Hit Back Hard Now
Print Edition
Photo by: Ariel Jerozolimski
Palestinian unrest erupts in e. J'lem
By AP, JPOST.COM STAFF, ABE SELIG AND BEN HARTMAN
16/03/2010
Arab buses from North turned back; 10 Arabs arrested in capital; 2 cops wounded.
Dozens of masked Palestinians were hurling rocks at Israeli police and burning tires in the east Jerusalem neighborhoods Wadi Joz, Issawiya and Abu Tor on Tuesday morning. Ten Palestinians have been arrested so far on suspicion of stone-throwing and disruptions. In addition, a Jewish activist who attempted to enter the Temple Mount through the Mughrabi Gate was arrested after he attacked policemen barring his way.
A border policeman was lightly wounded by a rock thrown at him. He was evacuated for medical attention. Another policeman was lightly wounded by a rock that hit his leg.
Two buses of Arabs from the North on their way to Jerusalem on Tuesday were turned back by police, who suspected that the passengers were heeding the call to take part in unrest in the capital. One passenger was arrested after he attacked a policeman who boarded the bus.
Overnight Monday two Molotov cocktails were thrown at Jewish-owned Beit Yehonatan building in Silwan, causing light damage to the structure.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said police fired stun grenades to disperse dozens of protesters at one site. He said village elders helped end protests at another site.
Police presence is high after Hamas militants joined the Islamic Movement's call for a "day of rage" against Israel following its rededication of a synagogue in the Old City.
Monday’s rededication of the historic Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter brought police to brace for the possibility of renewed clashes with Muslims in the capital after PA officials this week called for them to gather on the Temple Mount.
On Sunday, top Fatah official and holder of its Jerusalem portfolio, Khatem Abd el-Kader, called on Palestinians to “converge on Al-Aksa to save it” from “Israeli attempts to destroy the mosque and replace it with the temple.”
In addition, dozens of busloads carrying hundreds of Israeli Beduin from the Negev will make their way to Jerusalem every day this week, to protest what they say are Israeli threats against the Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount.
The protests, organized largely by the Islamic Movement in Israel, will include busloads of protesters from the Galilee as well.
Rumors regarding the Hurva’s reconstruction, together with a request to ascend to the Temple Mount that was filed last week by a Jewish group that seeks to build the third temple there, have given way to warnings from PA officials and Muslim clerics in east Jerusalem and the West Bank that such “Israeli attempts” were all but inevitable.
Plans by Jewish groups to commemorate “International Temple Mount Awareness Day” on Tuesday have added to the tensions, although police have made clear that the Temple Mount is closed to all visitors and that only Muslim men above the age of 50 and Muslim women were being allowed to enter the compound.
Turn back buses what mistake.
These buses both from the north and the south must be stopped, every single person on the bus identified.
Those people on the bus that are Israeli citizens must be arrested for terrorism and treason.
If the Israeli response is not tough then this might spin out of control.
Hit them hard and cut this off before it blows up in our face.
