Security forces, who were already on high alert in Jerusalem on Sunday morning, didn’t have to wait long to be called into action, confronting Muslim rioters on the Temple Mount and arresting 12 people in and around the site.
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND ABE SELIG
12 arrested as police storm Temple Mount to face Arab rioters
Security forces, who were already on high alert in Jerusalem on Sunday morning, didn’t have to wait long to be called into action, confronting Muslim rioters on the Temple Mount and arresting 12 people in and around the site.
Police said that officers were accompanying a group of tourists up to the mount, and that several Muslim youngsters had been caught on video camera preparing to cause trouble, including pouring oil onto the ground to hinder the access of security forces and the visitors.
Following the discovery, police reinforcements stormed the mount and were pelted with stones and a fire bomb by the young rioters. The forces dispersed the riots using stun grenades, among other means at their disposal, and a tense calm was restored to the site.
Though police on Saturday had said they were bracing for the possibility of renewed clashes, no restrictions had been placed on Muslims entering the Temple Mount for Sunday prayers, or on visitors who arrived in the morning to tour the compound.
However, following the violence, worshipers who weren’t already in the site’s mosques were evacuated, and police closed the site to further access.
There were no reports of casualties on either side, and Jewish prayers at the Western Well went on undisturbed.
Following the clashes, a cleric called out from the Temple Mount loud speaker for Muslims to “come and defend” the site, and there were sporadic instances of rock-throwing in east Jerusalem
The already high alert level in the capital had come in response to what police said were previous calls by both Jewish and Islamic religious leaders to ascend the Temple Mount.
Tensions flared in the capital three weeks ago, when Muslim leaders summoned their followers to “come and defend the mount,” sparking demonstrations and riots in east Jerusalem throughout Succot.
Police on Saturday evening had said they would deal firmly and decisively with any attempts to disturb the peace.
“Jerusalem police will deploy around the Temple Mount, the alleyways of the Old City, and in east Jerusalem tomorrow, in light of calls from both [Jewish and Muslim leaders] to go up to the mount,” a police spokesman had said.
Calls to Muslim worshipers to come to Jerusalem Sunday largely came from clerics in east Jerusalem and their counterparts from the northern branch of the Islamic Movement
While the spokesman declined to specify where the Jewish calls had come from, Sunday had been publicized as the day to commemorate the visit by Maimonides to the Temple Mount 843 years ago.
To mark that anniversary, a conference was set to take place in Jerusalem, “calling Jews to properly arise to the Temple Mount,” according to an announcement by the group called Eretz Israel Shelanu. The announcement listed several right-wing MKs and rabbis as conference participants.
In the past, Jews have ascended the mount to mark the anniversary, 6 Heshvan, which was Saturday.
While there were no announcements of an organized visit to the Temple Mount on Sunday, a member of the Islamic Movement’s southern branch told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday evening that the renewed calls for Muslims to arrive in the capital on Sunday had been made after “extremist Jewish elements” had recently made clear their intention to go up to the mount.
“It seems like the extremists don’t want to have quiet in Jerusalem or on the Temple Mount,” the Islamic Movement member, who asked to remain unnamed, said. “These sorts of things used to happen once every year, or once every two years, but now the provocations have become more frequent.”
The member of the southern branch, which is independent of the northern branch and considered by some as more moderate, said “all sides were unified in their defense of Al-Aksa,” and that “any provocative visit to the site by extremist Jews would not pass peacefully.
“The police have to be the ones to stop this,” he said. “Because we don’t want to go back to the violence that occurred recently, or to the riots of October 2000.”
While a representative from the Temple Mount Institute was unavailable on Saturday night, the recent tensions over the Temple Mount have also seen an increase in calls by prominent rabbis forbidding Jews to access the Temple Mount, based on Jewish law.
Western Wall Chief Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitz recently reiterated that Halacha prohibits Jews from “even touching the Temple Mount,” much less entering it, based on laws of ritual purity.
During the heightened tensions in the capital over Succot, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, considered by many Ashkenazi haredim as the foremost decider of Jewish law, told President Shimon Peres, during a highly publicized visit to the rabbi’s home in Jerusalem, that Jewish ascent to the Temple Mount was expressly forbidden by Halacha.
Elyashiv also told Peres it was important to consider that any provocations on the part of Jews who were determined to ascend to the Temple Mount could lead to needless bloodshed and further condemnation of Israel by the nations of the world.
Greer Fay Cashman contributed to this report.
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Tags: Israel