Palestinians Arabs Mark With Riots a Rare Convergence of Passover, Ramadan, and Easter

Calm returned to Jerusalem after Palestinians marked the rare confluence of Ramadan and Passover with violence. It wasn’t a very good Friday: More than 150 Palestinian rioters and three Israeli police officers were injured. The global headlines that followed may have been the rioters’ purpose to begin with. Prayers on the second Friday of Ramadan were bound to erupt in violence. Tensions at the West Bank are rising as Israelis attempt to quash a recent wave of terrorism that in the space of two weeks has killed at least 14 Israelis in terror attacks at four Israeli cities. Dozens of Palestinians belonging to several armed factions were killed recently at Jenin and other West Bank cities. Widely spread video clips of today’s clashes show Arabs carrying the Hamas flag and amassing piles of stones inside the al Aqsa mosque. Smoke seen in some clips was cited by pro-Palestinian partisans as proof that the Israeli police shot at worshippers inside the holy site.A closer examination shows that the smoke resulted from fireworks the rioters brought with them. Most of the injuries were from rubber bullets police officers often use for riot control. “We did everything we could to avoid entering the Temple Mount,” the Israeli police chief, Kobi Shabtai, said. “We tried to leave the organization and management to the Waqf,” the Jordanian-appointed Muslim authority at the mosque. Yet “when rioters threw fireworks and stones at Jewish worshipers down at the Western Wall, we intervened and arrested them,” Mr. Shabtai said. The compound where the Al Aqsa and Omar mosques — the third holiest site to Muslims, known in Arabic as Haram al Sharif — is the spot whence Muslims believe prophet Mohammed ascended to the heavens with his horse while on a trip to Jerusalem from the Arabian peninsula.The mosques are situated right above the Western Wall, the holiest site for Jews. The Haggadah, the traditional tale that world Jews recite during tonight’s Seder, ends with the passage “next year in Jerusalem.” The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, is the only remnant of the Temple that existed in Jerusalem before Jews were exiled from their land more than 2,000 years ago. Earlier today the Israeli police stopped a small Jewish group from attempting to revive a biblical tradition of sacrificing a goat at the Temple’s site on Passover. Police arrested the group, which indeed possessed a kid goat, before its members could get to the mound.At the same time, officials of the Palestinian Authorty, as well as Hamas and other factions, called for confrontation. Most Muslims mark Ramadan — when they fast in the daytime, eating and drinking before dawn and after sunset — with spiritual contemplation. Yet, the holy month has historically been used by jihadists as an occasion for violence. Fearing heightened violence during Ramadan and Passover, top Israeli officials have consulted with the Palestinian Authority’s security officers and with Jordan’s King Abdullah, who claims custody of the two mosques. They asked for help in preventing possible clashes and in lowering religious passions on all sides. Today, however, Amman and Ramallah issued a joint condemnation of Israel that may well throw oil on the fire. Jordan’s foreign Minister, Eymen Safedi, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s chief, Hussein al-Sheikh, “stressed the need to stop all illegal and provocative Israeli measures in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif, and to respect the rights of worshipers to practice their religious rites freely and without restrictions,” tweeted the Amman foreign ministry. Condemnation of Israel’s alleged infringement of the right to worship spread around the Arab and Muslim world, which may have been the main goal of the rioters. Hamas and Fatah officials for days have called on Palestinians to use Friday for confronting Israeli “invaders” at the holy site. Iran, too, is getting in on the act. Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdollahian called the Hamas chief, Ismail Haniyeh, to discus “the escalating situation in the city of Jerusalem, the violations at Al-Aqsa, and the killings and assassinations that took place in the city of Jenin and some cities in the West Bank,” according to Hamas. Aware of the explosive nature of religious-fueled rioting, Israeli officials made clear that their respect for the right to worship ends where violence begins.“The riots this morning on the Temple Mount are unacceptable and go against the spirit of the religions we believe in,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid tweeted. “The convergence of Passover, Ramadan, and Easter is symbolic of what we have in common. We must not let anyone turn these holy days into a platform for hate, incitement, and violence.”

Palestinians Arabs Mark With Riots a Rare Convergence of Passover, Ramadan, and Easter

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