During the Israeli celebration of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) on September 27 extremist Israeli settlers from the surrounding illegal settlements attempted to enter the sacred Al-Aqsa Sanctuary in a move that was deliberately provocative. Such attempts have always resulted in violence in the past, and the Israeli settlers are usually accompanied by Israeli police and heavily armed soldiers who use violent and disproportionate force against civilian Palestinian worshippers within the Masjid.
In 2000, Ariel Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa compound flagged by hundreds of soldiers, resulting in clashes where 47 Palestinians were killed, resulting in the six year long al-Aqsa Intifada during which 5,500 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis were killed.
Tensions were raised again on October 9 when the Israeli army prevented all Palestinian men under the age of 50 from praying the Friday Jum’a prayers within the Sanctuary, forcing thousands to pray in the streets surrounding the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. Israeli deployed 2,000 security personnel in the city. Riots that followed spread across the West Bank including the town of Qalandia and the Shafit refugee camp. These were met with deadly force by Israeli soldiers firing stun grenades, tear gas canisters and rubber coated bullets.
Israeli forces also arrested the Palestinian leader of the Islamic movement in Israel (and former mayor of Um al-Fahm), Sheikh Raed Salah, and kept him incarcerated until he was released by a Jerusalem court. However, the court ruled that Sheikh Salah could not enter the Blessed city for 30 days.
Protests spread across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including in Ramallah and Gaza city. Christian Palestinians also staged protests in solidarity with the Muslims, with sit-ins at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The rise in tensions and the angry mood that is being witnessed across the Palestinian territories are the culmination of over three years of brutal Israeli policies, concentrated on the Gaza Strip but also witnessed across the West Bank, showing disregard for the lives and property of Palestinians.
The battle for Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Sanctuary has been particularly pronounced, especially as Israel is allowing extremist hard-line Jewish settlers to occupy Palestinian homes from which residents have been evicted. There are also concerns about the tunnelling that Israel has carried out under the al-Aqsa Sanctuary which have weakened its foundation in parts leading to fears of collapse in the event of earth tremors.
Many Palestinians argue that the demolition of their homes, their deportation and the deliberate changing structure of the Old City of Jerusalem are all engineered attempts to ‘Judaize’ the city ahead of any final status negotiations.
Immense anger also followed the debacle at the UN Human Rights Commission where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas effectively buried the Goldstone Report which, for the first time, provided a means for bringing Israeli political and military leaders accused of War Crimes before an international criminal court for trial. This move by the US and Israel and backed Fatah leader, who enjoys very little support from the Palestinian people, proved to be the tipping point.
Goldstone’s report being shelved until March 2010, followed by the Israeli provocation against al-Aqsa Sanctuary has resulted in palpable anger not just within the Palestinian territories, but all over the world. Once again Israel’s actions in undermining the sanctity of the al-Aqsa Sanctuary could be the making of the third Intifada.
by Ismail Patel, October 2009