Jerusalem Temple Mount reopened after a Sunday of violence

Fueled by Palestinian warnings about a supposed 'Jewish threat' to the Temple Mount, Arab Muslims attacked Israeli police on Sunday at the Temple Mount, in the Muslim Quarter and East Jerusalem.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was re-opened for pilgrims and tourists on Monday after after a day of violence and rioting as Arabs clashed with Israeli police. Arab rioters on Sunday attacked officers with stones, firebombs and oil.

Nine Israeli police officers were wounded slightly and at least 21 Arab rioters were arrested during clashes which took place the Mount, in the alleyways of the Muslim Quarter and in East Jerusalem.

The uprisings began as the mosques opened for prayer, causing police to quickly close the Temple Mount area to outsiders and move into the area carrying fiberglass shields for protection.

On Saturday Muslim leaders had been appealing to Arabs to come protect Jerusalem in order to protect the Temple Mount from "Jewish conquest." Rumors had been circulating throughout the Palestinian and among Jerusalem Muslims community that far-right-wing Jews plan to take over the site, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Official television and radio from the Palestinian Authority were calling on Muslims to "storm" the Al Aqsa Mosque and "protect" the site from this "Jewish threat."

Israel's daily newspaper, Ha'aretz, reported that Arab-Israeli lawmaker Talab Al-Sana said, "Israel is provoking a billion Muslims around the world who will not hesitate to protect the Temple Mount with their own bodies.

"Israeli police initiate avoidable riots that will end in bloodshed when they enable extremists to desecrate the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

The rumors have proven to be unfounded, but, due to the incitement from Muslim appeals, officials ordered an immediate increase in police patrols.

The Wailing Wall, however, remained open on Sunday, although police presence was dramatically increased.

Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily (WND), indicated that he believed the riots were incited more by internal Palestinian politics than any real Jewish threats to holy site.

"The riots are being directly incited by the Palestinian Authority," Klein reported, "whose official media outlets and institutions have been stoking Arab flames the past few weeks by claiming right-wing extremist Jews are attempting to threaten the Al Aqsa mosque - a decades-old blood libel that should be easily dismissible in light of heavy Israeli restrictions on Jews and Christians from ascending the Mount during most hours of the day."

Religious Zionist Rabbis added more fuel to the fire on Sunday evening, encouraging Jews to ascend the Temple Mount more vigorously. At a Sunday evening conference of the Organization for Human Rights on the Temple Mount (OHRTM) in Jerusalem, leaders called for a stronger Jewish present in the area.

"It's time that we stop surrendering to violence," Temple Institute Director Rabbi Yehuda Glick told Israeli News, adding that "before his assassination, prime minister Yitzhak Rabin said the greatest threat to Israeli democracy is bowing down to violence.

"Unfortunately, lately police are surrendering and withdrawing in the face of the Palestinians' violence," continued the rabbi.

Israeli News also spoke with Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, who stated, "It is vital that the Israeli people visit the (Temple Mount). We are suffering because a large segment of the populations is indifferent towards this issue.

"Reclaiming our sovereignty over (the Temple Mount) will bring redemption closer," he said.

Professor Hillel Weiss, professor at Bar Ilan University challenged those present at the conference to heightened activity regarding the Temple Mount. "The (third) temple must be built now," Weiss told them. "The mosques do not have to be destroyed in order for us to do this."

Israel Radio reported that Minister for Minority Affairs, Avishay Braverman (Labor), said on Monday that this call by rabbis was harmful to Israel, stating that the provocation was detrimental to Israel's standing in the world.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement concerning the tensions in the capital, saying Cairo was concerned over what it termed "Israel's actions in Jerusalem." Other outlets indicated that Egypt also reported that these actions may have consequences.

Dimitri Diliani, the spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party in Jerusalem told World Net Daily that he did not deny his group's involvement in recent riots.

"Palestinian political factions, including Fatah, are firm on defending the political, national and religious rights of the Palestinian people," Diliani said, "and it's evident now we will continue defending the Al Aqsa Mosque as well as our rights in Jerusalem as a whole."

WND's Klein also reported that emboldened activities of the Palestinians may have, in part, been influenced by the language used at last month's meeting of Israel and Palestine with President Obama, who talked about a call for the creation of a "viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967."

Klein points out that the term "occupation" is commonly used by the Palestinians and other countries hostile to the Jewish state. They are referring to the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Jerusalem, which came about after the "Six-Day War" of 1967.

The use of the term occupation is not common for U.S. Presidents, Klein observes, although President Jimmy Carter caused a huge stir once by calling Israel's presence in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem "illegal."

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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