A Site Holy to Jews and Muslims Returns as the Nexus of Conflict

JERUSALEM — Clashes broke out Friday for the seventh time in eight days on the holiest web site in Jerusalem, foregrounding how the positioning — sacred to each Jews and Muslims — has grow to be the latest focus of a monthlong spasm in tensions throughout Israel and the occupied territories.

The skirmishes between Palestinians and Israeli police on the Aqsa Mosque compound, identified to Jews as Temple Mount, adopted a lethal wave of Arab assaults in Israel and an ensuing Israeli army crackdown within the West Financial institution.

The clashes have prompted the fiercest alternate of rockets and missiles between Gaza militants and the Israeli armed forces since an 11-day struggle final Could; militants fired two extra rockets on Friday evening.

The clashes have additionally examined Israel’s rising ties with elements of the Arab world, main three international locations that signed diplomatic agreements with Israel in 2020 to precise uncommon criticism of the Jewish state, and undermining efforts to enhance relations with neighboring Jordan. They usually have deepened a authorities disaster inside Israel, inflicting an Islamist get together to droop its participation within the governing coalition and rising the probabilities of the opposition successful a majority in Parliament.

Maybe most strikingly, the clashes illustrated how simply the Aqsa web site might be harnessed by extremists on each side of the Israeli-Palestinian battle, and why it stays among the many most intractable of the obstacles to the battle’s decision, in addition to the battle’s final Rorschach check.

To many Jews, the positioning is the holiest in Judaism, the placement of two historical temples the place custom holds that God’s presence was revealed. To Israelis, it’s an important a part of their sovereign territory and capital, and officers have exhibited appreciable prudence by limiting Jewish exercise there since capturing the positioning from Jordan in 1967.

To the federal government, the police interventions there over the previous week have been needed regulation enforcement operations to quell riots began by Muslim extremists led by Hamas, the Islamist militant group, and to safe entry for Jews, vacationers and 1000’s of peaceable Muslims.

To Muslims, the mosque compound is the third-holiest in Islam, a web site of Muslim prayer for greater than a millennium, and the place from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. To Palestinians, it’s occupied territory, as confirmed by the United Nations Safety Council and most overseas governments, and a part of what ought to someday grow to be the capital of a Palestinian state. For a lot of Palestinians, confrontations on the compound are a authentic act of resistance in opposition to an occupying energy, no matter who threw the primary stone.

Neither perspective is solely truthful, mentioned Michael Koplow, an analyst on the Israel Coverage Discussion board, a New York-based analysis group. “All people wants to grasp that each side not solely have actual claims, however really feel an emotional and symbolic connection to the positioning,” he mentioned. “It’s not solely for anyone.”

Equally, each side have due trigger to doubt elements of the opposite’s narrative, not least this week.

Although Palestinians have introduced themselves because the victims of Israeli aggression on the compound this week, some helped stoke the violence, stockpiling stones, fireworks and gasoline bombs.

On Friday morning, video posted on-line by a Palestinian outlet confirmed that the clashes started after dozens of Palestinian youths threw stones at and set off fireworks within the course of a police outpost on the sting of the compound. Solely afterward did riot police enter the forecourt of the mosque.

Equally, on Sunday morning, riot police entered the positioning after Palestinian youths blocked the trail of a route by way of the positioning utilized by Jews and overseas vacationers, and stockpiled stones elsewhere on the route, elevating fears that they’d assault non-Muslims there.

Hamas, the militant Islamist group, praised the stone throwers a number of instances this week. Some Palestinians concerned within the clashes chanted pro-Hamas slogans and carried the inexperienced flags related to the group — elevating questions on whether or not Hamas operatives had performed a task in premeditating the unrest, figuring out that Israel would probably reply aggressively.

“The Palestinian organizations weren’t solely making ready for it, however advancing it,” mentioned Ehud Olmert, an Israeli former prime minister who as soon as proposed putting the compound and adjoining areas of Jerusalem underneath shared sovereignty. “They had been making ready Molotov cocktails, on Temple Mount, and stones.”

The Israeli authorities took steps to keep away from flagrant provocations, arresting a number of Jewish extremists who had been mentioned to be planning a Passover sacrifice on the compound, blocking a far-right Jewish march close to the compound this week and, as traditional, barring non-Muslims from the compound in the course of the remaining 10 days of Ramadan.

However these constructive gestures had been diluted by heavy-handed ways like utilizing rubber-tipped bullets in opposition to stone throwers and spraying tear gasoline by drone, and by breaking longstanding conventions barring Jewish worship on the web site.

For months, the Israeli police protected Jewish worshipers on the web site, breaking a decades-old understanding, geared toward stopping battle, that allowed Jews to go to however not worship there. That change has created the impression amongst Palestinians that Israel is attempting to unilaterally change the fragile establishment, and additional undermine Muslim entry to and oversight of one of the sacred locations in Islam.

Equally, in the course of the clashes on Sunday morning, the Israeli police went past securing parity of entry to Muslims, Jews and vacationers. As an alternative, the police allowed a whole lot of Jews to enter whereas, unusually, blocking Muslim entry to the positioning for a number of hours that morning.

Towards the backdrop of this sort of perceived provocation, it was unsurprising that younger Palestinians lashed out this week, mentioned Moayd Abu Mialeh, 22, a Palestinian who was arrested in the course of the clashes.

“We’re people, we react,” mentioned Mr. Abu Mialeh, who denied private involvement within the clashes and mentioned they erupted spontaneously. “When the settlers declare they are going to sacrifice a lamb at Al Aqsa,” he added, younger Palestinians “can’t merely open their arms to the settlers and inform them ‘come on in’ to our mosque.”

Unsurprisingly, the complexity of the standoff forecloses any straightforward resolution.

To some Palestinians, the short-term reply is straightforward: Briefly shut the compound to non-Muslims whereas all sides talk about find out how to safe a long-term resolution. Within the meantime, the positioning may very well be positioned underneath the complete management of the Waqf — an Islamic belief, financed and overseen by neighboring Jordan, that at the moment runs civil issues on the mosque.

Within the interim interval, Jews may pray as traditional on the close by Western Wall, one of many final remaining sections of the traditional temple advanced, mentioned Aladdin Salhab, a member of the Waqf council and the proprietor of an Previous Metropolis lodge.

In any other case, Mr. Salhab mentioned, “we’re including oil to the hearth.”

To Israelis, that concept is far-fetched. For non secular Jews, such a transfer would tear at their religious id. And secular Israelis would additionally balk at ceding non permanent management of a web site so central to their nationwide id, in addition to to safety within the Previous Metropolis. From the excessive compound, Palestinians can throw stones down at Jewish worshipers on the Western Wall.

“For a lot of the Jewish world writ massive, definitely for observant individuals, you’re asking them to make an nearly unacceptable compromise,” mentioned Chuck Freilich, an Israeli former deputy nationwide safety adviser.

Even a lot smaller concessions, like restoring the ban on Jewish prayer on the web site, would show tough to enact for the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett. He leads an immensely fragile coalition authorities that controls simply half the seats in Parliament. A number of of Mr. Bennett’s lawmakers are from the non secular proper. They already really feel he has compromised an excessive amount of on Israel’s Jewish id. Any additional compromises may immediate them to defect.

“I don’t envy Bennett — he’s caught in the course of two excessive factions,” mentioned Mr. Olmert, the previous prime minister.

However as prime minister, “you’ve bought to take exhausting choices generally,” Mr. Olmert added. “That’s why you’re there.”

Hiba Yazbek contributed reporting from Nazareth, Israel.