks of built up tensions over a planned rally at the compound.
Later in the afternoon, however, several hundred Arab teens rioted outside the Old City, near the Rockefeller Museum, police said.
Two policemen were lightly injured after being called to the scene to disperse the crowd.
By midday, 22 far right activists had been detained for questioning, of which half were immediately released, including the ultra-nationalist event organizer David Ha'Ivri.
Those who were released were ordered to stay out of The Old City for the next twelve hours.
Earlier, police forcibly dispersed dozens of Arab teen rioters who pelted police with stones and empty bottles near the Lion's Gate in the Old City.
A policeman was lightly wounded after being hit in the head by a stone, and was evacuated from the scene by paramedics to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital.
Right-wing legislators Arye Eldad (National Union), Michael Hazan (Likud), Michael Ratzon, and Uri Ariel (National Union), arrived at the Western Wall compound on Sunday, but they too, like all non-Muslims, were not allowed to do so due to security concerns.
Throughout the Old City police had set up roadblocks and checkpoints barring all private vehicles from entering the area, while a strict security cordon of hundreds of police officers lined the Western Wall Plaza.
In defiance of police, hundreds of Palestinian youths, under the age of 40, managed to enter the Temple Mount compound early Sunday morning.
Amongst their ranks was West Bank Hamas leader, Sheikh Hassan Youssef, 60, who had entered the Temple Mount compound as well, Israel Radio reported.
In a live broadcast from the Temple Mount on the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera, Youssef called on Palestinians and Muslims from all over the world to come and save Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem from the Jews.
Yousef was later detained when he was stopped at an Israeli checkpoint and taken from his vehicle by police, witnesses said.
Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra told reporters on the scene that he very much hoped that the Temple Mount could be reopened to non-Muslim visitors on Monday.
Concern over the outbreak of violence on the Temple Mount was further fueled Saturday after Israeli troops killed three Palestinian teens in Gaza after they entered an unauthorized border area, and Palestinian terror groups responded by firing more than 50 mortar shells at Israeli settlements and army outposts in the Gaza Strip.
After meeting with Palestinian officials who administer the compound, Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco said that he was barring the massive Jewish pilgrimage to the Temple Mount by the group of ultra-nationalists opposed to the planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip following multiple intelligence warnings that such an event could prompt Palestinian violence at the Jerusalem holy site.
"Under no circumstances will we allow provocations. They will not enter the Temple Mount," Ezra reiterated over the weekend.
The most sacred of all site for Jews as the ancient compound where the two Biblical Jewish temples once stood, the Temple Mount is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where Muslim tradition says the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven, and is the third holiest to Islam after Mecca and Medina.
Palestinians officials had denounced the rally as a provocation, and had warned that such a visit could lead to a renewal of violence nationwide.
Hundreds of Jewish and Christian visitors peacefully tour the holy site on a daily basis during morning visiting hours since the Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims visitors a year and half ago.
But over the last six months, police and security officials have repeatedly warned of the possibility that Jewish extremists would attack the super-sensitive Jerusalem holy site as a way of sabotaging the planned summer pullout from Gaza.
The Internal Security Minister said that he hoped that police would be able to reopen the Temple Mount to non-Muslim visitors on Monday.
Protesters who were turned away from the site said that they were not being provocative but simply wanted to exercise their most elementary rights as religious nationalists.
"Anyone who stands up and acts like a Jew is automatically labeled extremist," said protester Chuck Katz of the West Bank settlement of Neve Daniel. "This is a nationalistic statement about the center of Israel, Zionism, and Judaism," added his wife Timna Katz, opining that sometimes a boisterous confrontation was needed to send people a wake up call about the goings-on in the country.
"We don't want to create a provocation; we just want to pray at Judaism's holiest site," said Chicago yeshiva student Yosef Rabin, 20, who happened on the demonstration during a visit to the Western Wall.
Four right-wing legislators who came to the Western Wall were similarly barred from entering the Temple Mount due to security concerns.
"Our capitulation in the face of threats here will not bring peace, but is a recipe for terror," said MK Uri Ariel (National Union).
By late afternoon on a mild spring-day, the security cordon around the Old City was lifted, and, as the sun reflected off the ancient temple walls, life was returning to normal.
This weekend is whose Holy Week
Jew or Muslim?
How come hundreds of arab youth were able to slip through the police corridors along with their leader, and then broadcast from the temple mount, calling on all palestinians to join them, but no Jews were able to do likewise?
It seems that the police were diligent in stopping Jews,
but not in stopping arabs.
I would say that the broadcasts of the arabs from that site, calling for everyone to join them, constitutes a provocation, which should have been stopped.
But I'm not running the Jerusalem police. . .
Did they bring that red cow ?
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