Jake Sullivan (US) - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Jerusalem Day festivities shaken by rockets, violent riots

Tzvi Joffre - Jerusalem Post — Mon, 10 May 2021 18:23:46 +0000

Police stormed the Temple Mount to disperse rioters who fired fireworks and threw stones at security forces. Over 300 people were injured in the clashes.

Rioting broke out in the Old City of Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount and rockets were fired towards Israel’s capital on Monday, as Palestinians threw rocks and launched firecrackers at Israel Police officers and Israelis celebrated Jerusalem Day in the city.

Due to the violence, Israel Police decided earlier to change the path of the Jerusalem Day flag march on Monday afternoon. After the rocket fire, police asked revelers to return home.

Jerusalem Day flag march begins, May 10, 2021 (Credit: Marc Israel Sellem)

The march will go through the Jaffa Gate instead of the traditional route through the Damascus Gate.

Despite the decision to change the route, clashes broke out between police and hundreds of Palestinian youth at the Damascus Gate shortly after the announcement, according to Israel Police.

A number of groups involved in organizing the flag march expressed outrage at the decision, stating that they were canceling the march in protest. Large crowds marched towards the Western Wall carrying Israeli flags and dancing despite the announcements.

Otzma Yehudit head Itamar Ben-Gvir expressed opposition to the decision to change the route of the march, saying “a situation in which the Israeli government and the Jerusalem police are unable to allow the flag dance to pass at the Damascus Gate is a very serious situation.”

“We folded on the Temple Mount, folded at the Damascus Gate, and folded on the Shimon HaTzadik [neighborhood]. We have lost sovereignty in Jerusalem, and it is time to liberate the Temple Mount and Jerusalem and show the rioters who are the owners of the house once and for all,” said Ben-Gvir.

The decision comes after a day of violent clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians, as well as attacks on Israeli civilians.

Overnight Sunday, Palestinians at the Temple Mount compound began building barricades and gathering stones with Palestinian media reporting that they were preparing to “confront the occupation forces and settlers.” Palestinians also raised green banners over Al-Aqsa mosque and placed posters of terrorist leaders around the site.

See video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1391581788254965760

On Monday morning, the police announced that Jews would not be allowed to enter the Temple Mount compound, and activists and right-wing politicians responded with outrage and dozens gathering at the entrance leading to the Mughrabi Gate, demanding to be let in. Some tried to break through the gate. Three Jews were arrested after attempting to enter the Temple Mount, according to Army Radio.

See video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1391650865606537218

Shortly after police made the announcement banning Jews from the site, crowds of Palestinians began attacking police officers with stones and fireworks, with police responding with riot dispersal means, including tear gas and rubber bullets. The clashes quickly grew, with police battling crowds of Palestinians throwing stones and barricading themselves in buildings on the mount.

Video from the area showed crowds running in all directions as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the Palestinians who were attacking them. Chairs and other objects were seen strewn across the plaza and clouds of tear gas filled the air and explosions were heard across the compound. Buildings in the compound were also damaged, with windows, tables and chairs damaged in the Al-Qibli Mosque.

Palestinians called out over the loudspeakers of al-Aqsa Mosque that “the settlers will only pass over our dead bodies” and that “al-Aqsa is defiled,” Palestinian media said.

Police eventually restored calm on the mount for a short period but clashes later flared again as Palestinians, who had remained barricaded in al-Qibli mosque on the mount broke into the main plaza in the compound. On Monday afternoon, Palestinians hoisted a Palestinian flag over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is illegal according to Israeli law.

See video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1391806621580419080

Later on Monday night, a fire broke out at the Temple Mount plaza amid further clashes between Palestinians and police, with video showing trees on fire at the compound. The fire was quickly extinguished.

Near the Lions’ Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City, Palestinians attacked a car driven by a Jewish Israeli, causing him to lose control of the vehicle and swerve onto the sidewalk, hitting Palestinian rioters.

After the car stopped, more stone throwers approached it and they continued to pelt it, opening the doors in an attempt to attack the driver and another male passenger.

The car’s occupants, two men aged 27 and 28, were lightly injured and received medical treatment, according to the Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service.

“We came down two streets that should have been secured by the police, but there was no police presence,” said the driver of the vehicle to KAN news.

“We had stones thrown at us during the whole time we were driving on the street, I was talking with the police on the phone during the whole thing and told them that they were throwing rocks at me,” he added. “I had nowhere to go and so I started driving back and forth, at some point the car stopped and they opened the door and began hitting us.”

Additionally, Jewish Israelis and Palestinians clashed in the Old City and near the Damascus Gate on Monday afternoon, according to Palestinian media.

Abu Ubaida, the spokesman of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, warned that the terrorist groups in Gaza were giving Israel until 6 p.m. to withdraw security forces from the Temple Mount and Shiekh Jarrah neighborhood and to release all those detained in the recent clashes.

The Jerusalem District Court, including the ongoing trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was evacuated on Monday due to the explosive security situation in east Jerusalem.

The trial did run from 9:00 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. but was scheduled to run until 3:30 p.m.

No specific threat was occurring at the time, but the judges were advised by their security team that it would be safer to leave before any potential situation might develop later.

Over 337 Palestinians were injured in the clashes on Monday morning, including Red Crescent medics who arrived at the scene to treat the wounded. At least seven people were reported to be in serious condition, the Red Crescent said. Some 21 police officers were injured amid the clashes, according to Israeli media.

Hadassah-University Medical Center said it was treating five people who were lightly hurt, including a seven-month-old baby girl, who was hit by a stone.

The clashes have erupted following violence in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and along the Gaza border that was sparked in recent weeks as Palestinians expressed outrage at the planned eviction of a number of families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip have also launched dozens of rockets and explosive and incendiary balloons towards southern Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a meeting of the security cabinet on Monday afternoon due to the heightened tensions.

“A struggle is now raging over the heart of Jerusalem,” said Netanyahu, in reference to clashes, during a speech on Monday at the annual state ceremony in memory of the Jews of Ethiopia who died en route to Israel in the 1980s. “This is not a new struggle, this is a struggle between intolerance and tolerance, between law-breaking violence and law and order.”

Netanyahu stressed that “only under Israeli sovereignty since 1967 are we are witnessing a long, stable and secure period in which we are working to ensure freedom of worship and tolerance for all.”

The prime minister added that ensuring the freedom of worship requires an occasional confrontation with the “forces of intolerance,” expressing support for the police and security forces. “These things have of course a misguided, incorrect, and misleading expression in the global media,” added Netanyahu.

The Palestinian terror groups have threatened Israel and called for a “general mobilization” in Jerusalem, the West Bank and in Arab-Israeli communities.

“The spiteful Zionist terrorist attack on our Jerusalemites will not pass without a deterrent response, and the enemy must wait for the response of the resisting and steadfast Palestinian people everywhere and at all times,” the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group said on Monday. “Everyone must act to save the people of Jerusalem. This is everyone’s battle, and the resistance is present, and it will not be far from what is happening.”

The PIJ also condemned the continued security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.

Hamas said that the clashes were “a religious war practiced by the occupation, and it is evidence of the brutality of the Zionist occupation and its Nazism.”

“We call on our people to persevere in the face of the storming, and to offer the precious as a sacrifice for the purification of al-Aqsa and to prevent the settlers from entering it,” said Hamas. “We affirm that the occupation will pay a heavy price as a result of its incursion into al-Aqsa and its worshipers.”

Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, warned on Monday afternoon that the terrorist groups in Gaza are “ready and motivated and will not stand idly by, and its word will be the last word in the battle if the occupation does not retreat and put an end to its satanic plans.”

Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/jerusalem-day-riots-break-out-on-temple-mount-667735

[Disclaimer]

The post Jerusalem Day festivities shaken by rockets, violent riots first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Hundreds Wounded During Temple Mount Riots on Jerusalem Day Holiday

CBN News — Mon, 10 May 2021 17:07:22 +0000

The post Hundreds Wounded During Temple Mount Riots on Jerusalem Day Holiday first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Israeli police and Palestinians clash at Jerusalem holy site

Ilan ben Zion and Joseph Krauss — Mon, 10 May 2021 15:21:49 +0000

Jerusalem: Israeli police firing tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site on Monday, the latest in a series of confrontations that threatened to push the contested city toward wider conflict.

More than a dozen tear gas canisters and stun grenades landed in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, as police and protesters faced off inside the walled compound that surrounds it, said an Associated Press photographer at the scene. Smoke rose in front of the mosque and the iconic golden-domed shrine on the site, and rocks littered the nearby plaza. Inside one area of the compound, shoes and debris lay scattered over ornate carpets.

Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.CREDIT: AP

More than 305 Palestinians were hurt, including 228 who went to hospitals and clinics for treatment, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Seven of the injured were in serious condition. Police said 21 officers were hurt, including three who were hospitalised. Israeli paramedics said seven Israeli civilians were also hurt.

The confrontation was the latest after weeks of mounting tensions between Palestinians and Israeli troops in the Old City of Jerusalem, the emotional centre of their conflict. There have been almost nightly clashes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, already a time of heightened religious sensitivities.

Most recently, the tensions have been fuelled by the planned eviction of dozens of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of east Jerusalem where Israeli settlers have waged a lengthy legal battle to take over properties. Monday was expected to be particularly tense since Israelis mark it as Jerusalem Day to celebrate their capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war.

Haaretz.com@haaretzcom

Jerusalem Police clash with Palestinians at Temple Mount, dozens wounded; Jews barred from compound.

Live updates: Here

On Monday, two anti-Arab members of Israel’s parliament, surrounded by an entourage and police, pushed through a line of protesters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. Several Arab members of parliament were among those trying to stop Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, amid shouting and jostling. At one point during the scrum, the protesters pounded on the sides of a dumpster, and one man yelled at Smotrich in Arabic, “Get out of here, you dog!”

Smotrich and Ben Gvir eventually got to the other side of a police barricade and entered a house already inhabited by settlers.

Over the past few days, hundreds of Palestinians and several dozen police officers have been hurt in clashes in and around the Old City, including the sacred compound, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The compound which has been the trigger for rounds of Israel-Palestinian violence in the past, is Islam’s third-holiest site and considered Judaism’s holiest.

An AP photographer at the scene said that early Monday morning, protesters had barricaded gates to the walled compound with wooden boards and scrap metal. Sometime after 7 am, clashes erupted, with those inside throwing stones at police deployed outside. Police entered the compound, firing tear gas, rubber-coated steel pellets and stun grenades.

Palestinians evacuate a wounded protester during clashes with Israeli security forces at the Lions Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday.CREDIT: AP

At some point during the morning about 400 people, both young protesters and older worshippers were inside the carpeted Al-Aqsa Mosque. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades into the mosque.

Police said protesters hurled stones at officers and onto an adjoining roadway near the Western Wall, where thousands of Israeli Jews had gathered to pray.

After several days of Jerusalem confrontations, Israel has come under growing international criticism for its heavy-handed actions at the site, particularly during Ramadan.

The United Nations Security Council scheduled closed consultations on the situation on Monday.

Late Sunday, the United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke to his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat. A White House statement said that Sullivan called on Israel to “pursue appropriate measures to ensure calm” and expressed the US’s “serious concerns” about the ongoing violence and planned evictions.

Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City.CREDIT: AP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against the criticism on Monday, saying Israel is determined to ensure the rights of worship for all and that this “requires from time to time stand up and stand strong as Israeli police and our security forces are doing now.”

Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Netanyahu, claimed in a tweet that “extremist Palestinians planned well in advance to carry out riots” at the holy site, sharing photos of mounds of stones and wooden barricades inside the compound.

Ayman Odeh, a leading Arab politician in Israel, blamed the violence on Israel’s discriminatory policies toward the Palestinians and said it had provoked the violence. “Wherever you find occupation, you will find resistance,” he said at a news conference in Sheikh Jarrah.

In other violence, Palestinian protesters hurled rocks at an Israeli vehicle driving just outside the Old City walls. The driver later told public broadcaster Kan that his windows were smashed by stones and pepper spray shot into the car. CCTV footage released by the police showed a crowd surrounding the car and pelting it with rocks when it swerved off the road and into a stone barrier and a bystander.

Palestinian Muslim worshippers pray during Laylat al-Qadr, or the night of destiny, in the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in front of the Dome of the Rock at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City. CREDIT: AP

Police said two passengers were injured.

The day began with police announcing that Jews would be barred from visiting the holy site on Jerusalem Day, which is marked with a flag-waving parade through the Old City that is widely perceived by Palestinians as a provocative display in the contested city.

In the 1967 war in which Israel captured east Jerusalem, it also took the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It later annexed east Jerusalem and considers the entire city its capital. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state, with east Jerusalem as their capital.

Palestinians escape from a stun grenade fired by Israeli police officers during clashes at Damascus Gate during Ramadan in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem on May 8, 2021. CREDIT: GETTY

The recent round of violence began when Israel blocked off a popular spot where Muslims traditionally gather each night during Ramadan at the end of their daylong fast. Israel later removed the restrictions, but clashes quickly resumed amid tensions over the planned eviction of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah.

Israel’s Supreme Court postponed a key ruling on Monday that could have forced dozens of Palestinians from their homes, citing the “circumstances.”

The tensions in Jerusalem have threatened to reverberate throughout the region.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fired several barrages of rockets into Israel, and protesters allied with the ruling Hamas militant group have launched dozens of incendiary balloons into Israel, setting off fires across the southern part of the country.

“The occupier plays with fire, and tampering with Jerusalem is very dangerous,” Saleh Arouri, a top Hamas official, told the militant group’s Al-Aqsa TV station.

In response, COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry organ responsible for crossings with the Gaza Strip, announced on Monday that it was closing the Erez crossing to all but humanitarian and exceptional cases until further notice.

Source: https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/the-powder-keg-is-burning-riots-break-out-at-jerusalem-s-holiest-site-20210510-p57qk8.html

[Disclaimer]

The post Israeli police and Palestinians clash at Jerusalem holy site first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.