A weekend of unrest that began Friday at the Temple Mount with attacks on worshipers, tourists and news photographers at the Western Wall ended with a 13-year-old resident of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza being shot to death.
Friday’s clash began when Palestinians, emerging from noon prayers at the Al-Aksa mosque that marked the beginning of the month-long Moslem holiday of Ramadan, tore up an Israeli flag while chanting nationalist slogans.
Israeli police were attacked by rocks after they lobbed tear gas at the demonstrators and shot live ammunition into the air. Their actions failed to disperse the rioters and the confrontations continued for about 45 minutes.
The violence spilled over to the nearby Western Wall, which forms the perimeter of the Temple Mount area, holy to both Moslems and Jews.
Worshipers, as well as onlookers and news photographers, were pelted with large stones.
The violence resulted in eight wounded, including five policemen, one Austrian television cameraman and three Palestinians. Scores of Palestinians were arrested.
This was the first time in the 16-month-long Palestinian uprising, or intifada, in which Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall have been wounded, upsetting the delicate balance which has enabled the two communities to pray side by side for the past 22 years.
As a result of the intensity of the violence, Israeli authorities are considering banning Moslems from the territories from Friday prayers at the Al-Aksa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site. Friday is the Moslem sabbath.
Ramadan, the month of daily fasting and prayer, is customarily a time of emotional outpourings.
This weekend’s riots marked the beginning of the 17th month of the intifada, and the disturbances continued throughout the weekend all over the territories.
On Saturday, 22 Palestinians were shot and wounded in the territories as a 48-hour strike was being observed.
On Sunday, the 13-year-old was killed and three youths wounded when Israeli soldiers shot plastic bullets in response to an onslaught of petrol bombs, according to military sources.
But of all the weekend’s disturbances, the Temple Mount violence most disturbed Israeli authorities.
The events were discussed at the weekly Cabinet session Sunday. Police Minister Haim Bar-Lev made the suggestion to restrict access to the Temple Mount for Friday prayers, to decrease the likelihood of violence.
Briefing the cabinet, Bar-Lev confirmed that most of those under arrest are not residents of Jerusalem, but rather visitors from the territories.
Acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres–standing in for Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir while he is in America–said the government took a grave view of the attempt to hurt worshipers near the Western Wall, and authorized the security forces to “act to avoid repetition of the incident.”
Religious Affairs Minister Zevulun Hammer urged the public to come to the Western Wall, despite Friday’s violence. And indeed the Western Wall plaza was crowded Sunday with visitors and worshipers, and no tension was felt.
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