October 18, 2015

Palestinian Violence Fueled by Rumors that Israel is Plotting to Take Over the Temple Mount

Most of the attackers have been young Palestinians wielding knives and believed to be acting on their own, likely knowing they will probably be killed. Including alleged assailants, 41 Palestinians have been killed since an upsurge in violence began on October 1, while seven Israelis have lost their lives. Violent protests have also erupted in annexed east Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The violence began on October 1, when a suspected cell of the Islamist movement Hamas murdered a Jewish settler couple in the West Bank in front of their children. The attack followed repeated clashes in September between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths at east Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound. Muslims fear Israel will seek to change rules governing the site, though Netanyahu has said repeatedly he has no intention of doing so. [AFP]

Dozens of Jews illegally enter torched West Bank shrine

October 18, 2015

AP - The Israeli military removed dozens of Jewish worshippers Sunday who clashed with Palestinians after illegally entering a biblical shrine in the West Bank that was recently torched by Palestinians.

The military said some 30 Jews descended upon the Joseph's Tomb compound in Nablus, a site revered by Jews as the tomb of the biblical figure Joseph. The area is under full Palestinian control but Jewish prayer is permitted there when coordinated with authorities. The military said Sunday's visit was not, and the worshippers had no permit. When they arrived they were confronted by Palestinians and a violent clash ensued. In consultation with Palestinian security forces, the military extracted the worshippers. One of them was lightly wounded and five were taken for police questioning.

On Friday, Palestinian assailants firebombed the West Bank compound, the first assault on a religious site. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said extremists were trying to turn the current conflict into a religious one.

Sunday's incident comes after another bloody day in which Palestinian assailants carried out five stabbing attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank, as a month-long outburst of violence showed no signs of abating.

Over the past month, eight Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, most of them stabbings. In that time, 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 19 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops [Israeli warplanes carried out an air strike on October 11, demolishing a house in northern Gaza and killing a pregnant woman and her two-year-old daughter; Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas weapons manufacturing facilities in response to earlier rocket fire toward Israel].

The daily attacks have caused a sense of panic across Israel and raised fears that the region is on the cusp of a new round of heavy violence.

Israel has taken unprecedented steps in response to the attacks. It has deployed soldiers in Israeli cities and erected concrete barriers outside some Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, where most of the attackers have come from. Ordinary citizens have also increasingly taken up arms to protect themselves.

Palestinians said the roadblocks are collective punishment and ineffective in deterring attackers since those with bad intentions would try to reach Jewish neighborhoods through dirt roads anyway.

The violence erupted a month ago over the Jewish New Year, fueled by rumors that Israel was plotting to take over Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site, a hilltop compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine and a key national symbol for the Palestinians.

Israel has adamantly denied the allegations, saying it has no plans to change the status quo at the site, where Jews are allowed to visit but not pray.

It accuses the Palestinians of inciting to violence through the false claims. Palestinians say the violence is the result of nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation, more than two decades of failed peace efforts and a lack of hope for gaining independence anytime soon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his government would start going to go after the finances of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a group he accuses of being the chief inciter of the recent violence.

Netanyahu said the government has been operating on all fronts to stop the wave of attacks and will now start tackling its source, and focusing on measures against the Islamic Movement and "particularly its financial sources."
"Israel is not the problem at the Temple Mount, Israel is the solution," he said at the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting. "We will protect the status quo, we are the only ones who are doing this and we will continue to do it responsibly and seriously."

Bloomberg - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a French proposal for placing international observers at a Jerusalem shrine that has become a flashpoint spurring a wave of Palestinian attacks.

French ambassador to the United Nations Francois Delattre said Friday he would circulate a draft of the plan aiming to ease tensions at the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and Palestinians as the Noble Sanctuary. Palestinian accusations that Israel is seeking to change long-standing regulations governing the shrine have helped fuel the surge in violence.
“Israel cannot accept the French draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council,” Netanyahu said Sunday at a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “It doesn’t mention Palestinian incitement; it doesn’t mention Palestinian terrorism; and it calls for the internationalization of the Temple Mount.”
Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have blamed each other for the violence while calling for an end to the bloodshed. Peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians have been frozen since the latest round of U.S.-mediated negotiations collapsed last year.

Four Palestinians were shot dead after stabbing Israelis in east Jerusalem and the West Bank on Saturday, extending two weeks of the worst clashes since last year’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Hebron Attacks

Two of the attacks took place in the West Bank city of Hebron, where the Palestinian assailants injured an Israeli soldier and a female paramilitary border police officer with knives before they were shot, according to the Israeli police and military. In a third attack in Hebron, the assailant was shot after injuring a soldier and taken away by ambulance, according to an army spokeswoman, who said his condition was not known.
The Palestinian attacker in the east Jerusalem section of Armon Hanatziv was killed in the morning by an armed Israeli civilian he had stabbed, the police said in a text message. The last incident took place after nightfall at Kalandia, the main crossing point between east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Eight Israelis have been killed in October by Palestinian attackers using knives, firearms and vehicles as weapons. In turn, at least 34 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, half of them after attacks on Israelis and the other half in clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. Palestinian leaders say some of those shot by Israeli security forces were unarmed or didn’t pose a lethal threat, making their killings war crimes.

Israel captured the three areas in the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed east Jerusalem in 1980 and pulled its troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005. The areas are considered occupied territory by the Palestinians and most countries. Israel says they are disputed, and their final status must be determined in peace negotiations.
Netanyahu, who is planning to travel to Germany this week for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, may also meet there with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has expressed concern about the mounting violence, the Haaretz newspaper reported, citing unidentified Israeli officials.

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