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Fresh Jerusalem clashes as Israeli official asks Arab nations for holy site security solution More Jerusalem clashes feared as Israel searches for way to secure holy site
(about 3 hours later)
Israel sent extra troops into the occupied West Bank on Saturday and its police broke up a crowd of Palestinians throwing stones in Jerusalem as international concern mounted over the deadliest outbreak of violence between the two sides for years. Israel’s security forces and Palestinian leaders are bracing for weeks of violence as the death toll in a bloody weekend of confrontations over Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the entrance to the compound housing the al-Aqsa mosque reached seven.
The Palestinian health ministry said one Palestinian was killed during a separate clash outside the city, taking the death toll from the past two days to seven. It did not provide details of how he died. The fears were voiced as Israel deployed thousands of extra troops to the West Bank, amid a stark call from the Middle East quartet – representing the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations – urging all sides to “demonstrate maximum restraint”.
Israel’s security cabinet was due to convene on Sunday and was expected to discuss alternatives to the controversial metal detectors recently installed at the Noble Sanctuary-Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem’s walled Old City, said two Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. With the UN security council due to discuss the mounting tensions around the holy site known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif – and revered by Jews as the Temple Mount – there were indications on Sunday that Israel may be considering replacing the metal detector gates with different, but still enhanced security measures, at the compound’s entrances. However they, too, are likely to be controversial.
Major General Yoav Mordechai told BBC Arabic: “We hope that Jordan and other Arab nations can suggest another security solution for this [problem],” Mordechai said, referring to the metal detectors. “Any solution be it electronic, cyber or modern technology: Israel is ready for a solution. We need a security solution; not political or religious.” Indeed, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, on Sunday insisted on a complete return to previous arrangements at the site.
On Friday, three Palestinians were killed in violence prompted by Israel’s installation of metal detectors at the entry points to the sacred compound in Jerusalem’s walled Old City. Hours later, three Israelis were stabbed to death while eating dinner in a West Bank settlement. In the first indication, however, that it might be preparing for a partial climbdown, it was reported Israel was installing new security cameras at the entrance to a sensitive Jerusalem holy site on Sunday amid claims it was seeking an “alternative” to the metal detectors.
Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations – the so-called Quartet of Middle East peace mediators – said in a joint statement they were “deeply concerned by the escalating tensions and violent clashes taking place in and around the Old City of Jerusalem”, and called for restraint on all sides. The issue exploded into more serious violence on Friday, after days of night time clashes after the metal detectors installation which followed an attack on 14 July which killed two Israeli policemen at the entrance to the site by three Israeli Arabs who Israel says smuggled weapons into the compound.
Diplomats said the UN security council would meet to discuss the situation on Monday. Sweden, Egypt and France requested the meeting to “urgently discuss how calls for de-escalation in Jerusalem can be supported”, said Sweden’s security council coordinator, Carl Skau, on Twitter. In escalating clashes since Friday, four Palestinians have been killed in confrontations with Israeli security forces – that has seen Israeli troops use live fire, stun grenades and water cannon on protesters – while a family of three Israeli settlers was stabbed to death by a Palestinian who entered their home in the West Bank.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas ordered the suspension of all official contact with Israel until it removed the metal detectors at the holy compound in Jerusalem, where Muslims pray at the al-Aqsa mosque. He gave no details, but current contacts are largely limited to security cooperation. The sheer scale of the risks involved was made clear on Sunday morning when Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas – who has long threatened to end security cooperation with Israel – cancelled a planned security meeting after announcing he was cutting all contacts.
In Jerusalem, Israeli police said they used riot gear to disperse dozens of Palestinians who threw stones and bottles at them. Television footage showed police throwing stun grenades and using a water cannon to break up the crowd. At the centre of the issue has been two competing impetuses. The first has been the politics of Israel’s right – far right coalition, led by prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, which, say critics, led his cabinet to ignore warnings from senior security officials when deciding to install the metal detectors.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces raided the home of the Palestinian attacker who fatally stabbed the three Israelis and wounded another on Friday, the military said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the attacker’s brother was arrested and that security forces were restricting movement of Palestinians from his village. The second is centred on the profound Palestinian religious, national and cultural sensitivities around the compound.
The stabbing victims were from the fenced-in West Bank settlement of Neve Tsuf. The attacker, Omar Alabed, who invaded their home, was shot and taken to a hospital for treatment, the military said. And at the centre of the violence has been a deadly miscalculation by the Netanyahu government that bridged both issues, which saw police recommend the installation of the metal detectors in the immediate aftermath of the 14 July attack.
Alabed posted a note on Facebook before the attack, writing: “I am going there and I know I am not going to come back here, I will go to heaven. How sweet death is for the sake of God, his prophet and for al-Aqsa mosque.” Persuaded by the idea it would play well with rightwing politicians and voters who had had called for Israel to impose further sovereignty over the site, Netanyahu ignored reported warnings from other security officials, including the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, that it could spark bloodshed.
Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman met senior commanders in the West Bank to assess the situation and said the attacker’s home would be promptly demolished, in line with Israeli policy. He called on Abbas to condemn the attack, describing it as a “slaughter”. Compounding the error, it now appears, Israel also failed to discuss the issue with officials of the waqf – the Jordanian religious institution which administers the compound.
Palestinian worshippers had clashed with Israeli security forces before Friday’s attack. Tensions had mounted for days as Palestinians hurled rocks and Israeli police used stun grenades after the detectors were placed outside the sacred venue, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount. On the Palestinian side the issue is visceral. Captured by Israel in 1967, the site – regarded by most of the international community as “occupied” although claimed by Israel – is seen as a centre of Palestinian national identity that exists above both factional politics and disagreements over strategy.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said two Palestinians died of gunshot wounds in two neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem, some distance away from the epicentre of tension. It later reported a third Palestinian fatality. A unifying idea, its significance as a national symbol is embraced by secular and religious, making it one of the conflict’s most dangerous flashpoints. The location – as commentators on both sides have been quick to point out – triggered the Second Intifada in 2000 after a similar Israeli political misjudgment when then opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the site.
Israel decided to install the metal detectors at the entry point to the shrine in Jerusalem about a week ago after the killing of two Israeli policemen stationed there. Justifying their suspicions about Israel’s motives, Palestinian religious officials and worshippers have pointed to their past experience over the Ibrahimi mosque-Tomb of the Patriarchs site in northern West Bank city of Hebron where they claim similar measures were used by Israel to control access.
Reuters contributed to this report Palestinians have rejected Israel’s insistence that metal detectors for security at major religious sites – like Mecca – are the norm not the exception.
“It is a big difference,” said one Palestinian worshipper, Jawad Bibis, outside the site over the weekend. “In Mecca Saudi Arabia has placed metal detectors for the protection of the citizens. This is about an occupying power placing controls over access to al-Aqsa over which it has no right.”
All of which has led to the increasingly stark warnings. “Violence is likely to worsen absent a major policy shift,” said Ofer Zalzberg, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “Netanyahu’s mistake was installing the metal detectors without a Muslim interlocutor. It is the coercive character more than the security measure itself that made this unacceptable for Palestinians.”
That bleak assessment has been shared by a number of Israeli commentators including the veteran columnist Nahum Barnea writing in Yedioth Ahoronth on Sunday. “The writing was on the wall – it was on the table, in was in every discussion held, in the assessments made by the professionals, veteran [Shin Bet] agents and police officials ...
“In meetings that were held after the metal detectors had already been installed, both the [Shin Bet]and the IDF [Israeli military] warned that that decision was liable to spark a terrible wave of violence in Israel in the territories and to destabilise moderate Arab regimes.”