DECODE – Clashes between Muslim believers and Israeli police ended in arrests. They take place in the middle of Ramadan and on the eve of Passover.
By Guillaume de Dieuleveult
Published 04/05/2023 at 19:15, updated 04/05/2023 at 22:28
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Israeli police maintain order on the esplanade of mosques in Jerusalem on Wednesday AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP
The Esplanade of Mosques in Jerusalem’s Old City is once again at the center of all tensions. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, there were clashes between Muslim believers and the Israeli police, who are maintaining order in the eastern part of the city, which has been occupied since 1967. In a particularly delicate context, this violence fears a new explosion in the region.
The events of the night had been feared for a few days because the Jewish and Muslim calendars wanted to drop the Passover holiday, the Jewish Passover, into the month of Ramadan again this year. The Esplanade des Mosques, which is also the Temple Mount in Jewish eyes, is subject to a status quo regime under which only Muslims are allowed to pray there. The site is accessible to non-Muslims but on a limited basis. For some Jews, this is an unacceptable situation, especially during Passover. But in the eyes of Muslims, any challenge to the status quo would be a casus belli.
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What exactly happened in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday? According to the Waqf, the administration in charge of the holy place, the faithful had come to pray there all night, a tradition during Ramadan. But according to the Israeli police, “about 400 young Palestinians from East Jerusalem had barricaded themselves with fireworks and stones.”
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In a statement, police say they negotiated after evening prayers for them to agree to leave the premises but to no avail, resulting in him entering the mosque where “she was greeted with violence”. She specifies that “about 300 rioters were arrested”. A statement issued by the prime minister’s office on Wednesday refers to the testimony of a young Palestinian man who says he was locked inside the mosque by masked men.
Very early on Wednesday morning, other videos circulated on social networks illustrated the violence of the clashes. Some showed the devastated places after the police operation. As a result, 16 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army responded with artillery and tank fire on suspected Hamas arms depots.
No casualties were reported in either camp. A teenager was injured by throwing Molotov cocktails at police early in the morning in Silwan, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem. A little later, the Israeli army reported clashes in a West Bank city and an attack on Checkpoint 300, which controls the crossings between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Play the appeasement
These events come as the outbreaks of violence have multiplied in recent days. Last Friday, the Israeli police shot dead a young man in the Old City of Jerusalem under unclear circumstances. On Tuesday, two Israeli soldiers were injured in a knife attack near a military camp inside Israel’s borders. The army also expressed concern over the interception of a drone from Syria on the Golan on Sunday.
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Could another night of violence on the Esplanade of Mosques be the spark of too many? From Gaza, Hamas is both menacing in its words and relatively moderate in its response. “Israel cannot go unpunished for its crimes,” the Israeli movement relaunched on Wednesday morning.
For his part, in Ramallah, the spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, “warned the occupation (Israel, editor’s note) not to cross red lines in holy places: this will lead to a big explosion”. For the Turkish President Erdogan, the “red line” has already been crossed. The Arab League met on Wednesday at the request of Jordan, whose king is the guardian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. In a statement, she said: “Israeli aggression is unacceptable.” The United Nations said it was “shocked” by Israeli police violence and Washington was “extremely concerned”.
For its part, Israel is trying to play the game of appeasement. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Wednesday saying that “Israel is working to maintain the status quo and calm the situation on the Temple Mount.”
Tensions erupted on the Esplanade on Wednesday night, and at least two rockets were fired from Gaza. “We fear that al-Aqsa is no longer a mosque,” confided in the afternoon a shopkeeper who, like all residents of the old city, remembers that in May 2021 similar events led to a war.