Publié sur le site maannews.net le 25 octobre 2009 (16 heures)
Jerusalem – Ma'an – Around 30 Palestinians were injured and 16 arrested when clashes between Israeli forces and youths erupted anew in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.
Israeli forces fired stun grenades, tear-gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets in the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, while Palestinian youths were seen hurling stones and setting tires and trash ablaze, according to Ma'an's correspondent, who was reporting live from the scene.
Hatim Abdul-Qadir, the former Palestinian Authority minister of Jerusalem affairs, was among four detained near the mosque, according to Palestinian officials and Mickey Rosenfeld, an Israeli police spokesman. He said 12 other Palestinians were arrested elsewhere in East Jerusalem, which matched prior reports from Abdul-Qadir before he too was detained.
Rosenfeld added said three Israeli police officers were also injured. One was evacuated to a hospital, he said, during the clashes that reportedly started when Israeli officers and special forces deployed to the mosque compound early Sunday morning.
But the spokesman denied that police had entered the mosque, itself, although several officers were seen outside carrying ladders and crowbars, onlookers said, presumably in the event they opted to remove the dozen or so protesters holed up inside. Police cut power to the mosque's loudspeakers after they were used to urge Palestinians to gather near the compound, according to purported witnesses.
Meanwhile, confrontations erupted outside the mosque compound, where Israeli police clashed with students from Dar Al-Aytam school in the Old City after they marched through the streets chanting "Allahu akbar," the Arabic phrase for "God is great." One student was detained during that event, onlookers said.
Israeli police helicopters were seen flying through dark smoke rising over the Old City and other East Jerusalem neighborhoods, likely the result of a number of tires that were set on fire throughout the afternoon. Ma'an's correspondent said some of the fires were started by youths using stripped electrical wires near Al-Majlis Gate. Palestinians also damaged security cameras inside the compound, he added.
Police and medics offered differing explanations for how the clashes began, however.
Red Crescent medics told Ma'an that their ambulance service received a call around 8am informing responders that six Palestinians had been injured when Israeli forces stormed the mosque area and required emergency treatment. When medics arrived outside the compound, they said, Israeli forces refused them access to the injured until about 11:30am, when 22 wounded Palestinians were finally evacuated.
According to Israeli police, the area was locked down after young men poured oil around the East Jerusalem compound hoping to cause police officers to slip in the event they raided the area. Forces had already entered, apparently, because police said they did not start the day-long crackdown until after Palestinian youths began throwing stones and at least one Molotov cocktail from atop the compound.
In any case, both sides agreed that Israeli forces banned Muslims from entering the holy site in response to the violence, except for a few dozen Palestinians who holed themselves up inside the compound's mosque.
The night before, Muslim officials and institutions had called on worshippers to prevent the entry of right-wing Israeli groups and individuals who had announced their intention to enter the area under armed guard.
The Jerusalem Post, an English-language Israeli newspaper, reported that a religious group calling itself "Eretz Israel Shelanu" had urged its followers "to properly arise to the Temple Mount." The visit was thought to be in commemoration of a visit by the Maimonides 843 years ago, the newspaper added, noting that a number of Israeli lawmakers and rabbis were among those expected to participate.
A number of officials condemned what they termed Israel's provocative measures in the city.
Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian member of the Knesset, accused Israel of trying to take control of the compound. He called on Arab and Islamic countries to unite to counter "[Benjamin] Netanyahu's aggressive policies."
Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine, warned that the crisis could escalate. He told Al-Jazeera that Israeli forces assaulted worshippers indiscriminately, including women and mosque guards. Police attempted to break into the mosque building and the Dome of the Rock, Hussein added, a charge that Ma'an could not substantiate and Israeli police denied.
Believed by Muslims to be the spot where Muhammad ascended to heaven, Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam. The compound, with its golden Dome of the Rock, is also a focal point of Palestinian national pride. Both holy sites sit atop what Israelis and many Jews refer to as the Temple Mount, where the Jewish First and Second Temples were thought to have stood.
The location is especially sensitive because some extremists, from various religious backgrounds, seek the mosque's demolition in order to construct a "Third Temple." The most notable attempt was in 1969, when an Australian national set Al-Aqsa ablaze in an attempt to herald the second coming of Christ.
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