Calm Prevails in Jerusalem as Palestinians Observe Ramadan

An estimated 130,000 Palestinians flocked to Muslim prayers in Jerusalem’s Old City on the first Friday of the holy month of Ramadan after Israel eased travel bans. No clashes were reported.

Young Palestinian men from the West Bank have sometimes been refused permission by Israeli authorities to attend prayers at Al Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site. Friday prayers have been a focus for violence directed at Israeli police and Jewish worshipers preparing to usher in the Sabbath at the Western Wall, just below the mosque compound.

But on this day, the only unrest came in the form of a huge traffic jam on the main road adjoining the walled Old City. About 2,000 police and paramilitary border police were called out in case clashes erupted.

At the Damascus Gate, the entry point to the Old City from predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, long lines of men filed into the cobblestoned alleyways leading to the Dome of the Rock complex, set on a hilltop that is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.

Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and prayer, began Tuesday evening. During the holiday, devout Muslims abstain from eating, drinking and smoking during daylight hours, and Fridays, the most important prayer day of the Muslim week, take on particular importance.

“I wanted to try to come here today to pray, even though I thought I might be turned away,” said Fayed Ismail, an 18-year-old who had come to Jerusalem from a village outside the West Bank city of Bethlehem. During times of tension, Israel sometimes bans men deemed to be of fighting age -- between 18 and 35 or even 55 -- from entering the Old City on prayer days. No such restrictions were imposed Friday.

In an effort to mend internal rifts among Palestinians, representatives of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction and exiled leaders of the militant Islamic group Hamas were to hold weekend talks in Cairo, officials from both sides said.

A feud broke out this fall in the Gaza Strip between Fatah and Hamas over the killing of a Palestinian Authority police commander by a Hamas militant. The two sides might also try to reach an understanding on larger strategic matters, people scheduled to participate said.

Senior Fatah officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hamas would be asked to consider halting suicide attacks in Israeli cities. The attacks have drawn a strong military response from Israel and left most of the West Bank’s major cities encircled and under curfew. Hamas -- responsible for attacks that have killed scores of Israelis -- has not given any indication it would be receptive to such a truce.

Palestinians, meanwhile, said Friday that they intended to submit written remarks next week on a U.S.-sponsored peace plan, although most observers believe it is likely to founder while Israel is in the midst of a campaign for national elections early next year.

A U.S. envoy, David Satterfield, is due to arrive next week for talks with both sides.

Israel and the Palestinians have been cool to the Bush administration’s “road map,” which is intended to lead to the creation of a provisional Palestinian state next year. Newly appointed Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already irritated his boss, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, by being too dismissive of the U.S. proposals, Israeli media have reported.

Sharon and Netanyahu are locked in a rivalry for leadership of their conservative Likud Party in advance of nationwide voting expected to take place Jan. 28. Polls published in Israeli newspapers Friday gave Sharon an edge over Netanyahu in the leadership contest.

Also Friday, the Israeli army said a Palestinian man was fatally shot by Israeli troops looking for militants in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the northern West Bank. Another Palestinian man was killed near the city of Nablus when troops opened fire on a car, witnesses said.

The army had no immediate comment.