Perilous Times
17 police hurt in Temple Mount clashes
By
JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
05/03/2010 14:01
Rocks hurled at Kotel worshipers after mosque sermon, skirmishes break
out in W. Bank.
Seventeen policemen were lightly wounded in their attempt to restore
order on the Temple Mount after Arab youths emerging from Friday
prayers started hurling rocks down onto those worshiping at the Western
Wall.
Having restored calm by use of stun grenades, and following helpful
intervention by other Muslim worshipers to defuse the clash, police
eventually withdrew in coordination with the Waqf to allow older
worshipers to leave the Temple Mount.
Six of the injured policemen were hospitalized in light condition.
Ron Krumer, a spokesman for Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center,
confirmed a Palestinian woman was wounded in the head by a rubber
bullet and hospitalized in serious condition. Palestinian medics
reported 13 injuries.
Police denied using rubber bullets to disperse the riot.
Najeh Btirat, a Waqf official, said the clash followed a mosque sermon
on the issue.
"The Friday sermon focused on the Islamic sites that are being targeted
by Israel and the need to preserve them," he said. About 300 young men
threw stones at police after prayers, he said.
Rock-throwing then spilled over into Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter. Police
deployed stun grenades, restoring calm.
Skirmishes also broke out to the south, in the West Bank city of
Hebron, after Friday prayers but no serious injuries were reported. A
group of about 100 Palestinians protested outside the holy site known
to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi
mosque.
Last Sunday, Jerusalem’s Old City erupted in violence as clashes
between Arab rioters and security forces broke out on the Temple Mount
and spread into the alleyways of the Muslim Quarter and the east
Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras el-Amud. Four policemen were wounded and
upwards of a dozen Muslim protesters were reportedly hurt during the
clashes.
The repeated clashes in Jerusalem follow Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu's announcement incorporating the Cave of the Patriarch's in
Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem onto Israel's list of national
heritage sites.
Meanwhile on Friday afternoon, some 250 Palestinians and left-wing
activists clashed with security forces in violent protests in the
Ramallah area.
No one was wounded in the demonstrations in the villages of Na'alin,
Bil’in and Dir Nizam.