The past two nights have witnessed scenes of horrific violence with Israeli Border Police thugs assaulting Al Aqsa, the third holiest site in Islam. They threw stun grenades, ransacked the sacred sanctum, and fired rubber bullets indiscriminately. Nearly 300 worshippers have been injured, many seriously.
Israel claims that police only responded when Palestinians threw rocks at them from inside the mosque. The claims and counter-claims make it appear to be a he-said-she-said situation in which both sides make opposite claims and no one can be believed.
Today’s post is meant to clarify not only who is at fault, but the ultimate reason for the Israeli provocation. Israel’s incitement did not start on Friday night, when 200 were injured in the most savage violence the city has seen in several years. It actually went back to the beginning of Ramadan. Palestinian worshippers coming from prayers traditionally congregate at the Damascus Gate and socialize as they prepare to break the evening fast. Israeli police decided to ban this gathering. Palestinians correctly viewed this as a provocation and raised a hue and cry against it. That is what led to scenes of riots and violent confrontations a few weeks ago. The tension only eased after police backed down from their position and removed the barriers preventing access to Damascus Gate.
In the meantime, Israeli settlers have long laid claim to homes in which Palestinians have lived for generations in Sheikh Jarrah. An Israel court approved the ethnic cleansing of up to 2,000 residents of homes in the neighborhood. Of course, these evictions are a serious violation of international law. They are scheduled for this coming Thursday.
Settlers in East Jerusalem have been on a campaign to Judaize it for years. They have used the courts when they could, and chicanery and fraud when they couldn’t. Palestinians have felt a gradual crushing pressure of both the settlers, police, and the courts forcing them from homes they have lived in for generations. They have reacted with fury and this has ratcheted up the tension. The confrontations at Al Aqsa during Ramadan have been the culmination of all these provocations. But it’s important to understand what lies behind the police provocations and violence.
Bibi Netanyahu last week lost his mandate to form a government. The president turned to his center-right rival, Yair Lapid and offered him the opportunity to create a governing coalition. He has another three weeks to cobble one together. Netanyahu, who faces multiple corruption charges in an ongoing trial, is desperate to maintain his hold on power. As long as he is prime minister, he believes he can avoid a guilty verdict that would banish him from his post. For that reason, he favors a fifth election during which he believes that he will somehow pull a rabbit from a hat and win a new term.
To call such an election, Lapid would have to fail in his efforts. So Netanyahu has attempted to buy off several MKs being courted for his coalition. So far, he has only enticed a single one to rebel at the prospect of joining a government that includes the Islamist Raam Party. But that has not been enough to derail Lapid’s attempts.
That is where events in Jerusalem come in. If Netanyahu can show that the country is ungovernable; if he can create enough disturbing images on Israeli TV screens of Palestinians throwing stones at police, then the public will become disgusted. That in turn could convince the skeptical parties who Lapid is negotiating with, to turn their back on him. During social upheaval, Israelis are loathe to place their trust in anyone but the most extreme, the toughest, and the harshest political leaders. That would not be Yair Lapid, who has a reputation as a centrist (which in Likud terms is an extreme leftist).
The police are under the authority of the Security minister, Amir Ohana, who is a toady of Netanyahu. Without doubt, it is Netanyahu who has directed Ohana to turn up the heat in the city; with the sole goal of destroying any chance of forming a center-right government. That is why thousands of police mass in the streets of Palestinian neighborhoods engaging in deliberate, violent provocation designed to induce a violent counter-response.
This strategy is the ultimate in cynicism and narcissism. It puts the lives of both Palestinians and Israeli law enforcement at risk. It makes them expendable assets to be exploited for pure political expediency. All for the benefit of a corrupt, washed-up, political hack. This is vintage Netanyahu.
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‘If Netanyahu can show that the country is ungovernable; if he can create enough disturbing images on Israeli TV screens of Palestinians throwing stones at police, then the public will become disgusted. That in turn could convince the skeptical parties who Lapid is negotiating with, to turn their back on him. During social upheaval, Israelis are loathe to place their trust in anyone but the most extreme, the toughest, and the harshest political leaders…’
Neatanyahu has applied this formula before. Remember when there was an outbreak of protests among Israeli Jews about the cost of living ten years or so back? Hamas terrorist attack! All good Jews to the ramparts!
First, to all Muslims, I say ‘Ramadan Kareem’.
After Ramadan began last month, I visited Arab East Jerusalem and the Arab Quarter of the Old City. Very peaceful, and quiet, save for the Arab boy yelling ‘Allah hu Akbar’ from the Temple Mount ramparts.
The Damascus gate promenade, a lovely oasis, is where Arab youth like to mingle on Ramadan evenings, however this year, there was tension in Arab Jerusalem because Arab boys were bitch slapping innocent Yeshiva boys and posting the beatings on Tik Tok.
Slap Jewish boys for likes!
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/SyFU7k0IO
Not surprisingly, Jewish Jerusalem activists angry with the Tik Tok displays started to scuffle with Arab youths from East Jerusalem.
To tamp down the street, Israeli police set up barricades to prevent conflicts.
The local Arabs protested the police barricades, which were quickly taken down.
Unfortunately, instead of mingling with Arab girls on the open promenade, hot head Arab boys began throwing rocks and bottles at the Israeli police, who immediately put the barricades back up.
Sorry, Richard, but I don’t see Bibi’s invisible hand at play.
But I guess you do.
The fact that you can’t even cough up the name PALESTINIAN is reason enough to realize you are lying again. But then, you do that often here. WTF are you doing at Damascus gate in the first place? It doesn’t belong to you squatters.
Greta, I’m going to take the high road.
I was visiting Saint Anne’s Church and the Bethesda Pools (via the Lion’s Gate).
You might want to follow up by reading John:5, 2-9.
Have a blessed day.
Baba al-‘amud=damascus gate was full of Jewish institutions before 1948 and the Jordanians either took over or destroyed them so there is a definite Jewish claim to formerly owned Jewish properties. In any event you really don’t care about that you are just a rabid anti-semite.
@ avram stern: If there is a claim to Jewish-owned property in the Old City then there is a claim by every tribe that preceded the Israelites to the properties that were stolen from them when the Israelites exterminated them. And if there is such a Jewish claim, then Israel owes the same form of property restitution to Palestinians expelled by the Nakba. I’m happy to have those claims reviewed and property restored along with Jewish claims to pre-48 property. How about you?
i hear your point but remember it is documented that Abraham bought Hebron for 400 shekels and King David bought the temple mount from the Jebusites. According to your statement the idea is regresso ad infinitum.
Praise be to God … ʾAllāhu ʾakbaru (ٱللَّٰهُ أَكْبَرُ’
What I learned from Muslims about God
@ Oui
Maybe you want to correct his “Allah hu akbar” but yours is not correct either …. it’s Allāhu akbar, there is no damma on the final rā in the elatif of ‘kabīr’ in the takbīr …. never trust wiki or whatever on a topic that you don’t know anything about.
@ MIghty:
Your hypocrisy makes me sick, as it does any Muslim who would read this patently self-serving bulls*t.
That is no justification for entirely closing Damascus Gate. In fact, that’s taking revenge on innocent Muslim worshippers for the actions of others. Precisely the sort of tit-for-tat revenge tactics which deliberately incite Muslims into escalating tension into outright conflict. So in order to stop slapping Jerusalem itself is now on fire and hundreds are injured and the world is disgusted by Israel’s pogrom.
Your account is entirely selective and has no credibility whatsoever. You know what has happened. You know who and what caused it. You can bray like a donkey all you want blaming Palestinians for the riots, but no one except you and settlers believe it. Not even most Israelis believe your self-serving account.
I visited Arab East Jerusalem and the Arab Quarter because I neither fear nor loath Arabs, and because I came in peace, I was treated peaceably.
As a student of history and comparative religion, I’m well aware of the Muslim attachment to Jerusalem, both the Lion’s Gate and the Golden Gate that I visited, were built by Muslims.
Fun fact: Buried beneath the Golden Gate is the Eastern Gate of the Jewish Temple that Jesus Christ walked through on his triumphant entry to Jerusalem, and through which Mosiach will walk through when his time comes.
Sorry to disabuse you, but the Damascus Gate wasn’t closed by the Israeli authorities, the promenade surrounding the Damascus Gate was temporarily barricaded. No worshippers were prevented from using the Gate, until full scale rioting broke out.
Richard. I haven’t blamed anyone for anything. All I’ve done is report what I saw.
I wish you and Greta and Oui and Deir Yassin peace and love.
Peace and love.
On April 13 2021, Israeli police broke in to al-Aqsa Mosque, cut locks and severed power cords, silencing calls to prayer – this first day of Ramadan. This criminality was reported by the Times of Israel, Arab News, Religious New Service. This event was not reported by NPR, NYT, AP, WaPo, Reuters. I’m impressed with the instant COORDINATION but not so.much with the COMMITMENT TO JOURNALISTIC ETHICS.
[comment deleted: No fake news, no unsubstantiated rumors, no incitement]