Monday, October 05, 2009

This (was) is a planned attack-designed to incite


Police find wheelbarrows with rocks in Al Aqsa compound
Oct. 5, 2009
abe selig and jpost.com staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jerusalem police explained their decision to allow only worshipers over the age of 50 into the Temple Mount on Monday, revealing that wheelbarrows filled with rocks had been discovered throughout the Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday. Palestinians filled the wheelbarrows with stones in preparation for riots in the Old City, police assessed. The wheelbarrows, in addition to intelligence information and the call on Palestinian to "come and defend" Al-Aqsa, led the police to restrict entrance to the Temple Mount.

Large forces of police and border police were patrolling the city on Monday, as thousands of Jewish worshipers flocked to the Western Wall Plaza for the twice-yearly Priestly Blessing, which went ahead without incident.

In the wake of recent clashes between police and Palestinian rioters in the Old City, Jerusalem police chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco said the capital's Muslim residents are "ungrateful."

"There's a certain degree of ungratefulness from the city's Muslim population," Franco said, "after the police worked hard to allow peaceful prayers on the Temple Mount over the month of Ramadan." He added that police would work to prevent any further disturbances in Jerusalem.

His comments came after Palestinian youths threw rocks at haredim on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives earlier in the day. Police arrested the rioters, and no casualties or damage were reported.

Earlier Monday, Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonowitz called on people of all religions to be patient and show restraint, Israel Radio reported.

The public security minister said that full forces of police were on patrol in order the keep the peace.

On Sunday evening, police had announced that they were keeping the Temple Mount compound closed to visitors and restricting entrance to Muslim worshipers, saying that they were "taking no chances" regarding the possibility of further disturbances in and around Jerusalem's Old City.

"A large police presence, which will continue with patrols throughout the alleyways of the Old City and surrounding east Jerusalem neighborhoods, will be felt on Monday, as our forces continue to ensure the ongoing calm that presided over the area by Sunday afternoon remains that way," a police spokesman said. "We're taking no chances."

In Sunday morning's clashes, Palestinians began throwing rocks and bottles at officers after they were informed that the Temple Mount compound had been closed for security reasons.

Two officers were lightly wounded and three rioters were arrested, while border policemen closed off roads around the Old City and rioters moved into the Wadi Joz neighborhood to its north, where residents briefly joined in the disturbances, but were soon dispersed.

The decision to close the Temple Mount came after rumors of a "Jewish takeover" of the compound circulated throughout east Jerusalem over the weekend and calls were issued for Muslim men to "come and defend" the mount.

"Based on that information, and other concrete indications we received that led us to believe large-scale disturbances were possible, the decision was made to completely close off the Temple Mount sometime in the early hours of [Sunday] morning," a police spokesman said. That closure was later scaled-back to allow all females and men over the age of 50 entry to the compound, provided they have the blue Israeli ID cards held by Israelis and nearly all Jerusalem residents.

Heeding the calls, more than 100 young men from east Jerusalem are believed to have made their way into the compound over the weekend. They refused to leave throughout most of Sunday afternoon, although police said they left in the early evening without incident.

Senior Fatah official Hatem Abdul Qadar was arrested on suspicion of inciting the riots, but was later released on NIS 10,000 bail, on the condition that he refrain from entering the Old City and that he remain at least 250 meters from its gates for 15 days.

Qadar served in the past as the Palestinian Authority's minister for Jerusalem affairs, after previously acting as PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad's adviser on Jerusalem affairs.

Many of the rioters involved in Sunday morning's disturbances are thought to have traveled to the capital from the country's north, and the deputy leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel's northern branch, Sheikh Kamal Khatib, was also arrested, and later released, on the condition that he refrain from entering Jerusalem for 15 days.

Jordan on Sunday evening rebuked Israel for the clashes earlier in the day and expressed dismay at Jerusalem's decision to restrict entry to the Temple Mount on Monday.

Israel's ambassador in Amman, Yaakov Rosen, was summoned for a meeting with the head of Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh's bureau. Rosen was handed a letter demanding that Israel immediately stop the "disturbances" in east Jerusalem and at the Aksa Mosque.

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said that in the meeting, Rosen stressed that Israel has been handling the situation responsibly, responding with restraint despite the violent provocation by hostile Muslim groups.

Rosen explained that Israel acted legally, and that the clashes in the Old City would not have erupted had the Muslims not incited violence.

Judeh also sent a letter of protest to the ambassadors of the five permanent member-states of the UN Security Council, in which he called on the council to pressure Israel over the matter.

The clashes, which came two days after the US State Department called on its citizens to avoid the entirety of the Old City over Succot, continued to flare up in the afternoon, with firebombs reportedly thrown at Border Police officers in the southeast Silwan neighborhood and near the checkpoint leading into the Shuafat refugee camp in the capital's northeast. No injuries or damage were reported in those incidents.

Nonetheless, all was calm in and around the Old City by evening, police reported, but tensions remained high as tens of thousands of Jewish worshipers were expected to converge on the Western Wall and Jewish Quarter, as the priestly blessing will be recited by hundreds of Kohanim on Monday morning.

Still, a police spokesman underscored that despite the unrest in the Muslim Quarter and scattered violence throughout east Jerusalem, Succot festivities in the Jewish Quarter had gone off without a hitch on Sunday, and in light of a beefed-up presence by security forces on Monday, he expected no change to occur in the ongoing calm there.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1254673319539&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Comment: This is intentional-funding and other support from outside the region-designed to take focus off of other issues-designed to have Israel play defense and it is continuing the PR strategy of"controlling" the lead media stories. There are many ways to combat this-we have done our best, to date, to engage the Israeli government-we are prepared to help. Politics are stopping us.

No comments: