EAST JERUSALEM – Clashes between Israeli security forces and protesting Palestinians have subsided as several hundred Muslims agreed to evacuate Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque following a deal brokered by the Jordanian embassy in Tel Aviv Saturday.
But the Islamic Movement, whose members sought to take over the mosque, is at the center of intense controversy. In Israel, demands have risen for the arrest of Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah.
Israeli police accuse Salah of waging a "religious war" and say he is guilty of "incitement and sedition."
Through weeks of unrest Salah encouraged Muslims to assemble in and around al-Aqsa to "protect it from Jewish Zealots." Busloads of his supporters from around the country arrived in the disputed city, and together with locals faced off with soldiers and police.
During the subsequent clashes Israeli soldiers and police arrested hundreds of Palestinians. Dozens of security forces and protesters were injured. The violence spread to several refugee camps and towns in the West Bank as thousands of Arabs joined solidarity demonstrations in Gaza, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan.
Muslim anger mounted as hundreds of Israeli extremists tried to enter the Haram compound, in which al-Aqsa Mosque is situated, to celebrate the Yom Kippur and Sukkot Jewish holidays. Some of the extremists want to destroy the mosque and build a third Jewish Temple on its remains.
This anger was exacerbated by West Bankers and Gazans being denied entry to Jerusalem to worship at the mosque. East Jerusalem males under 50 were also denied entrance to the mosque, while women of all ages were permitted to enter.
The standoff eased following intervention by the Jordanian ambassador in Tel Aviv. The Israeli authorities agreed to allow several hundred Muslims holed up in the mosque to leave and dropped arrest warrants against them. The authorities also promised that Muslims would be allowed free access to al-Aqsa.
Ehab Jallad, coordinator of the Jerusalem Popular Committee for the Celebration of Jerusalem as the Capital of Arab Culture for 2009, which works in conjunction with the Islamic Waqf, which administers al-Aqsa mosque, sees this as a victory.
"This is the first time since Israel’s 1967 occupation of East Jerusalem that Muslims have stayed in the mosque for an entire week and prevented the Jewish extremists from entering. We are planning to organize groups round the clock in the future to prevent any further attempts at a takeover," Jallad told IPS.
Muslim fears around al-Aqsa mosque are based on Israeli efforts to Judaize East Jerusalem in order to keep the city under eternal Israeli sovereignty, thereby preventing the eastern sector becoming the capital of a future Palestinian state. Al-Aqsa Mosque is a part of East Jerusalem.
In an interview with IPS shortly before he was arrested and banned from Jerusalem for 30 days, Sheikh Raed Salah said that Israeli authorities had earlier informed some of his colleagues that the mosque would be divided.
The Israelis reportedly said that only the mosque itself was considered a Muslim site but that the other buildings in the compound and the other areas were public property and would fall under Israeli control.
"This is a red line. We will not allow the Israelis to take over the Haram compound. If we have to choose between martyrdom and losing the Haram, we choose the former," Salah told IPS.
Israeli archaeologists have been carrying out extensive digging around the mosque, with some admitting that the excavations were threatening the homes of Muslims living nearby.
Secret digging was carried out underneath the mosque in 1996. Clashes then led to the death of 75 Palestinians and 15 Israeli soldiers.
Raphael Greenberg, professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv university, says the current Israeli excavations are politically motivated.
"As usual during the Jewish holidays, the Israeli public has been inundated with reports of ‘amazing discoveries’ in excavations in Jerusalem," he says. "Most of the archaeological research in Jerusalem is being driven by pressure from politically interested groups and individuals with the aim of ‘proving’ our historical rights in the city or clearing an area for construction."
"Several East Jerusalem neighborhoods are being targeted for Israeli settlements to prevent Palestinian neighborhoods from expanding," Jallad told IPS.
In August the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reported that 475 Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood were at risk of forced eviction, while 540 new illegal housing units were being planned. This figure excludes other areas of East Jerusalem under threat.
The Jerusalem municipality has limited building permits for Palestinians, despite East Jerusalem being densely overcrowded, and changed municipal boundaries to incorporate illegal Jewish settlements and the nearly 200,000 settlers residing in East Jerusalem.
Salah says he will not back down. "I’m not afraid of being arrested again. They can charge me with whatever they like. Al-Aqsa is a spark that could ignite the entire Muslim world and bring war if our rights are not respected."
(Inter Press Service)
