Israel-Palestine: Clashes on Temple Mount

At the end of Friday Prayers in Jerusalem, 15 police officers and dozens of Palestinians were hurt in Temple Mount clashes and three stone throwers were arrested.

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that Israel has crossed every red line and made prospects for peace even dimmer in ther confrontations with Muslim worshipers on the Temple Mount.

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Abbas also said that the “occupation army” was “provoking” members of other faiths in a way that could “set off a religious war in the region”. He warned that “Israeli escapades” in east Jerusalem would have repercussions not just in the city and the Middle East, but also in the Muslim world. He urged the US and the international community to intervene and stop tensions from escalating further.


Syria also condemned Israel's "desecration of Arab and Islamic sanctities". A statement released by the Syrian Foreign Ministry said:

The desecration ... comes at a time when the majority of the Arab League Council's memebers adopted the indirect Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. The clashes serve as extra evidence on Israel's non-seriousness about peace ... and a proof of the Israeli anti-peace policy that aims at liquidating the Palestinian cause.

Comments

[parvati_roma]

Uri Avnery: The Harlot's Grave and Misusing Holy Sites
http://www.eurasiareview.com/2010/03/32246-harlots-grave-and-misuing-holy.html

[Publicola]

ad 'parvati_roma'
thank you very much for that illuminating link, from which I would like to quote some impressive sentences in the following to underline the relevance of the link indicated here by you:

»Years ago, I was invited by the late lamented mayor of Florence, Giorgio La Pira, to take part in a joint prayer session with a Catholic priest, a Muslim Sheikh and a Jewish rabbi at the Cave of Machpelah. In spite of being a devout atheist, I went along. At the time, it crossed my mind that such a site could well serve as a symbol of fraternity for both peoples of the country.
Joint love for the country, including all its periods and sites, holy and unholy, could serve as a spiritual basis for peace and reconciliation. Even now I hope for the day when schoolchildren in both states, Israel and Palestine, will learn the annals of this country in all its periods, and not just Jewish history here and Muslim history there. The wonderful richness of this country’s history, from the time of the Canaanites to this day, could create a strong bond.
However, the intentions of Netanyahu and his settlers are quite the opposite: to misuse history as an instrument of occupation, and to build settlements around the harlot’s grave.«*)

*) 'harlot’s grave'
the tomb of Rahab the Harlot in Jericho.
»This heroine of the Bible (Joshua 2), the whore who betrayed her city and helped the invaders to conquer it and murder all the other inhabitants, is in good company with the settlers« (Uri Avnery, op. cit.)

“The Harlot’s Grave And Misusing Holy Sites” by Uri Avnery in: Eurasia Review - March 06, 2010

http://www.eurasiareview.com/2010/03/32246-harlots-grave-and-misuing-holy.html

Uri Avnery is a German-born Israeli (hailing from the same town as me - "Beckum" in North Rhine-Westphalia), whose family managed to escape in time the brutal persecution and final and absolute extermination "imparted" by my ancestors to all jews within their range of imperial power, within the whole of Europe.

So he exactly knows what he is talking (writing) about.