Violent Clashes Between Israeli Occupation Forces And Palestinians Around Holy Mosques' Compound

[Purveyor]

Occupied Jerusalem, 25 October – Violent clashes between Palestinian residents and the Israeli occupation forces erupted around the sit of the Holy Mosques in East Jerusalem. Dozens, including three Israeli officers were wounded and at least 16 Palestinians were arrested. Jivara al-Budairi, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, reported the violence in the Old City was triggered by Israeli police forces firing tear gas and stun grenades at crowds of young Palestinians, who had rushed to the site in response to rumours about an imminent invasion of Zionist extremists.

In fact, the Zionist Organization for the Defence of Human Rights on the Temple Mount had called on Jews to gather at the Holy Mosques' compound and the adjacent Western Wall, prompting various Muslim religious authorities in Palestine and abroad to call for the defence of the Palestinian holy sites. The Palestinian youths countered the Israeli police forces' tear gas and stun grenades by throwing stones. Palestinian eyewitnesses reported that the Israeli police force closed off the Holy Mosques' compound to visitors, leaving hundreds of Muslim worshippers, along with their Christian supporters, locked inside.

Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera International correspondent reporting from East Jerusalem, said: "Palestinians living in the occupied part of the city put up with a lot of indignity and harassment on a daily basis - demolitions, evictions, checkpoints. But when it comes to anything that threatens the integrity of Al-Aqsa mosque, that is where people's patience snaps and that is why we have seen such an angry response all over East Jerusalem from people who see this as a very heavy display of police might."

MORE...

Arab Monitor: http://www.arabmonitor.info/news/dettaglio.php?idnews=28730〈=en

[Purveyor]

1. AP Version of events: Violent Clashes Erupt At Jerusalem's Holiest Site

By MATTI FRIEDMAN (AP) – 2 hours ago

JERUSALEM — Israeli police firing stun grenades faced off Sunday against masked Palestinian protesters hurling stones and plastic chairs outside the Holy Land's most volatile shrine, where past violence has escalated into prolonged conflict.

A wall of Israeli riot police behind plexiglass shields marched toward young men covering their faces with T-shirts and scarves, sending many of them running for cover into the Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the Islamic structures in the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

They remained holed up in the mosque with police outside for several hours until dispersing before nightfall. Eighteen protesters were arrested, and no serious injuries were reported. But even mild troubles at the disputed compound in Jerusalem's Old City can quickly ignite widespread unrest, and police remained on high alert.

"Jerusalem is a red line that Israel should not cross," said Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh, condemning the Israeli police action.

A visit to the site in 2000 by Ariel Sharon, then an Israeli opposition leader and later prime minister, helped ignite deadly clashes that escalated into violence that engulfed Israel and the Palestinian territories for several years.

[Arctic Dave]

2. I'm suprised israel didn't drop a cluster bomb on them. They did, after all, throw rocks at them.