Israel checking its limits on al-Aqsa

The escalation in violence in Jerusalem may reflect another bid by the Netanyahu government to
change the Temple Mount status quo

Meron Rapoport-Saturday 19 September 2015

Israel has considerable reserve forces ready to be deployed in times of

war. It used this tool during the high days of the 2000-2005 Second Intifada,
during the war in Lebanon in 2006 and in the various military campaigns against
Gaza.
On Friday the Israeli parliament (Knesset) allowed the military to recruit reservists

from Border Police units to tackle the growing violence in Jerusalem. The numbers
are less important than the message sent to Israelis: we are facing a serious crisis
in Jerusalem.
Clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian militants have certainly
intensified in the past week inside and around the al-Aqsa mosque compound
and elsewhere in Jerusalem. The most dramatic event occurred on the eve of the
Jewish New Year last Sunday, when a Jewish resident died from a heart attack
after his car was stoned by Palestinian youth on the unmarked but very present
"border" between Jewish and Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East
Jerusalem.
Yet up until now the scale of the clashes have not reached even the size of the
"mini-Intifada" that broke in July 2014, after a Palestinian teenager from Shuafat
neighborhood was burnt alive by a group of Jewish extremists.
The tough Israeli response, and the recruitment of police reservists, may be
explained as a show of force. But above all it has to do with the fact that the
current round of violence is seen as a battle for al-Aqsa, or Temple Mount as it is
named by Jews. For almost 100 years, violent clashes on this sensitive site have
spread violence all over Israel/Palestine.
Israeli officials, such as Internal Defense Minister Gilad Erdan, try to frame the
current clashes as an effort to restore order to this holy site and to maintain the
status quo. The Muslim militants on the mountain are depicted as the source of
violence, harassing and attacking Jewish "tourists" who only want to visit Temple
Mount, and gathering semi-military equipment like firework flare pistols and even
makeshift explosive devices.
That view works quite well in Israeli media and political circles. Prime Minister
Benyamin Netanyahu called for a tough hand against Palestinians throwing rocks
and even asked the attorney general to authorize the use of snipers against
Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem.
Internal Defense Minister Erdan also suggested the judges who will give "mild"
sentences on Palestinians convicted in rock throwing would not be promoted.
But Israel is far from being innocent in the current escalation around al-Aqsa.
About a month ago, Defense Minister Erdan announced his intention to outlaw
two Palestinian organisations, the Murabitun (men) and Murabitat (women),
whose members confront the Jewish visitors on Temple Mount and accompany

them with cries of "Allah Akbar".

Two weeks ago, restrictions on Muslim worshipers - preventing men and women
under a certain age to enter al-Aqsa - were reintroduced a year after they were
canceled. Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher in Ir Amim, a left-wing Israeli organisation
active in Jerusalem, says that this was certainly a political decision, not a police
one, as there were no significant clashes in the area during the months in which
the al-Aqsa compound was open to all Muslims.
A day before the Jewish New Year the police stormed the compound, and
allegedly found explosive devices and other materials ready to be used against
Jewish visitors and worshipers who were supposed to pray in the Western Wall,
situated just below the Temple Mount/al-Aqsa courtyard.
This raid met with violent resistance inside the al-Aqsa mosque itself and led to
clashes with Israeli police all over the Palestinian neighborhoods in East
Jerusalem. The incident in which the Jewish resident died after a rock was thrown
at his car occurred a day later.
As Erdan and other Israeli officials well know, the vast majority of Jews visiting the
compound are not innocent tourists who only wish to marvel at the beauty of the
old Muslim architecture on the mountain. They comprise political activists, from
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, from the extreme right Jewish Home party,
to Yehuda Glick, a Likud activist who visits the compound almost daily and
pressures the government to enlarge significantly the Jewish presence in the alAqsa compound.
Glick, who survived an assassination attempt by a Palestinian gunman last year,
demands that freedom of worship in al-Aqsa should not be restricted to Muslims,
but also be allowed for Jews. Nor does he hide his ultimate goal: to rebuild the
Jewish Temple on the mountain.
Glick is rather vague on the fate of the present Muslim places of prayer, but
others, such as Agriculture Minister Ariel, have expressed their wish to see the
Dome of the Rock dismantled and the Third Temple built in its place. It is no
wonder that Palestinians get nervous when they see "tourists" such as Ariel or
Glick walk near these places.
This goal seems, of course, rather impossible to achieve. So it may be that Israel
will settle for lesser achievements- such as dividing visiting areas or even prayer
hours in the area between Jews and Muslims.

The not very promising example is the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Ibrahimi mosque)
in Hebron, where the Israeli army forced a partition of this holy place between
Jewish and Muslim worshipers. It resulted in the massacre of 29 Muslim by a
Jewish gunman in 1994.
Miri Regev, the present culture minister, told MEE on October 2014, while still
serving as chairperson of the influential internal affairs committee in the Knesset,
that she was "striving in order that every citizen in Israel - Muslim, Christian or Jew
- would be able to pray in his sacred places. It is inconceivable that there will be
freedom of worship for Muslims on Temple Mount but not for Jews." In Hebron,
she claimed, "it works very well".
Erdan and Netanyahu have vowed to maintain the status quo on al-Aqsa, in place
since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. But it may be that under the guise of
"freedom of worship" for all lies that same goal to which Regev referred just a few
months ago.
As the researcher Tatarsky notes, Palestinian violence on Temple Mount against
Jewish "visitors" may help Erdan and Netanyahu portray a decision to separate
visiting and praying hours on the mountain between Jews and Muslims as almost
inevitable. The decision to prevent the Murabitun and Murabitat from entering alAqsa and a future intention to forbid Muslim worshipers from staying the night in
the mosque compound may be part of the same process. Erdan boasts that since
his new policies were adopted, the number of Jews visiting the mountain has
increased sixfold.
Yet Israel does not have to deal only with Palestinians concerning al-Aqsa.
According to Israels peace treaty with Jordan, the Hashemite kingdom has a
special status in al-Aqsa. It even pays the salaries of Waqf officials - Islamic trust
officials - responsible for managing the site - on Haram al-Sharif, or Temple
Mount.
Last November, when similar clashes erupted in al-Aqsa, King Abdullah of Jordan
summoned Netanyahu to Amman to warn him of the consequences of changing
the status quo there. The day after, Netanyahu ordered the gates of al-Aqsa be
opened to all Muslim worshipers and restricted the visits of Israeli politicians on
Temple Mount.
Now things may have changed. The new Netanyahu government formed after the
elections in March is comprised of only of right-wing parties. The new ministers
such as Regev in the culture ministry and Ayelet Shaked at the Ministry of Justice

are trying to implement their political beliefs.

Regev threatens to deprive Arab-speaking cultural institutions of public funding if
they refuse to endorse the idea of Israel as a Jewish State. Shaked wants to lead
an attack on the independence of the Israeli High Court. In such an atmosphere, it
is easier for minister Erdan to envisage a change in the status quo in al-Aqsa in
favor of Jewish political activists like Glick.
The clashes that erupted after the raid on al-Aqsa early last week spread over East
Jerusalem and seem bound to intensify, but they have not yet crossed into the
West Bank. The rocket attack from Gaza on the southern Israeli town of Sderot on
Friday night, the first one to hit a populated area since Operation Defensive Edge
last summer, can still be considered a limited escalation.
Tatarsky believes that, as in November last year, the pressure coming from
Jordan, where the king warned Israel during his meeting with Prime Minister David
Cameron early this week, that his country will not have a choice but to take
action if Israel infringes the status quo in al-Aqsa, will have its effect on
Netanyahu.
Perhaps. But with the current gung-ho mood in the Israeli government, things
may go in other ways as well. In which case, recruiting some veteran Border Police
reservists will not be enough.
- Meron Rapoport is an Israeli journalist and writer, winner of the Napoli
International Prize for Journalism for a inquiry about the stealing of olive trees
from their Palestinian owners. He is ex-head of the News Department in Haaertz,
and now an independent journalist.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily
reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo credit: An Israeli flag, displayed on a roof of an Israeli settlement in East
Jerusalem, is seen in front of the dome of the Al-Aqsa mosque
Posted by Thavam