Muslims, Israel Police Clash at Islamic Holy Site

Several hundred Muslim fundamentalists rioted Friday at the Al Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest places, hurling rocks at police who retaliated by firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the mob.

The stones were thrown from the site, which Muslims hold sacred, onto Jewish worshipers below who were praying at the neighboring Western Wall that Jews consider a sacred site.

Five policemen, three Jewish Israelis at the Western Wall and three Arabs suffered minor injuries. Israeli police said that stones had been stockpiled by the rioters.

The stones that struck Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall brought a stern warning from Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, who said that Israeli authorities “would know what steps to take” if such incidents recurred.

The disturbance began after about 20,000 Muslim worshipers finished noontime prayers marking the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. A group of Islamic fundamentalists, reported to have traveled to Jerusalem from the Gaza Strip, began parading with outlawed Palestinian flags. They also unfurled an Israeli flag which they tore to pieces, all the while chanting, “Allahu Akbar”-- God is Great.

The unrest briefly spread to side streets in Jerusalem’s crowded Old City, but by early afternoon calm had been restored, the streets were empty and shops had closed in compliance with the standard half-day strike ordered by leaders of the Arab uprising.

Thirty-seven rioters were arrested and marched off the grounds by city police. By the end of the 45-minute melee, a haze of tear gas hung over the area, which Muslims call Haram Sharif and Jews call the Temple Mount.

Israeli police officials blamed the outbreak on Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist group that has participated in the Arab uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The mosque has been the scene of violence in the past. In January, 1988, police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators. Extremist Jewish groups have tried to blow up the mosque so that the original biblical temple that once stood there can be rebuilt.

Earlier in the week, Israeli officials had said that the uprising, entering its 17th month, was slowing down and hinted that the government might open schools and release prisoners in response. The government set about 450 prisoners free Wednesday as a good-will gesture in advance of Ramadan.

But Palestinians maintain that the intifada, as the uprising is called, is not cooling off. They said that impatience with the pace of diplomacy, aimed at getting peace talks under way, is keeping the rebellion simmering. The Palestinians singled out Hamas as being especially eager to step up violence.

Hamas, an acronym that stands for the Islamic Resistance Movement, has wide support among Arabs in the Gaza Strip as well as in many refugee camps in the West Bank. The group opposes the tacit acceptance of Israel’s statehood by the Palestine Liberation Organization and occasionally has carried out its own demonstrations and riots against the wishes of the main leaders of the uprising.

In the West Bank town of Hebron, where Hamas is considered strong, police used tear gas to disperse a demonstration outside a mosque. Meanwhile, Jewish settlers who live in and near the city smashed the windows of cars owned by Arabs. The settlers have complained that the Israeli army does too little to protect them from Arab stone throwers.