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Worshipers return to synagogue; Israel begins razing homes Worshipers return to synagogue; Israel begins razing homes
(about 5 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Jewish worshipers returned Wednesday to the Jerusalem synagogue where five Israelis were killed yesterday while Palestinians braced for punishing home demolitions as the city descended deeper into a cycle of terror attacks and violent protest over its religious sites. JERUSALEM — Israelis joined in prayerful solidarity and dealt out harsh punishment Wednesday as worshipers returned to a Jerusalem synagogue where five people died in a Palestinian attack and security forces demolished the home of an assailant from earlier bloodshed.
Israeli security forces early Wednesday demolished the east Jerusalem home of the Palestinian man involved in the October attack on Jerusalem’s light rail system that killed a 3-month-old baby girl and a 22-year-old woman. The twin scenes — one in an enclave of Orthodox Judiasm and the other in mostly Arab East Jerusalem — underscored the widening cycle of violence gripping Jerusalem and the fears and anger that could harden positions on both sides.
The man, Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, was shot dead by police after he rammed his car into a crowded train stop. Israel has threatened to demolish the family homes of any Palestinians who have attacked Israelis. For weeks, Jerusalem has been at a center of clashes, protests and deadly attacks that began over one of the city’s major flash points: a contested religious site considered holy by both Jews and Muslims.
Jewish worshipers, meanwhile, prayed at the synagogue in the Orthodox west Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof where two Palestinian cousins wielding meat cleavers, knives and a handgun killed four rabbis and a policeman Tuesday. Tensions reached new and volatile levels Tuesday after the worst violence in Jerusalem in years when two Palestinian cousins — armed with meat cleavers, knives and a handgun — stormed a synagogue and left a death toll that included three Israeli-American rabbi, a British-Israeli rabbi and an Israeli policeman.
In reaction to the violence, Israel’s Public Security Minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, announced he would “ease restrictions” on Israelis carrying guns for self-defense. He indicated the rule change could affect anyone with a gun licence — private security guards and off-duty army officers, for example — allowing them to be armed even when off duty. The attackers were killed by police and Israeli authorities moved quickly to broaden the response.
Israel’s Economy Minister Naftali Bennett has called on the government to launch a military operation in the country’s restive East Jerusalem district in order to “go to the source” of terror in the holy city. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu said the homes of those linked to recent “terrorist” attacks would be razed. Another senior government official urged authorities to go further and launch a full-scale military operation in East Jerusalem.
“We need to move from defence to attack, like we did in Operation Defensive shield,” Bennett told Israel’s Army Radio in an interview. Officials wasted little time to make good on Netanyahu’s policies.
Security forces destroyed the home of a Palestinian man involved in the October attack on Jerusalem’s light rail system that killed a 3-month-old baby girl and a 22-year-old woman. The attacker, Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, was shot dead by police.
Amid the rubble, al-Shaludi’s grandmother echoed Palestinian defiance. “No one should feel sorry for us, for our demolished home,” she told the Associated Press, refusing to give her full name for fear of reprisals.
The home-razing tactic was common a decade ago, but Israel has rarely used it in recent years.
Jewish worshipers, meanwhile, prayed at the synagogue in the west Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof. A day earlier, its floor was covered by blood-splattered books and prayer shawls. One photo showed the arm of a rabbis, wrapped in scripture-laden tefillin, lying in pools of blood.
The gathering also sought to reach across religius lines to include members of minority communities including Christians, Druze and even a Muslim envoy.
“It was my duty to come here and show solidarity with the families of those killed and with the community,” said Mohammed Kiwan, head of the union of imams in Israel.
He kept his calm as Jewish students accused him — and all Muslims -- of inciting violence to kill Jews.
“We condemn all acts of violence,” he responded. “This is a house of worship and it is irrelevant if it was a Muslim or a Jew that was killed here.”
Palestinians still refer the Har Nof neighborhood as Deir Yassin, the name of the Arab village they claim was stormed by Israeli paramilitary forces in 1948 in a deadly raid shortly before Israeli statehood. Israeli denies the Palestinians accounts.
“All of us are scared that there will be a religious war, that extremists from both sides will start fighting each other,” said Oded Wiener, from the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land, which organized the event at the synagogue.
“It is our role, as religious leaders, to be the compass and conscience of every person of faith and to highlight all injustices,” he added.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis condemned the synagogue slayings and urged both sides to end the “spiral of hatred and violence and take courageous decisions for reconciliation and peace.”
“To build peace is difficult,” Francis said at his weekly general audience, “but to live without peace is a torment.”
But Israel appeared to be moving toward more aggressive actions, which were likely to provoke Palestinian outrage and possible backlash.
Israel’s Public Security Minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, announced he would “ease restrictions” on Israelis carrying guns for self-defense. He indicated the rule change could affect anyone with a gun licence — private security guards and off-duty army officers, for example — allowing them to be armed even when off duty.
Israel’s Economy Minister Naftali Bennett also called on the government to launch a military operation “go to the source” of terror in the holy city.
“We need to move from defence to attack, like we did in Operation Defensive shield,” Bennett told Israel’s Army Radio, citing the name for the military campaign waged during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, more than a decade ago.
“Go in with Border Police forces, make arrests, create intelligence channels, stay there on a permanent basis, not just when there’s a terror attack,” he added.“Go in with Border Police forces, make arrests, create intelligence channels, stay there on a permanent basis, not just when there’s a terror attack,” he added.
Many Israelis were especially stunned by the sense of violation created by Tuesday’s attack, which killed three Americans and one British rabbi. An Israeli police officer who rushed to the scene also died later of wounds suffered in the gruesome attack. In a nationally televised address hours after Tuesday’s attack, Netanyhu blamed Palestinian leaders for inciting violence — making no specific distinctions between the anti-Israeli faction Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the potential peace talk partners in the West Bank led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Photographs of the attack’s aftermath, released by the Israeli government, showed prayer shawls, an open prayer book and the arm of one of the four rabbis, wrapped in scripture-laden tefillin, lying in pools of blood. Hamas praised the synagogue attack, while Abbas denounced it as against “all religious principles.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Palestinian leaders of inciting the violence and committing “blood libel” by suggesting that Jews were responsible for the death this week of a Palestinian bus driver who Israeli police say committed suicide by hanging. In a sign of possible political rifts, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Yoram Cohen, the chief of the Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet, as saying Abbas has not been inciting terror attacks.
He ordered the destruction of the East Jerusalem homes of those linked to recent attacks. Seven Israelis have been killed in recent weeks as Palestinians rammed a car into passengers awaiting a Jerusalem Light Rail train and slashed people with knives at a bus stop in the West Bank and at a train station in Tel Aviv. “This is a battle over Jerusalem,’’ Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address, insisting that Israelis would never give up their claims to the contested city. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which is annexed and occupied by Israel, to be the capital of any future Palestinian state.
The home-razing tactic was common a decade ago, but Israel has rarely used it in recent years. Netanyahu said Tuesday the demolitions are an effective deterrent against further attacks.
“This is a battle over Jerusalem,’’ he said in a nationally televised address, insisting that Israelis would never give up their claims to the contested city. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which is annexed and occupied by Israel, to be the capital of any future Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, denounced Tuesday’s slayings and said such attacks “violate all religious principles and do not serve the common interest we are trying to promote – establishing a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.”
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Yoram Cohen, the chief of the Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet, as saying Abbas has not been inciting terror attacks.
That could not be said of the Islamist Palestinian militant movement Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip. Its spokesman, Sami Abu Zahri, praised what he called “the Jerusalem operation” and called for a “continuation of the revenge operations.”
Hamas did not assert responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, but loudspeakers in Gaza praised the Palestinians who carried it out. Zahri said it was a response to the “execution” of the Palestinian bus driver, Yusuf Hasan al-Ramuni, who was found hanging in his bus Monday. An Israeli autopsy concluded that his death was a suicide.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another militant organization, asserted responsibility for the synagogue attack. But police said they were still investigating the claim, and relatives of the Palestinian assailants said the cousins were not members of any Palestinian faction.The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another militant organization, asserted responsibility for the synagogue attack. But police said they were still investigating the claim, and relatives of the Palestinian assailants said the cousins were not members of any Palestinian faction.
The attack took place in the quiet West Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof, popular with Americans and others undertaking studies in Judaism. Among the dead was Mosheh Twersky, dean of an English-speaking religious school in Jerusalem and a member of one of the most respected families in Orthodox Jewish scholarship. Among the dead was Mosheh Twersky, dean of an English-speaking religious school in Jerusalem and a member of one of the most respected families in Orthodox Jewish scholarship.
The State Department identified the other slain Americans as Aryeh Kupinsky and Cary William Levine (who was also known as Kalman Levine). Israeli authorities identified the British victim as Avraham Goldberg. All had dual Israeli citizenship.The State Department identified the other slain Americans as Aryeh Kupinsky and Cary William Levine (who was also known as Kalman Levine). Israeli authorities identified the British victim as Avraham Goldberg. All had dual Israeli citizenship.
Ya’akov Amos, who was inside the synagogue at the time of the attack, described the scene as one of carnage and shock. Mirit Sandori, a Har Nof resident who works at a supermarket, said she was shocked but not surprised.
“I was praying quietly when all of a sudden I heard gunshots from outside in the hallway, and then suddenly one of the terrorists came right past me shouting, ‘Allahu Akhbar!’ I heard the shots — one, two, three — and was just praying to God that he would save us,” Amos said. “We have no security in this neighborhood, and the situation has been tense in Jerusalem for a long time,” said Sandori, who said she works with Palestinians from East Jerusalem in the supermarket. “Lately, they have been looking at us with cold eyes, eyes of hate.”
Israel police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said five other people were wounded in the attack, including the police officer who later died.
“What I saw was horrifying,” said Avi Nefoussi, a paramedic who was among the first to enter the synagogue after the attackers were killed. “I saw several bodies lying on the floor — some were people that I knew — and two people badly injured from gunshots.”
Mirit Sandori, a Har Nof resident who works at a supermarket, said she was shocked but not surprised. “We have no security in this neighborhood, and the situation has been tense in Jerusalem for a long time,” said Sandori, who said she works with Palestinians from East Jerusalem in the supermarket. “Lately, they have been looking at us with cold eyes, eyes of hate.”
President Obama condemned the attack and called on all sides to lower tensions.
“Innocent people who had come to worship died in the sanctuary of a synagogue,” Secretary of State John F. Kerry said shortly after the attack, his voice quavering. He said the victims “were hatcheted, hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror.”
Kerry echoed Netanyahu by referring to the killings as “a pure result of incitement.”
The attack was reminiscent of the Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings, of past years and appeared likely to inflame a city strained by tensions.
Many Palestinians were deeply angered by Israel’s decision last month to suspend access to the Al-Aqsa mosque in an area known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, a holy site to both religions.Many Palestinians were deeply angered by Israel’s decision last month to suspend access to the Al-Aqsa mosque in an area known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, a holy site to both religions.
The Israeli restrictions — which are now lifted — came after a Palestinian gunman tried to kill an Israeli American activist who wants Jews to be allowed to pray at the site. Jews and Christians are normally allowed to visit the area as tourists. But they are banned from praying, singing or making religious displays.The Israeli restrictions — which are now lifted — came after a Palestinian gunman tried to kill an Israeli American activist who wants Jews to be allowed to pray at the site. Jews and Christians are normally allowed to visit the area as tourists. But they are banned from praying, singing or making religious displays.
Weeks of unrest have followed. Any fresh crackdowns in East Jerusalem — such as home demolitions — could touch off more street battles in the area. Sufian Taha in Jerusalem, Brian Murphy in Washington and Daniela Deane in London contributed to this report.
In Jabel Mukaber, where the two Palestinian assailants lived, concrete barricades, smoldering tires and rocks lay strewn along the main road, evidence of clashes between residents and Israeli police early Tuesday.
Sufian Taha in Jerusalem and Daniela Deane in London contributed to this report.