Some Moslem Leaders Try to Calm Situation

Following a tense morning, which saw thousands of Moslem residents gathering outside the entrances to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City but refusing to enter through the metal detectors placed there following last Friday’s shooting attack that killed two Israel police officers, Moslem prayers were held in the streets and open spaces near the Mount. Shortly after they ended, violent riots erupted near Lions Gate and some neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem, as some Islamic leaders urged their followers to revolt while others counseled patience.

“We must remember that last’s week attack was a crossing of a red line,” Police chief Roni Alsheich said. “They were trying to harm the delicate situation of the Temple Mount. But the Israel Police is here to prevent every attempt to unbalance the order here.”

The clashes followed a week which saw a great deal of white-hot rhetoric by various factions in Israel, as well as the wider Moslem world. Some Moslem leaders in the Galilee and the Negev promised to send busloads of their followers to Jerusalem to join demonstrations on Friday, while Moslem leaders in Jerusalem itself ordered neighborhood mosques to be closed and regular attendees to be encouraged to make their way to the Old City for the same purpose.

“We object to these metal detectors because they seize the control we have as the Wakf to direct al-Aksa Mosque,” said al-Aksa Mosque director Sheikh Omar Kiswani. “This is a breach for an internal case: Al-Aksa Mosque is for Muslims – only for Muslims – and we will never accept these metal detectors.”

“My clear message to the Zionist enemy is that al-Aksa and Jerusalem are a red line,” said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. “I say to the Zionist enemy that the policy of closure and of implementing punishment measures against the Jerusalemites and the holy sites will never pass. You [Israelis] never learn from history, and do not read geography. You are blinded by your power. My clear word to you is that you should stop, you are lighting a fire.”

However, many residents of eastern Jerusalem made no secret of their plans to go home early and stay there and avoid any trouble, while the police and IDF intercepted and turned back most of the buses carrying Moslem citizens from the Galilee and Negev before they made it to Jerusalem. At press time, few injuries or arrests had been reported as a result of the clashes which had broken out.