10 Israeli Lawmakers, Arabs Clash at Holy Site

Israeli police used tear gas and nightsticks Wednesday in Jerusalem’s walled Old City to rescue 10 Jewish members of Parliament surrounded by hundreds of Arabs angered by what they saw as a violation of a Muslim holy site.

The incident occurred when the lawmakers arrived to investigate charges by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group that Arabs were carrying out an illegal excavation and construction project beneath the Temple Mount, which is revered by Jews as well as Muslims.

Jerusalem’s Mayor Teddy Kollek described the incident as “a very serious affair” and added that “we are all worried” that it could lead to further friction.

Muslim leaders called for a general protest strike today in Arab East Jerusalem, and there was concern that it could spread throughout the Israeli-occupied West Bank area. Disturbances broke out Wednesday in the West Bank towns of Hebron and Ramallah; according to military sources, they may have been related to the Temple Mount clash.

Police Minister Chaim Bar-Lev appointed a special team to investigate the incident and promised that those responsible will be punished.

Members of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, and Muslim religious leaders each charged that the incident was intentionally provoked by the other side.

The Temple Mount is regarded by Jews as the place where the patriarch Abraham prepared to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice and where King Solomon later built his temple. The last remnant of the temple is the Western Wall, which is Judaism’s holiest site and which forms the western edge of the Temple Mount.

Muslims believe the prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven from this place, and today it is the location of both the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosques. The sites are under the supervision of Muslim religious authorities, even though the Israeli government has claimed sovereignty over the entire area since it was brought under Israel’s control in the 1967 Middle East War.

The Temple Mount is open to Jews and others during specified visiting hours, but Orthodox Jews have been refused permission to hold prayer services there for fear of provoking angry Muslim reaction.

A Jewish group known as the Faithful of the Temple Mount, which has agitated for the right to pray on the site, charged that Muslims had violated the religious status quo in the area by undertaking illegal construction. When the lawmakers arrived Wednesday to investigate the charge, a Muslim guard prohibited them from entering the area with cameras.

To this, Geula Cohen, a member of Parliament representing the right-wing Tehiya party, replied: “You are not the boss here! In your mosque you can tell us no cameras. But not here.”

The confrontation developed into a shoving match, and the guard called for help. Soon Muslim criers shouted over loudspeakers that “Jews have approached Al Aqsa, and the mosque is in danger!” According to one lawmaker, Muslim guards shouted through megaphones, “Kill the Jews!” although the city’s Muslim leader, Saideddin Alami, later denied this.

Nonetheless, Arab shopkeepers near the Temple Mount shut their stores as the alarm went out and hundreds of Muslims converged on the site. Policemen used tear gas to hold back the angry crowd while they escorted the lawmakers out of the Old City.

An Australian tourist who refused to give his name said he saw some of the Arabs pelting the police with stones, and the police responded with their batons.

The police locked the entrances to the Temple Mount and sent extra patrols throughout the Old City, where tension continued high for the rest of the day.

Dov Shilansky, chairman of the Knesset Interior Committee, described the incident as a humiliation.

“We shall return,” he said. “Our flag will yet fly over the Temple Mount, and we shall go there freely and the temple shall be rebuilt.”

Gershon Solomon, head of the Faithful of the Temple Mount, was with the Knesset group Wednesday, and he said the Muslim religious leaders purposely provoked the clash.

“From the first moments,” he said, “Arabs followed us and we could hear that they were saying, ‘You’re not supposed to be here. The Temple Mount is not yours. It is ours. And one day we shall kill you--all the Jews.’ ”

But Alami, the Muslim leader, said the presence of Solomon and the cameramen in the group were proof that it was the Knesset members who provoked the clash.