Israeli police mobilized reinforcements from across the country to secure volatile Yerushalayim today, deploying thousands of officers on city streets for fears that two days of clashes with Palestinian protesters would escalate. Rumors that Israeli extremists planned to march on the Har Habayis apparently fueled the unrest. No such march has taken place, but the low-level violence has inflamed passions and stoked breathless reports in the Israeli and Arab media.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said today that Netanyahu was “following the events” and holding consultations with security officials.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said thousands of police were called in to secure the city today, describing the reinforcements as exceptional.
Israel has accused Muslim leaders from the country’s Arab minority of inciting the disturbances.
“Israel is working on a daily basis to Judaize Jerusalem by building settlements, not permitting (Palestinians) to build and by assaults on the Al-Aqsa mosque, like we see today,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Yemen’s state-run TV .
Yerushalayim’s 220,000 Arabs and 550,000 Jews live in an uneasy coexistence that frequently leads to friction.
On Sunday, rumors circulated among the Palestinians that Jewish extremists planned to invade or damage the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and about 150 demonstrators streamed to the hilltop compound where they hurled rocks and bottles at Israeli police.
The disturbances continued the next day, as Palestinian protesters hurled stones at mispallelim outside the Old City and a Palestinian teenager stabbed and lightly wounded an Israeli security officer in east Yerushalayim.
Jordan and Egypt both – not surprisingly – had scathing criticism for Israel. Egypt’s foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said yesterday that Arabs and Muslims “will never tolerate these Israeli measures in Jerusalem.”
Some Arab media reports appeared to feed the tensions, with the Al-Jazeera satellite station reporting at the start of the clashes that Jewish “settlers” tried to enter the disputed hilltop complex and that police had put Muslim worshippers “under siege.”
Both lies.
The main headline in a leading Palestinian newspaper, Al-Quds, blared on Monday: “A new attempt to invade Al-Aqsa Mosque fails, police suppress the people with blows and arrests.”
{Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel/Agencies}
People have to realize that these aren’t just little kids throwing pebbles but people that throw boulders and molktov cocktails with the intent to kill. (These aren’t like the shibobniks that threw rocks at the cops a little while ago)
Ikvot moshiach.
Thank G-D for all those ‘Nazi’ Israeli police and military personel who are looking to ensure the safety of the religious Jews as they practice their religious holiday rituals. Imagine if they weren’t around at the Kosel and surrounding areas.
Its scary. But it seems that if the riot police were looking for work, they have now found it.
its an old and unfortunate pattern
#3 maybe if this treyf medina hadn’t established itself frum Yidden would fine be. After all, we’ve been here over 3000 years and Medinat Israel has only been around for 60. Do you really think we need michallilei Shabbos Israelis to protect us? That’s mamish kfirah.
Don’t try to say anybody needs the nazis. Now if they want to behave like Yidden, then that’s another thing.