Israeli police storm Jerusalem site
February 28, 2010
 
At least six Palestinians have reportedly been injured after Israeli police forces stormed a holy site in Jerusalem to disperse Muslim worshippers.

Palestinian sources said that Israeli forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the worshippers holding protests in the al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sunday.

Israel said the situation was calm and denied that rubber bullets had been fired.

Micky Rosenfeld, the Israeli police spokesman, said that the police force dispersed about 20 masked protesters who were inside the compound.

The police said protesters had thrown stones at visitors to the complex.

The area, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount, has been a frequent flashpoint for conflicts before, with even low-level scuffles escalating into drawn-out battles.

Sherine Tadros, reporting for Al Jazeera from Jerusalem on Sunday, said: "This was all sparked early this morning when - according to the Israeli police - there was a group of tourists entering the al-Aqsa compound in the Old City.

"They were pelted with rocks by the Palestinian demonstrators [who] decided to keep on with their resistance to the entry of these tourists into the Haram compound.

"That sparked clashes outside and near the area, which has resulted in an escalation ... outside the walls of the Old City."

Reporting later from the scene, our correspondent said: "There's a heavy police presence but it does seem calm now."

A visit to the al-Asa mosque compound in 2000 by Ariel Sharon, then an Israeli opposition leader and later prime minister, is blamed for igniting deadly clashes that escalated into the popular Palestinian uprising known as al-Aqsa Intifada.
 
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies 

Clashes erupt at Al-Aqsa mosque after stone attack

Agence France-Presse
Jerusalem, February 28, 2010

Clashes broke out at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Sunday after police entered to arrest Palestinians who had hurled rocks at visitors they believed were Jewish extremists.

At least 13 people were wounded just outside the compound when dozens of Palestinians pelted stones at Israeli police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, according to an AFP correspondent.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said security forces entered the compound after Muslim worshippers threw rocks at the group of unidentified visitors.

"Around 20 young people are holed up inside the mosque, and as a preventive measure we have decided to limit access to the esplanade to men over the age of 50," as well as women and children, he added.

Dozens of police wearing riot gear were deployed throughout the narrow streets of the Old City as loudspeakers on minarets called on Muslims to "save Jerusalem."

An official from Jerusalem's Islamic Supreme Committee said the Palestinians hurled stones at people they believed to be Jewish extremists intending to pray at the site and upset the delicate status quo.

"They threw rocks because (Israeli) settlers have been surrounding the compound for two or three days and had said they intended to enter on Sunday or Monday to pray at Al-Aqsa," Adnan Husseini told AFP.

Jews, who observe the Purim holiday on Sunday and Monday, are allowed into the compound, but authorities prevent them from praying there.

The Al-Aqsa mosque compound is Islam's third-holiest site, after Mecca and Medina. Muslims refer to it as the Al-Haram Al-Sharif and believe it to be the place where the Prophet Mohammed made a night journey to heaven on horseback.

It is the holiest site in the world for Jews, who believe it was the location of the Second Temple, torched by the Romans in 70 AD, and refer to it as the Temple Mount.

The site has been bitterly contested for decades, and the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, erupted there in September 2000 after a visit by Ariel Sharon, a right-wing politician who went on to become Israeli prime minister.

Violence erupted on several occasions starting last September after Muslim worshippers hurled stones at people they believed to be Jews seeking to pray at the site during major holidays.

Israeli authorities insisted the visitors were French tourists.

The latest disturbances comes after days of clashes in the West Bank town of Hebron over an Israeli plan to renovate the Tomb of the Patriarchs there, another ancient site revered by Jews and Muslims.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/

Israel digs tunnels under Old City
By MOHAMMED MAR’I | ARAB NEWS
Feb 18, 2010

RAMALLAH: The Al Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said on Thursday that “Israeli occupation authorities began digging new and wide tunnels under the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.”

In a press statement, the foundation said that the new diggings were concentrated between Bab Al-Sahirah and Bab Al-Amoud, located under the northern wall of the Old City.

It added that the Israeli authorities were planning to build new tunnels to connect them with a network of tunnels that leads to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The foundation warned that the excavations will weaken the foundation of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Sheikh Mohammed Hussein criticized the Israeli move.

Hussein told Arab News that Israeli authorities are trying to find proof of the alleged Second Temple under the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He said that the authorities have failed to prove Jewish presence in the holy city or that the Temple ever existed.

Hussein called the new excavations a provocative act. He urged Arab and Muslim states to take action to stop the Israeli move.

In a separate development, Israeli forces operating in the West Bank cities early Thursday arrested 11 Palestinians.

Palestinian security sources said that 11 were detained in Hebron, Nablus and Jenin. Israeli security sources told the Army Radio that the detainees were taken to unknown locations for questioning by the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet.

Also on Thursday, Israeli forces raided the home of the wanted Palestinian activist Ammar Khader and threatened to kill him.

The Palestinian sources said that the forces raided Khader’s home in the village of Anza and told his father that his son will be killed if he does not turn himself in to the Israeli Army.

Tamimi: Israel working to build Third Temple
Monday 15/02/2010

Jerusalem – Ma'an – Supreme Judge Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi said Monday that Israeli institutions, settler groups and the government are working to fulfill 18th century Rabbi Vilna Goan's prophecy declaring that the Third Temple would be re-built by 16 March 2010.

He said archeological excavations have caused structural damage to the Al-Marwani Mosque, under the Al-Aqsa Mosque's northern walls, and to Palestinian homes in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The sheikh further alleged that a plan had been implemented in 1993 to intensify efforts to "Judaize" Jerusalem by establishing two major settlements around the city and a military brigade dedicated to closing off the city and separating it from its surrounding neighborhoods.

Tamimi said the plan included the shutting down of Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem, the expulsion of dignitaries and the revoking of Israeli ID cards of Jerusalem residents in Beit Hanina, Shu'fat, El-Essawiya, At-Tour and Silwan.

Additionally, a network of tunnels would be constructed to connect settlers to the Old City, he claimed.

By the end of this process, some 36,000 Palestinians living in the Old City will be displaced, Tamimi said, calling on conveners of the Arab League Summit in Libya next month to create a plan to "save Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque."