Al-Aqsa Mosque is at the center of dispute
[Jerusalem] – Palestinians carried out three separate attacks on Israelis on Wednesday within a matter of hours — one in Jerusalem’s Old City, another in the southern town of Kiryat Gat and a third against a driver in the West Bank. The violence comes during heightened tensions in the country, after four Israelis were killed in two attacks in the past week. Two Palestinian teenagers were also killed – one apparently by an Israeli sniper who was shooting at someone else during a demonstration.
Tensions continue to be centered around Jerusalem with many Palestinian residents angered at restrictions made by police preventing Arab worshippers from entering the Old City and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
In the first incident Wednesday a Palestinian women stabbed a Jewish man before she was shot and killed. The assault happened in Jerusalem’s Old City, making it the second knife attack there in less than a week.
In a separate instance a Jewish woman commuting to Jerusalem from her home in the West Bank was ambushed and assaulted by a group of Palestinian youths. The victim, Rivi Lev Ohayon, reported that after stoning her car the attackers attempted to drag her from the vehicle. Ohayon was able to escape and fled the scene before calling the police.
The third incident occurred when a Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli soldier and stole his weapon. The attacker was shot dead as he attempted to flee the scene. The attack, which occurred in Kiryat Gat, left the soldier with a light stab wound to the head.
All three attacks represent what Israeli media are calling “popular terror,” incidents of violence carried out by lone individuals without apparent coordination. In most of these incidents the attacker is killed by security personnel or armed passersby.
Israeli police have struggled to find a response to these attacks, which are unpredictable and require little planning on the part of an attacker. In an effort to prevent further incidences of violence police have restricted access to the Old City of Jerusalem to residents, women and men over 50. However this has angered Palestinian business owners who complain that their economy is being hit hard by the curfew.
“The police are killing us. They close the whole city. We have no work, nothing, the situation is very bad,” Adnan Tamimi, a middle aged Palestinian man sitting outside a row of empty shops, told The Media Line. The merchant’s sentiment was echoed by numerous other shopkeepers who complained about a lack of customers during the last three weeks, a result they said of police restrictions.
Tamimi linked the recent upsurge in violence to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. “It was ours for 1400 years and more than a 1.5 billion Muslims are responsible for (it) – not (Palestinian Authority President) Abu Mazen or anyone else,” the shopkeeper said, using a common nickname for Mahmoud Abbas.
Some Muslims have expressed concerns that the Israeli government is attempting to change the status quo administering the Al-Aqsa Mosque, under pressure from Jewish religious-nationalist groups. The mosque’s compound is also sacred to Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount. The Israeli government has denied such claims stating that the Muslim Waqf authority still controls the holy site.
“The Israeli police must know that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the key to war and peace,” Mehi Abu Assab, a shopkeeper working near the Damascus Gate, told The Media Line. “What happened in the Old City is a defensive operation because of the entry of the settlers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Assab said, referring to the killing of Aharon Bennett and Nehemia Lavi last week. If Jewish groups continue to go to the mosque than attacks against Israelis will continue, Assab argued.
With such sentiments being openly expressed in the street – albeit in Arabic – Jewish residents might be expected to be stay away. However worshipers heading to and from the Western Wall continued to be visible, possibly due to the heavy police presence. One passerby, Tzvi, 29, walking home with his young son, said that he felt safe because further attacks were less likely to happen shortly after a stabbing due to the police deploying additional forces as a precaution. Later once the police presence is drawn down, the threat of violence is still present for Jews living in the Old City, Tzvi, who himself resides in the Muslim Quarter, told The Media Line.
“The situation is really bad here we have a lot of hate attacks on my home – we have throwing rocks every day and Molotov bottles once in a month,” the young father said. But despite this it was important for Jews to continue living in the Muslim Quarter as Eliezer ben Yehuda, the founder of modern-Hebrew, and both the parents of former Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin had roots there, Tzvi said.
If residents in the Old City complained of a downturn in business due to the heightened tensions the effect in wider Jerusalem was less felt.
“I don’t think it had a major effect on business… No difference so far at the hotel,” Ben Turim, 24, a guard working at the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel, told The Media Line. “There is a feeling of a lack of security but we must show terrorists that we act as usual and not let terror frighten us too much,” Turim said, adding, “Citizens should keep their eyes open.”