Violence erupts outside mosque

JERUSALEM – Israeli police faced off against Palestinians throwing rocks at Jews outside Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque yesterday during Israel’s annual celebration of its capture of all of Arab East Jerusalem 38 years ago.

Police, who hurled several stun grenades as they moved into the area known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), pulled away from the shrine about an hour later after calm was restored. Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said Palestinians had thrown stones at groups of Jews visiting the compound on “Jerusalem Day”, which marks Israel’s takeover of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.Two Jews were slightly injured and one Palestinian was arrested, he added.Israel Radio said local Muslim religious authorities had appealed to several hundred chanting Palestinians who faced off against police and waved green Islamic flags outside al-Aqsa to avoid violence.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, commenting on the incident, told reporters in the West Bank that visits by right-wing Jews to the holy site, one of the most politically sensitive in Jerusalem, could have “dire circumstances”.Jewish visitors regularly tour the compound, where two biblical temples once stood, but Israeli authorities do not allow them to pray there, enter al-Aqsa or hold any political demonstrations for fear of angering Muslims.The Temple Mount Faithful, a group of Jews that wants to build a new Jewish temple at the site, planned to march to the compound later in the day.Police blocked them in the past and media reports said they would ban any fresh attempt to enter.”Any harm to al-Aqsa will be met with martyrdom operations, rocket firings, infiltrations and bombings,” a spokesman for the militant Islamic Jihad group said in Gaza after news of violence outside the mosque.- Nampa-ReutersJerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said Palestinians had thrown stones at groups of Jews visiting the compound on “Jerusalem Day”, which marks Israel’s takeover of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.Two Jews were slightly injured and one Palestinian was arrested, he added.Israel Radio said local Muslim religious authorities had appealed to several hundred chanting Palestinians who faced off against police and waved green Islamic flags outside al-Aqsa to avoid violence.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, commenting on the incident, told reporters in the West Bank that visits by right-wing Jews to the holy site, one of the most politically sensitive in Jerusalem, could have “dire circumstances”.Jewish visitors regularly tour the compound, where two biblical temples once stood, but Israeli authorities do not allow them to pray there, enter al-Aqsa or hold any political demonstrations for fear of angering Muslims.The Temple Mount Faithful, a group of Jews that wants to build a new Jewish temple at the site, planned to march to the compound later in the day.Police blocked them in the past and media reports said they would ban any fresh attempt to enter.”Any harm to al-Aqsa will be met with martyrdom operations, rocket firings, infiltrations and bombings,” a spokesman for the militant Islamic Jihad group said in Gaza after news of violence outside the mosque.- Nampa-Reuters