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Israeli Police Storm Temple Mount

July 30, 2001

Israeli police stormed the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's walled Old City on Sunday to quell a riot by Muslims. The clashes began after Muslims rioters began throwing stones at Jews praying below them at the adjoining Western Wall. Israeli police rushed onto the Temple Mount, site of the Jewish Temples in biblical times, and fired stun grenades at Muslim rioters.

The clash took place in the most sensitive area in the Israeli-Arab conflict. The Temple Mount is the site of the holy temples in biblical times, and is regarded as the most sacred place in the Jewish world. Since the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in the 7th century A.D., the area has also been home to the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque. Muslims claim the site as the third holiest site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Fifteen policemen and 20 Palestinians were injured in the clashes, which continued intermittently throughout the afternoon.

The riots, which started just after midday Muslim prayers, came about three hours after about 40 members of the Temple Mount Faithful, a Jewish organization dedicated to the rebuilding of the temple, laid a symbolic cornerstone for the building of a new Temple. The organization chose the occasion of Tisha B'Av, the day Jews mourn the destruction of their First and Second Temples more than 2,000 years ago.

The Israeli police forced the organization to perform the ceremony outside the walls of the Old City and away from the area, but this did nothing to appease the Palestinians. As many as 3,500 Muslims gathered at the site and soon began throwing rocks, bottles, and bricks at Jews praying below them at the adjoining Western Wall.

Hundreds of worshipers ran for cover, some racing into the adjacent underground tunnel, while others were evacuated by police. Some of the worshipers used plastic chairs, prayer shawls, and even prayer books for cover as they dodged the stones. Police immediately evacuated the worshipers and briefly entered the mosque compound and used stun grenades to quell the rioting. Within half an hour, the stone throwing had stopped, and worshipers were allowed to return to the Wall.

However, around a hundred Palestinian rioters continued to throw bottles, bricks, and rocks at the policemen. A tense standoff ensued as Palestinian medical workers stood between police and stone throwers in an attempt to prevent additional clashes. At mid-afternoon, with the stone-throwing increasing, police entered the crowd and arrested 29. The other rioters took refuge in the mosque building, and were later allowed to depart.

Israeli police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby says the police acted responsibly but that the Palestinians had been looking for any pretext to start a riot. "We think the Palestinians found a few reasons to set a fire on the Temple Mount. I would say it is hard words, but they really wanted to start a fire on the Temple Mount," he said.

Emotions also ran high among Jewish worshipers after they were stoned during prayers. Rivka Hasidof, a resident of Jerusalem, told the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz, "When I ran from the Kotel (wall), I had tears in my eyes ... I felt as if the Temple was being destroyed again. I don't know how such a scene is allowed to occur, in a Jewish state."

Joyce Boim, whose son was killed five years ago in a Palestinian drive-by killing, took a more stoic view. "I am not scared," she asserted. "This is my holy place. I have a right to come here and pray. I have a right to go everywhere in this land." She said she had no sympathy for the Palestinians who were injured by the police during the rioting and subsequent arrests.

Among those taken into custody was the son of Abdulmalik Dehamshe, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament. Dehamshe, accused by police of inciting the rioters, instead blamed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and denied the existence of the temple. "We say it again and again, this is the holy mosque of the Muslims, Al-Aqsa its name," Dehamshe said. "It is not a Jewish Temple."

Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, accused the Palestinian Authority of deliberately inciting the riot. "There was no need and no reason for this kind of violence," said Gissin, "except for the fact that it was incited and developed by the Palestinian Authority as another desperate means to try to create trouble and create violenc

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