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More than 100 hardline Jewish settlers occupy house in Hebron Erdoğan: Israel is harming Jerusalem’s Islamic character
(about 7 hours later)
About 120 hardline Jewish settlers have occupied a house in the old city of Hebron, citing Israel’s handling of the crisis over the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem that has sparked days of violence. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has intervened in the continuing crisis surrounding the Jerusalem holy sites by accusing Israel of undermining the city’s “Islamic character”, in comments likely to further inflame regional tensions.
The settlers broke into the building, which is located close to a religious site in the southern West Bank city – the Ibrahimi mosque and Tomb of the Patriarchs – a location that rivals the Jerusalem holy site for sensitivity. The comments by Erdoğan, which came as Muslim leaders called on Palestinians to continue prayers and protests in the city, triggered an immediate tit-for-tat with Israeli officials, who said the accusation was “absurd” and pointed to Turkey’s own human rights record.
The move came as Muslim leaders called on Palestinians in Jerusalem to continue days of prayer and protests in the streets over controversial new Israeli security measures around the compound housing al-Aqsa mosque. Protests have been held each evening outside the compound housing Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque after Israel introduced new security measures, which followed the killing of two Israeli police officers at the entrance to the shrine by three Israeli Arabs.
Ikrema Sabri said a lawyer for the waqf – the Jordanian religious institution that runs the Jerusalem compound – would meet Israelis on Wednesday to demand the removal of the remaining additional security measures at the site, including metal railings and an iron bridge with cameras on it. Speaking at a conference in Ankara, Erdoğan said: “Israel is harming Jerusalem’s Islamic character ... Nobody should expect us to remain silent against the double standards in Jerusalem.” He added that Turkey “cannot tolerate” constraints placed on Muslims visiting the site during prayers.
The occupation of the building in Hebron may complicate issues amid reports in the Israeli media that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had asked security forces to hold off clearing it. Al-Aqsa, one of Islam’s holiest sites and a symbol for Palestinians seeking their own state, is built on a compound revered by Jews as the vestige of their two ancient temples.
The building, which has been at the centre of a long-running legal dispute with settlers claiming they own its legal title, was quickly surrounded by a large force of Israeli police and soldiers. The site lies in east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in a 1967 war and annexed to form part of its “eternal, indivisible” capital – a move not recognised internationally.
Justifying the move, the settlers’ spokesman, Shlomo Levinger, said the decision to occupy the structure was made following the Israeli government “zig-zagging” over the issue of violence surrounding the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount complex, where the coalition led by Netanyahu had ordered the removal of metal detectors earlier in the day, prompting protests from the Israeli far right. Hoping to calm days of unrest, Israel removed metal detectors from the entrances to the compound, put in place after the attack on 14 July, but has said it will now install advanced CCTV cameras instead.
Palestinian residents said settlers had raised an Israeli flag on the roof of the building they had occupied, known to Israelis as Beit HaMachpela – the house of the patriarchs. Palestinians insist that any new security measures are unacceptable.
Israeli settlers were evicted from the same building after occupying it in 2012, as they had not obtained the necessary permits to purchase it in a city where there is constant friction between Hebron’s 200,000 Palestinian residents and several hundred Israeli settlers who live in the heart of the city under heavy military guard. Erdoğan’s intervention looks set to raise the temperature again, with Israel’s foreign ministry accusing Turkey of behaving as though the Ottoman empire still existed.
The anti-settlement Israeli NGO, Peace Now, called on authorities to evacuate the settlers, saying 15 families had entered the building. “After their claims of ownership had been denied, the settlers have decided to take the law into their own hands and establish an illegal settlement that might ignite the region,” Peace Now said in a statement. “It’s absurd that the Turkish government, which occupies northern Cyprus, brutally represses the Kurdish minority and jails journalists, lectures Israel, the only true democracy in the region,” said a spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon.
The occupation of the building, in the midst of the crisis over security measures at the Jerusalem holy site, follows a familiar pattern of Jewish settlers and the far-right parties that support them using high-profile political events to demand concessions that favour their agenda. The evolving crisis has seen Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority suspend security cooperation with Israel on the West Bank, as well as the nightly mass protests in Jerusalem that are beginning to take the shape of a campaign of civil disobedience.
Explicitly linking the crisis in Jerusalem to the legal battle over the building, the settlers issued a statement “calling on the government to boldly raise the banner of settlement and loyalty to the land of Israel. In the face of the murder of Jews, in the face of national stammering, we demand that the Israeli government enable the families to live in Beit HaMachpela immediately.” In a further development, around 120 hardline Jewish settlers have occupied a house in the old city of Hebron, citing Israel’s handling of the crisis over the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem.
The move by the Hebron settlers adds to an increasingly confrontational atmosphere between Israelis and Palestinians around the most flashpoint sites, which showed no signs of abating yet. The settlers broke into the building, which is located close to a religious site in the southern West Bank city – the Ibrahimi mosque and Tomb of the Patriarchs, a location that rivals the Jerusalem holy site for sensitivity.
Israel installed the detectors at entry points to the compound in Jerusalem after two police guards were fatally shot on 14 July, setting off the bloodiest clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in years. The occupation of the building follows a familiar pattern of Jewish settlers and the far-right parties that support them using high-profile political events to demand concessions that favour their agenda.
Explicitly linking the crisis in Jerusalem to the legal battle over the building, the settlers issued a statement “calling on the government to boldly raise the banner of settlement and loyalty to the land of Israel. In the face of the murder of Jews, in the face of national stammering, we demand that the Israeli government enable the families to live in Beit HaMachpela [the building] immediately.”