Sections of Jerusalem sealed off for fear of more attacks
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – Israel's cabinet has authorised police to seal off "parts of Jerusalem", after yesterday’s deadly attacks that left three Israelis dead, 20 wounded and all the attackers killed.
Police have been deployed around Arab Jerusalem and neighbouring Jewish areas. Anyone going in or out has to go through checkpoints and possibly submit to searches.
Since the start of the month, when two Israeli settlers from the Occupied Territories were killed, attacks, often with knives, have occurred on a daily basis against civilians, soldiers, and youth with deadly results. Yesterday alone, a gunman opened fire at passengers on a bus, killing two and wounding 16.
So far, seven Israelis have died and 100 injured; at the same time, almost 30 Palestinians are dead and several hundred are wounded.
Mr Netanyahu said the new security measures are aimed against "those who try murder and with all those who assist them". He also told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to "stop lying, and stop inciting". The latter blamed the upsurge in violence on "acts of aggression" by the Israeli authorities and Jewish settlers.
However, several analysts point out that Israeli and Palestinian authorities are powerless to stop this spontaneous movement, made up of young people who communicate via social media.
Frustrated by stalled peace talks, stifling behind the West Bank Wall, forced to endure endless checks, and with no job prospects, many are just blowing with rage.
An Israeli expert laconically told AsiaNews, "If millions of people are held in an open prison, with no hope of release, it is clear that violence will eventually erupt. One must indeed wonder why there is no more violence than we have actually seen in recent attacks."
Many media outlets, as well as Hamas in Gaza, have described the recent violence as a new Intifada, like in 1987 and 2000. However, unlike previous uprisings, the current wave is unorganised, a spontaneous grassroots movement.
Many young West Bank Palestinians, including youths, are involved. Two days ago, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy, Ahmed Mansara, from the Shuafat refugee camp, stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli boy at Pisgat Ze'ev. The Israeli boy was taken to hospital; police killed Ahmed.
Increasingly, Israeli Arabs are showing solidarity towards their Palestinian brethren, generating fear among Jews in Jerusalem, as well as the rest of Israel.
"Business is bad,” said a resident of Nazareth Illit. “People are keeping their children at home out of fear; they try not to go out or avoid crowded places. Shopping centres are empty; markets and streets are deserted out of fear of unexpected attacks."
A series of visits to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount* by right wing politicians and Jewish nationalists, to pray and not only to visit, sparked the latest round of attacks. According to established practice, to which Israel is bound, only Muslims can pray on the Noble Sanctuary.
Radical Jewish nationalists want the Israeli government to allow them to pray on the site of the ancient Jewish temple.
Muslim authorities fear that the Israeli prime minister might be considering changing the site’s status quo. This would be a major blow to Palestinians and spark even more conflict and violence.
"All it takes is for Netanyahu to state that the Temple Mount is for Muslim use only, and for talks to resume, to restore some calm,” said a Jerusalem Christian.
* The Temple Mount (Har HaBáyit in Hebrew) is known as the Noble Sanctuary (al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf in Arabic) to Muslims.
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12/03/2019 16:52
16/03/2010
