By Luke Baker
alem's Old City on Friday amid intense security, a day after Israel closed all access to the sacred compound for the first time in more than a decade following violence on the streets.
More than 1,000 Israeli police were deployed around the
Old City's cobbled streets and the ancient gates that lead to al Aqsa, a
spokeswoman said, in addition to undercover anti-riot units and
observation balloons floating in the sky.
Israeli
police frequently limit access to al Aqsa to women and Muslim men over
the age of 40 or 50 when they are concerned about potential clashes at
the site.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said through his spokesman that the
closure of al Aqsa combined with other dangerous escalations by Israel
were "tantamount to a declaration of war".
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, later said
Abbas had held a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry and that the Palestinian leader had praised Kerry's efforts and
those of Jordanian King Abdullah "to stop the Israeli practices and halt
the escalation".
Worshippers
wanting to enter the ornate marble-and-stone compound, which contains
the golden Dome of the Rock and al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest shrine
in Islam, queued behind blue barricades to show their identification
papers to the police.
More than 4,000 people attended midday prayers, police said.
There were a few isolated disturbances, including firecrackers being set
off nearby and an attempt by a group of young Palestinian men to break
through the police cordon.
Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces
erupted at several locations across the West Bank in the afternoon and a
number of protesters were injured, Palestinian medical officials said.
Israeli
authorities shut all access to al Aqsa on Thursday after the shooting of
Yehuda Glick, a far-right religious activist who has led a campaign for
Jews to be allowed to pray at the site, which they refer to as Temple
Mount.
Glick,
48, was shot as he left a conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday. The man
suspected of shooting him, a Palestinian from the neighborhood of Abu
Tor in the eastern, mainly Arab side of the city, was shot dead by
Israeli forces before dawn on Thursday, following an exchange of
gunfire. [ID:nL5N0SP1JJ]
Locals said
it was the first time all access to al Aqsa had been banned since the
second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, erupted in 2000. But Jordanian
authorities, who are responsible for administering the site, and
Palestinian officials said it was the first full closure of the compound
since the 1967 Middle East war.
RELIGIOUS TENSIONS
Tensions have been high on the streets of East Jerusalem
and around al Aqsa for weeks, following the summer Gaza conflict and
Israel's moves to expand settlement building in eastern areas of the
city, which the Palestinians want as the capital of an independent state
alongside the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Al Aqsa is a particularly sensitive issue. The elegant
38-acre (15 hectare) compound, lined with cypress trees, houses the 7th
century Dome of the Rock, from where the Prophet Mohammad is said to
have ascended into heaven.
As well as its Islamic heritage, it was home to two ancient
Jewish temples, the second of which was destroyed by the Romans in 70
AD, and is revered as the holiest site in Judaism.
However, Glick and his supporters, including a far-right
member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, are
determined to change the status quo, saying Jews have as much right to
pray at al Aqsa as Muslims.
Glick has even spoken of
rebuilding a Jewish temple on the site, comments regarded as a deep
incitement by Muslims.
While Netanyahu has repeatedly promised that the status quo will
not change, his reassurances have done little to calm Palestinian
concerns. Glick, an American-Israeli who lives in a settlement, has
become a hate figure to many Palestinians.
Jordanian
officials said Israel agreed to reopen al Aqsa following a personal
intervention by King Abdullah. They said Abdullah had emphasized that
any continued closure would only heighten religious tensions, deepening a
political conflict.
Ahmed Abu Zaaror, 21, who runs a stand selling pomegranate juice in the Muslim quarter of the Old City, was frustrated that younger men were being denied access to al Aqsa.
"I normally go five times a day to pray, but the police are not letting me today," said Zaaror. Asked if he was angry at the situation he replied:
"What can I say? I have to keep all my anger inside."
While Glick and his followers have managed to move their once marginal issue into mainstream discussion in Israel, many Jews still regard going up to Temple Mount as forbidden.
Ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi Jews who pray daily at the Western Wall, which sits under the Aqsa compound, said they would never go up to the Temple Mount above.
"We can't go there, it's forbidden by the Torah," said Nathan Barzilai, 35, a Haredi Jew walking through the Muslim quarter of the Old City. "Only when the Messiah comes, but not until then."
(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis in Jerusalem and Suleiman al-Khalidi
in Amman; Editing by Alison Williams, Crispian Balmer and Susan Fenton)
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