Palestinians, Police Clash in Jerusalem Over Israeli Excavation at Religious Site

Israeli regular and paramilitary police battled hundreds of Palestinian protesters for more than two hours inside the ancient walls of Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday in some of the worst violence here since last winter.

Tear gas choked the narrow, cobbled Via Dolorosa, revered by Christians as the route Jesus walked to his crucifixion, and a local hospital said that 15 Arabs were injured by gas, police batons and rubber bullets.

At least one policeman was cut by glass. Several others were reportedly hit by stones and bottles thrown by Palestinians trying to stop an attempt by workers of Israel’s Office of Religious Affairs to clear out a 2,000-year-old waterway near sites holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Excavation Called ‘Stupid’

Muslim leaders charged that the work was an attempt to violate Haram al Sharif, or “The Noble Enclosure,” which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and houses the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosques.

Israeli officials denied the work encroached on the Muslim holy places, although a source close to Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek branded the Religious Affairs Ministry initiative as “stupid.”

“It’s the worst time to do such a thing,” the source said, referring to the high level of tension throughout the city after nearly seven months of Palestinian unrest in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The source charged that Religious Affairs Minister Zevulun Hammer timed his move with forthcoming national elections in mind, hoping to attract support among hard-line religious voters.

On Israel Radio, Hammer defended the decision to start the work, saying it would not effect Muslim residents. However, he added, “If, inside Jerusalem itself, we will have problems to be allowed to perform Jewish archeological excavations and we have to get permission (from Muslim religious authorities) in Jerusalem to do them, it seems something is wrong.”

Islamic Trust Notified

Ministry spokesman Uri Mintzer said that the Islamic Trust, which administers the Temple Mount, was notified of the intention to excavate, although not of the precise timing.

The tunnel, discovered a century ago, leads from the Western Wall of the Temple Mount--the holiest site in Judaism--to the Via Dolorosa. Hammer has said that he hopes to eventually open the tunnel as a tourist attraction, although Islamic Trust officials say they want the area to remain closed.

Sunday’s trouble began when Religious Affairs Ministry workers arrived early in the morning and began to excavate a part of the tunnel. After a few minutes, an Islamic Trust official saw the workers and sounded the alarm. Muslim criers called over mosque loudspeakers for all believers to come help defend the holy places.

Protesters hurled stones and bottles at police reinforcements, including members of the paramilitary border patrol.

In an extraordinary move, the authorities sealed most gates to the Old City, which covers a square mile area on what was, until 1967, the border between Jordanian-held territory in East Jerusalem and Israeli West Jerusalem. Israeli sources said it was the first time in many years that the gates had been closed.

Merchants Shut Shops

Word of the trouble spread quickly through the rest of Arab East Jerusalem and merchants shuttered their shops in protest. Security forces then swept through the narrow alleys of the Muslim and Christian quarters of the walled city, where some 20,000 Palestinian Arabs live.

Police said seven Arabs were arrested in the clashes, which finally died down about mid-morning when city officials, police and representatives of the Religious Affairs Ministry and the Islamic Trust met to seek a solution.

It was decided to suspend further excavation for at least several days.

The trouble spread briefly outside the Old City walls around noon Sunday when Palestinian youngsters got out of school. After the demonstrations spread, police ordered East Jerusalem schools closed until further notice.

There were also small and scattered incidents elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza on Sunday, and an army spokesman said that a soldier serving in the occupied territories has been charged with manslaughter for killing a Palestinian in a village four months ago. The soldier shot the Palestinian in the eye from close range with a steel-filled rubber bullet.