Since September 27th there have been riots and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in East Jerusalem following a mistaken Palestinian attack on a group of tourists entering the Temple Mount. The tensions have been heightened by internal Palestinian politics between Hamas and Fatah who are each trying to persuade the people of their strength and credibility as Palestinian elections appear to be back on the agenda.So far 50 people have been arrested, an Israeli border policememan has been stabbed, 4 policeman have been injured in the Ras Al Amud neighbourhood and confrontations have taken place between 100 of the Islamic Movement and Israeli police. today a suspected inciter of the violence, Sheikh Saed Salah was arrested, all because of a mistaken sighting of a group of tourists entering the Temple Mount who were thought to be some radical Jewish worshippers. In fact the Israeli authorities had prevented the Jewish radicals from entering the Temple Mount previously.
In the meantime, Jordan, who manages the Temple Mount area under the auspices of the Waqf, have requested the PA and the Israeli authorities to cordon off the area and meet to discuss ways to calm the tensions down. Unfortunately, the PA has used the incident to accuse Israel of trying to Judaise the area and claiming this could spark off a 3rd Intifada.
what is really happening here though and what lies beneath the tensions? Lets go back in history a little... In 1967 when Israel took over control of East Jerusalem, it introduced and encouraged freedom of religion to all and gave control of the Muslim sites to the Jordanian administered Waqf. As it stands now, Jews and tourists are allowed onto the Temple Mount but only for certain amounts of time and at only at sepcific times of the day, following the tensions of the 2nd Intifada that ended in 2003. They were not allowed up there at all during the 2nd Intifada itself (2000-2003). The times they are allowed up there are chosen to not clash with Muslim prayer times. Nevertheless, a radical Muslim northern branch of a group, called the Islamic Movement, has constantly tried to stir up violence and tensisons by spreading false claims that Israeli archaeologists are undermining the Al Aqsa mosque.
These tensions are taken advantage of at this time due to the renewed possibility of elections between Hamas and Fatah who are using these tensions as an opportunity to leverage influence and control over the people to win votes. The possibility of electins however still rests fraily on talks currently taking place in Cairo. From the PA's point of view, it is finding it needs to win back support by taking a harsher line after withdrawing its support for the bias Goldstone Report and also for meeting with Israeli PM at the UN last month. For Hamas, they are using the tensions to reinforce their perceived strength and victory at having won the release of 20 female prisoners from Israeli jails last Friday in return for a video of captured IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit.
All in all, the Temple Mount has once again become a hotbed for tensions and is being exploited by the Palestinians for political gain.
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