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MIDEAST: Is Jerusalem Burning?
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM, Oct 26 (IPS) - Déjà vu on one of the world's most volatile religious sites, a site deeply revered
by both Muslims and Jews.
On Sunday, Israeli police helicopters circle over the Al-Aqsa mosque and the
adjacent Golden Dome of the Rock from where Muslims believe the Prophet
Muhammad ascended to heaven and where, for Jews, two Biblical temples
once stood.
In the narrow alleyways below, heavy Israeli police reinforcements, batons,
tear-gas and shock grenades at the ready in order to confront young
Palestinian protesters.
On the contested 'Temple Mount' (for Jews), 'Haram el-Sharif' or 'Noble
Sanctuary' (for Muslims), clashes soon erupt - dozens are lightly injured on
both sides; the Israeli police arrest 21 Palestinians, among them the former
Palestinian Authority minister in charge of Jerusalem, Hatim Abdel Qader.
The Mount is closed to worshippers and tourists alike.
On Monday, the police reopen the site.
That's the nub of the problem: Muslims fear that extremist Jews want to
infiltrate the holy compound in the guise of visitors in order to stage
demonstrative prayers there.
This stokes Muslim and Arab fears that such demonstrations are a prelude to
a full-scale Israeli takeover of the holy site. That, Israel categorically denies,
is its intention.
But, over the years, the disputed site has become the focal point of besieged
national pride for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Ever since the 1967 Arab-Israel war when Israel took control of Jerusalem's
walled Old City, the holy compound has been left under the administration of
the Muslim religious authority, the Waqf. This pragmatic approach was aided
by a pervasive ruling of most leading rabbis that, precisely because it is
considered the holiest site in Judaism, Jews should not set foot there until
God has rebuilt the Temple.
But, over the years of occupation, the site has become more and more a
fixation for nationalist religious Jews who are challenging, and often
trampling on, the traditional rabbinical consensus.
That's what lies behind the intermittent clashes which have been going on
since the start of the Jewish high holiday season a month ago.
The current tension was apparently precipitated by news that such ultra-
nationalist Jewish groups were coming together for a meeting to promote the
cause of "returning to the Temple."
That, in turn, triggered Muslim hardliners who, like their Jewish counterparts,
want to change the fragile 42-year status quo, and to block all hope of
progress towards a negotiated agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
Indeed, the Jewish hardliners are not concealing their goal.
At a meeting, organised by 'The Temple Institute' which declares itself
dedicated to "eventually rebuilding the Temple", Prof. Hillel Weiss of the
religious university, Bar Ilan, urged, "The Temple must be built now. The
mosques do not have to be destroyed in order for us to do this."
A prominent settler rabbi, Dov Lior, said, "It is vital that the Israeli people visit
Temple Mount."
"At present the Muslims have the momentum," said Rabbi Yaakov Meidan.
"But if Jews were to increase their presence, hundreds and thousands were to
keep coming to the Temple Mount, then we would gain the momentum."
Several parliamentarians belonging to the governing coalition attended the
meeting including Tzipi Hotovely of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
Likud party. "The more we back away from Temple Mount, the more violence
will increase. Not only will it increase, it will spread to other parts of
Jerusalem," Hotovely insisted.
Palestinians across the political board as well as Arab leaders in the region
warn of dire consequences if Israel is not curbed.
"The international community must intervene and demand an end to Israeli
incitement," said the chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. "Otherwise we
fear that violence may spiral out of control.
"This latest assault on Al-Aqsa is part of a systematic and deliberate policy of
incitement," Erekat added. "By escalating tensions to the point of violence,
the Israeli government is looking for an escape clause to avoid meaningful
negotiations."
Erekat reported that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will
soon meet King Mohammed VI of Morocco, who chairs the Organisation of
the Islamic Conference's Al-Quds (Jerusalem) committee, to urge action.
Jordan is also urging Israel to rein in its extremists. "We are extremely worried
about the provocative behaviour," said Nabil Sharif, the kingdom's minister of
state for media and communications, in a statement.
In Damascus, Hamas's top political official, Khaled Mash'al, warned in a
televised news conference that Israel could attempt to divide Al-Aqsa and
"force their religious rituals on it," a clear reference to the division of the
Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of the Patriarchs, half of which is under direct Israeli
control, in the West Bank town of Hebron.
"Jerusalem's fate will not be decided in negotiations but in the balance of
confrontation and resistance," Mash'al predicted.
Exactly nine years ago, Ariel Sharon, then Israel's opposition leader, staged a
deliberate challenge to the status quo when he provocatively visited the
Mount. That sparked the second Palestinian Intifadah uprising.
The question now on everyone's lips is, will another Intifadah erupt from the
latest confrontations?
On the surface, two key processes would seem to point ominously in that
direction.
There is a deepening stalemate in peacemaking, and extremist voices on both
sides are gaining ground, threatening to push both the Israeli and the
Palestinian political establishments towards a showdown which both say they
do not want.
On the other hand, analysts note, a third key ingredient for a renewed
uprising is absent - Palestinian unity. That remains a running sore, with
President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas leadership in Gaza
uncompromisingly at loggerheads with one another.
Palestinian divisions in turn constitute a major obstacle in the way of U.S.-led
efforts to rekindle peace hopes through Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
And, in the absence of a political alternative, no one can guarantee that
rational assessments will not be set aside, and the 'extreme faithful' on both
sides will come to dictate whether Jerusalem burns or not.
(END/2009)
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