Israeli police deploy around tense holy site By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer – OCT 5,09
JERUSALEM – Israel deployed thousands of policemen in and around Jerusalem's Old City on Monday to prevent a new round of disturbances around a tense site holy to Jews and Muslims.Police have been clashing sporadically for several days with Muslim protesters in and around the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. No one has been seriously injured, but in the past deadly violence has erupted at the site.Thousands of Jewish worshippers gathered at the foot of the Old City compound for services at the supporting wall known as the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Monday's prayers marked the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Tourists and men in white prayer shawls packed the plaza opposite the wall as police officers patrolled and kept watch nearby.
Police restricted the entrance of Muslim worshippers to the compound, saying calls by Israeli Arab leaders for protests could spark violence. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that only men over the age of 50 were being allowed to pray at the compound. There were no restrictions on women.Early Monday, a small group of Palestinians threw stones at a group of Jewish worshippers outside the Old City, but no one was hurt, Rosenfeld said.In a separate incident, a Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli security officer checking bus passengers near a refugee camp in the city, lightly wounding him, police said. The assailant was apprehended. No further details were immediately available.The recent clashes appear linked to rumors among Palestinians that Jewish extremists plan to enter or damage the compound, home to the Al-Aqsa mosque and the gold-capped Dome of the Rock and sanctified by Muslims as their third-holiest site. Similar rumors in the past have led to riots.Light disturbances broke out a week ago when a group of Muslim worshippers, drawn to the site by a cleric's warning that Jewish settlers were planning to enter the compound, threw stones at a group of visitors escorted by police. Police said the visitors were French tourists.
Rioters and policemen were lightly wounded in the clash.
In neighboring Jordan, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh summoned the Israeli ambassador and protested what the Jordanian government called Israel's continuous violations of the sanctity of Muslim and Christian holy sites in east Jerusalem,according to the country's official Petra news agency.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel told the Jordanians that the provocations have originated from radical elements who wish to create a crisis around the Temple Mount.Jews venerate the site as the location of two biblical temples. Israel has controlled it since 1967, but day-to-day administration is in the hands of Muslim clerics.Jerusalem correspondent Michael Barajas contributed to this report.
Police flood Jerusalem's Old City after clashes by Majeda El Batsh – OCT 5,09
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Police flooded into Jerusalem's Old City on Monday following clashes with Palestinians near the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and as tens of thousands of Jews attended a religious ceremony.Authorities restricted access to the compound to Muslim men aged 50 and over, with no restrictions for women, after Sunday's clashes in which seven Palestinian protesters were injured and three arrested.Ten masked Palestinians were arrested on Monday for throwing stones at security forces just outside the Old City, police said.Thousands of officers deployed in and around the area, focusing on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound which is holy to both Muslims and Jews, and the Western Wall, the main Jewish pilgrimage site also known as the Wailing Wall.Two Arab neighbourhoods adjoining the Old City were sealed off as helicopters and a surveillance drone flew overhead.These measures were taken to avert new incidents on the compound and the Old City and to prevent stones being thrown at the Jewish faithful who come to pray at the Western Wall,police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.Tension flared on Sunday after police closed access to the Al-Aqsa compound -- known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as the Temple Mount -- saying calls for Muslims to gather there were inciting violence.
Clashes broke out after more than 150 people gathered to pray outside the compound. After the prayers, worshippers threw stones and security forces responded with stun grenades and a water cannon.Rumours had earlier swept through the Old City that the Israeli authorities would allow right-wing Jewish settlers to enter the compound during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot.On Monday an estimated 30,000 Jewish worshippers prayed at the Western Wall below Al-Aqsa for the Priestly Blessing ceremony, a highlight of the Sukkot celebrations.Rosenfeld earlier said hostile elements are inciting to violence,pointing the finger at the Islamic Movement, an Arab-Israeli group that regularly calls the faithful to rally to the defence of Al-Aqsa.Sheikh Azam Al-Khatib, who heads the Islamic trust that manages the compound, claimed the current tension was caused by Jewish extremists who provoke the Muslim faithful and don't hide their ambition to kick the Muslims out to build a temple.The compound was the site of the Second Temple, Judaism's holiest site, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.In Gaza, thousands of people joined a protest organised by the Islamist Hamas rulers of the Palestinian enclave, calling for a popular uprising or intifada to defend the mosque compound.
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday urged the international community to immediately intervene and bring the question of the Al-Aqsa mosque before the UN Security Council.Jordan summoned Israel's ambassador in Amman on Sunday to demand a halt to repeated violations at the compound.A week ago several people were wounded in unrest that erupted after a group of non-Muslims entered the mosque compound. Police said they were French tourists, but the Palestinians insisted they were Israeli extremists.The site of the compound is the holiest in Judaism and third holiest in Islam, and has often been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence.The second Palestinian intifada began there in September 2000 after a visit by Ariel Sharon, the right-wing politician who became Israeli prime minister the following year.
New Israeli settlement construction underway: report OCT 5,09
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A Peace Now report said on Monday that some 800 new housing units are being built in settlements across the occupied West Bank, despite US calls for Israel to freeze settlement construction.The Israeli settlement watchdog said that work got underway over the past three months in 34 settlements for the construction of the units.In addition, some 55 buildings are in the process of being completed and foundations are being laid for an additional 50, the report said.According to a Peace Now report, the new projects are not among some 2,400 houses already in different stages of construction that Israel aims to complete despite agreeing to a temporary halt in settlement construction.The settlers are working fast to produce as many construction starts as possible so that these new housing units will be counted as existing settlements and not included in any future agreed upon freeze, it said.Washington has been pressing hard for Israel to halt all construction work on occupied Palestinian land ahead of the resumption of Middle East peace talks. Israel has so far balked at the demand.
Israel minister cancels UK trip over arrest fears Mon Oct 5, 8:52 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon recently cancelled a planned trip to London over fears that he could be put on trial for alleged war crimes, his spokesman said on Monday.He called off the trip for fear pro-Palestinian groups in London might seek his arrest for his role, as military chief-of-staff at the time, in the 2002 deaths of 15 people, among them a Hamas leader and eight children.Yaalon, who is also strategic affairs minister, had been invited to attend a fund-raising dinner hosted by the British branch of the Jewish National Fund, but the foreign ministry's legal team advised against it.Yaalon was military chief-of-staff when an Israeli warplane dropped a one-tonne bomb in Gaza City which killed Salah Shehadeh, the head of the armed wing of Hamas, and 14 civilians, including his wife, in July 2002.Last Tuesday Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak branded a bid to have him arrested in Britain absurd as he attended the governing Labour party's annual conference.British activists had sought his arrest over Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza at the start of this year, when more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13Israelis were killed. The request was denied on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.
Azerbaijan jails two Lebanese over Israel embassy plot Mon Oct 5, 7:31 am ET
BAKU (AFP) – An Azerbaijani court on Monday found two Lebanese men guilty of plotting an attack on the Israeli embassy in the capital Baku, jailing them for 15 years each, a court spokesman said.
Abbas postpones Syria visit Mon Oct 5, 5:36 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Syria has postponed a visit to Damascus by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas due to begin on Tuesday, a Palestinian official told AFP.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the postponement came because of a surprise visit to Damascus by Saudi King Abdullah.A report on Al-Jazeera television had earlier said Damascus postponed Abbas's trip in protest over the Palestinian delegation to the UN Human Rights Council dropping its support for an immediate vote on a damning report on the Gaza war.But the official insisted the claim by the pan-Arab channel was not true. Abbas had been due to arrive in Damascus on Tuesday and hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad.Abbas has faced a growing wave of criticism both at home and abroad over the decision not to support a vote on the Gaza report, which was widely seen as a result of intense pressure from the US and Israel.The UN report on Gaza, authored by respected South African Judge Richard Goldstone, accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and recommended that the Human Rights Council pass the findings to the UN Security Council and the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.On Friday, the 47-member council in Geneva decided to postpone until March 2010 a vote on the report, following a request by Pakistan on behalf of Arab, African, Non-Aligned and Muslim states that supported the report.
Mubarak urges Israel to resume peace talks Sun Oct 4, 4:47 pm ET
CAIRO – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged Israel to resume peace talks with the Palestinians where they broke off more than a year ago, warning that the peace process can't take another failure.Israeli-Palestinian negotiations tapered off last year and haven't resumed since last winter's war in Gaza and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli prime minister. Since then, the two sides have yet to establish a framework to renew talks. The Palestinians want to pick up where negotiations left off, while the hawkish Netanyahu says he is not bound by any concessions his more dovish predecessor made.But in an interview published Sunday, Mubarak called on Israel to respond positively to the renewed push for peace and resume talks where they left off.It is unreasonable and unacceptable to start from zero,Mubarak told the Armed Forces newspaper. I told (Israel) that ... settlements are eating away Palestinian land and must stop immediately.Mubarak's comments were part of a wide ranging interview published days ahead of the 36th anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war that opened the way for the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty six years later.U.S. President Barack Obama has spearheaded renewed efforts to bring the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, but key sticking points remain.The Palestinians say talks should resume where they left off, and want a complete freeze of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.
Israel has agreed to slow settlement building, but has rejected a total halt to construction. Israel had pledged to stop settlement building in a 2003 U.S.-backed peace plan, but has not done so, claiming that the Palestinians have not carried out their obligations.Mubarak said he was optimistic that U.S. efforts would bring the two sides back to the table and would usher in wider regional talks to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict.The region is rife with crises, conflicts and tension, Mubarak said.The Middle East will remain a region of instability in the absence of a peaceful and just settlement to the Palestinian issue. The situation is critical, and the peace process ... can't take another failure.Mubarak urged Israel to reconsider the way it deals with the Palestinians and Arabs to ensure a return to normal relations in the region.Israel must take a big step like the total halt to settlement and achieving tangible results in peace negotiations before talking of any Arab gestures, initiatives or step toward it,he said.
Fatah and Hamas eye truce deal, but hurdles remain By Nidal al-Mughrabi – Sun Oct 4, 1:42 pm ET
GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas and Fatah, the warring parties that have divided the Palestinian territories, may agree this month to an Egyptian-brokered deal that sketches out a path to peace between them, but which also faces many further obstacles.Officials close to the negotiations, which have been going on for much of the two years since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief civil war, said on Sunday a deal may be signed in Cairo on October 22. Talks are due to begin on October 19.Despite frequent such meetings in Egypt, the Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, have missed several previous deadlines. The deal would map out a process of reconciliation, intended to culminate in presidential and parliamentary elections.Both sides are sounding more positive on the chances of signing an accord this time, which would start the countdown toward elections in late June. But officials are still cautious on the chances of seeing the process through, given the deep resentments felt on either side.Mohammad Dahlan, a Gaza-born senior figure in Fatah, now based with Abbas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, told Reuters much depended on clarifications Abbas would be seeking on Hamas's final offer when he meets Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday.
STICKING POINTS
There is a difference between what we are hearing from our brothers in Egypt and the positive statements by Khaled Meshaal,Dahlan said of the Egyptian mediators and the Syria-based leader of Hamas. The Islamists have said they expect to sign a revised reconciliation pact later this month.There are still sticking points,Dahlan said on Sunday.Among these were Fatah's rejection of a key element in the draft pact that calls for a joint committee of members from Hamas, Fatah and other political parties that would liaise between the internationally isolated Hamas government in Gaza and Abbas's Western-backed Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.Hamas would also be able to supervise a joint police force in Gaza in the run-up to the June elections, something Fatah sees as cementing Hamas control there after what it calls the coup of June 2007.Dozens of Fatah men were among over 100 people killed then in a week of fighting in the coastal enclave, which is divided from the West Bank by 30 km (20 miles) of Israeli territory.In Gaza on Sunday, however, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said things looked set for an agreement.We have accepted the content of the Egyptian paper and that has prepared the ground for signing an agreement at the forthcoming Cairo meeting,he said.Any failure to reach that would not be of Hamas's making.Egypt hopes to end Fatah and Hamas disputes over hundreds of political detainees jailed in the two territories. Progress on this track could determine whether such a deal could hold.(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, editing by Alastair Macdonald and Mark Trevelyan).
Israeli planes strike Gaza Sun Oct 4, 2:35 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warplanes carried out three air strikes in the Gaza Strip over the weekend, without causing casualties, the army and Palestinian witnesses said on Sunday.
They said two of the raids targeted the south of the Palestinian territory while the other hit Gaza City.Our planes on Friday night attacked a structure in Gaza City being used to build weapons and carried out a twin raid on Saturday night on tunnels in the south of the territory on the border with Egypt, an army spokesman said.The air strikes came after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket and a mortar shell against southern Israel, the spokesman said, also without causing casualties.
Mubarak urges Israel to start final status talks Sat Oct 3, 1:14 pm ET
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has urged Israel to open talks with the Palestinians on the full range of issues blocking the path to peace.
Stuttering negotiations between the two sides on a step-by-step road map toward peace have been suspended completely since Israeli forces launched an assault on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last December.Mubarak said they should move straight to the six final status issues: borders, the status of Jerusalem, refugees, Israeli settlements in occupied territory, security and use of water.What is required now is political will, particularly by the leaders of Israel,Mubarak said in an interview with the newspaper al-Quwat al-Musallaha (The Armed Forces).Mubarak said he was in regular contact with Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.He said talks should resume where they left off under the previous Israeli government.It is not reasonable or acceptable to start from scratch. I told them that the negotiations should address all six final status issues without exception,he said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said last month that, for talks to resume, Israel must honor agreements on borders and Jerusalem that he says its previous government made in talks last year.No clear agreements were ever published before talks were suspended. Netanyahu, a right-winger who took office in March, has made clear he does not wish to repeat any such offers that Olmert may have made.
SETTLEMENTS
After talks with U.S. President Barack Obama and Netanyahu, Abbas also repeated a Palestinian insistence that Israel halt settlement building in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.But Netanyahu has fought off U.S. and Arab pressure to freeze settlements.Since then, U.S. diplomacy has focused on an immediate and unconditional resumption of negotiations.Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the first Arab state to do so.Mubarak said that agreement, which saw Israel withdraw troops and settlers from Egypt's Sinai peninsula, should be seen as a model for future pacts between Israel and the Palestinians and other Arab states.Mubarak's comments, cited by the state news agency MENA on Saturday, are the latest in a string of calls for Israel to accept a framework for peace based on U.N. resolutions and a land-for-peace formula contained in the Arab peace initiative.
That initiative, launched by Saudi Arabia in 2002, offers normalization with all Arab states in return for withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 and a just settlement for refugees.Mubarak said peace was difficult but not impossible.Egypt has played a central role in negotiations to secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in return for freedom for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. On Friday, Israel freed 20 female prisoners after receiving evidence that Shalit is alive and well.Egypt is also trying to broker reconciliation between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions running Gaza and the West Bank respectively, and hopes they will sign a pact this month.(Writing by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Palestinian economy minister resigns: source Sat Oct 3, 11:19 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – Palestinian economy minister Bassem Khuri resigned on Saturday, an official close to him said, becoming the second minister to step down since the government was formed earlier this year.Bassem Khuri has resigned to protest the Palestinian Authority's agreement not to discuss the Goldstone report, the official said on condition of anonymity.The UN Human Rights Council on Friday delayed a vote on a damning report by former international prosecutor Richard Goldstone on alleged war crimes by Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas during the Gaza war.The move followed a request by Pakistan, on behalf of the several Arab, Muslim and African states who supported the report, to defer endorsement.Earlier, the Palestinian delegation to the council had stopped pushing for the report's immediate consideration because of US pressure, according to media reports.Khuri, a political independent, was a new face in the government formed by Western-backed Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad in May. The team does did not include any members of Hamas, which rules Gaza.The Palestinian Authority's minister for Jerusalem affairs, Hatem Abdel Qader, resigned in July over what he said was the government's failure to aid residents in battling Israeli housing demolitions.
UN rights council postpones vote on damning Gaza report Fri Oct 2, 12:35 pm ET
GENEVA (AFP) – Members of the UN Human Rights Council on Friday postponed a decision on a damning report on Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip that raised evidence of war crimes by both sides and possible crimes against humanity.The 47 member Council decided to delay until March 2010 a vote on the report by an independent international fact-finding mission headed by former international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone.Goldstone last month recommended that the UN Security Council should ask the International Criminal Court to examine possible charges, unless progress was made in investigations in Israel and the Palestinian Territories within six months.Friday's move followed a request by Pakistan, on behalf of Arab, African, Non Aligned and Muslim states that supported the report, to defer endorsement, according to documents filed with the Council.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned on Thursday that Human Rights Council would have dealt a fatal blow to the stalled Middle East peace process if it passed the report on to the Security Council.The United States, which recently joined the Council, had opposed endorsement while the European Union had also expressed concern about moves to adopt a resolution endorsing the report's recommendations.The report by Goldstone and three other legal experts said there was evidence that both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during the offensive and in rocket attacks against Israel.Unusually, the mission set up by the Council earlier this year held public hearings with some Palestinian and Israeli victims and witnesses.
