US Pushes for War with Iran: Brasscheck TV
Police ‘in Jerusalem holy site’: BBC
The compound contains sites holy to both Jews and Muslims
Israeli police say they have entered a compound in Jerusalem containing the al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites.
Police said they entered the compound to disperse at least 20 Palestinians who were throwing stones at visitors.
The site also contains the Western Wall, a sacred site for Jews.
Tensions have been high in recent days following clashes in the West Bank town of Hebron over Israel listing two disputed shrines as heritage sites.
Contested site
A Palestinian official said the group of youths had spent the night in the al-Aqsa mosque to prevent what they believed to be Jewish extremists from praying at the sensitive site.
An Israeli police spokesman said calm had been restored to the compound and visits resumed.
The spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said Muslim men under the age of 50 had been barred from the site, while older men, women of all ages and children had been permitted to enter.
The Jerusalem complex, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount, has long been contested.
Clashes erupted at the site last September after Muslims threw stones at people they believed to be Jewish extremists trying to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque.
A visit to the compound in 2000 by then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon, later prime minister, led to clashes that escalated into years of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The compound containing the mosque lies in Jerusalem’s Old City, which has been controlled by Israel since they captured it in the 1967 war.
Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven from the spot in the complex marked by the Dome of the Rock.
The site is holy to Jews because it is where the First and Second Temples were built according to the Old Testament, with the Western Wall still remaining.
GAZA: Avatar on Earth: YouTube
Four policemen wounded at Temple Mount clashes: Haaretz
Four Israeli policemen were wounded by Palestinian stone hurlers on Sunday, as clashes continued after Muslim worshippers barricaded themselves in a mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount compound.
So far, 7 Palestinians have been arrested in the violent riots.
Israel police broke into the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, after Palestinian worshippers hurled stones at non-Muslim visitors of the holy site.
Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said police entered the compound when about 20 Palestinians threw stones, but that the protesters had quickly taken cover inside the mosque.
The incident was over quickly, but the area remained tense. In the past, violence at the site – known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary – has erupted into deadly battles.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police dispersed the 20 masked protesters, saying “calm was quickly restored,” and that “about a thousand tourists have since visited the site.”
However, small groups of masked Palestinians continued to clash with police elsewhere in Jerusalem’s Old City and in a nearby neighborhood just outside the walled area.
Police overnight restricted the entrance to the Mosque to a minimum age of 50, and holders of blue (Israeli) identity certificates as a precaution.
Israeli police do not usually enter the area, other than in response to incidents. Police did not enter the mosque.
One protester was arrested as the rock-throwing protests spread to the alleyways of the old walled city, Ben-Ruby added.
Adnan al-Husseini, a Palestinian official in charge of Jerusalem, said Palestinian youths had spent the night at the mosque saying Jewish hardliners had threatened to enter the site.
The holy site has been a frequent flashpoint of violence in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Tensions have been on the rise in Jerusalem and Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory over stalled peace talks which haven’t convened since before a Gaza war in December 2008.
The incident comes after more than 300 Palestinians in Hebron clashed with Israeli security forces on Thursday, while commemorating the 29 Muslims killed in an attack by Jewish extremist Baruch Goldstein at the Ibrahimi Mosque 16-years ago.
Hadash chairman Mohammed Barakeh who joined the Palestinian protestors alongside some 30 more Israelis, criticized Israel Defense Forces soldiers for attacking the peaceful demonstrators, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his recent move to add the Tomb of the Patriarchs to the list of National Heritage sites.
“Netanyahu is an expert at lighting fires, and is turning the wheel backwards by repeating his mistakes from his first cadency as Prime Minister,” Barakeh said following the demonstration.
“The Netanyahu-Barak government is pushing towards a regional explosion in order to damage any chance of progress,” he added.
IDF soldiers attempted to disband the protest by hurling smoke grenades. Barakeh said that they all suffered from smoke inhalation.
Following an outburst of violence in Hebron, where the tomb is located, Khaled Esseleh, the mayor of Hebron, said: “I’m hoping there won’t be more clashes but this is a very sensitive religious issue, and Netanyahu just lit the fire.”
Earlier, the Obama administration criticized Israel for designating two shrines in the West Bank as Israeli national heritage sites.
The criticism came as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she hopes long-stalled peace talks between Israelis and the Palestinians will resume.
Clinton told a congressional committee that groundwork is being laid to restart the talks with the help of U.S. envoy George Mitchell.
She did not say exactly when the negotiations might resume, but her remarks come amid a flurry of U.S. diplomatic activity in the region
Gaza 2009: We Will Not Forget
EDITOR: Egypt’s ugly face
After years of aggression towards the Gaza residents, in order to make the Israeli illegal blockade mosre efficient, and building the steel wall, to stop the importation of food and fuel into the starved strip with more than 1.5 million inhabitants, so punished for exercising their democratic right to vote, now Egypt is to assist Israel crucially by exporting gas to it, rather than deny Israel this crucial resource which it denies the gazans. How depressing.
Egypt lifts ban on gas to Israel: BBC
The supreme court in Egypt has overturned an earlier ruling by a lower court that banned gas sales to Israel.
The new ruling requires that the government should make clear the quantity of gas it exports to Israel and how much it charges.
Lawyers had argued that the gas was being sold at preferential rates.
Egypt’s gas trade with Israel is controversial, as many Egyptians are opposed to links between the two countries – despite a 1979 peace deal.
Some opposition figures in Egypt are against the sale of gas to Israel because they disagree with its policies towards the Palestinians.
This ruling ends a legal battle which stirred up public controversy.
Over a year ago, lawyers had successfully argued for a ban on natural gas exports to Israel, claiming the price was below the international market level.
The supreme administrative court has said that the lower court which made that ruling has no jurisdiction in cases of this kind because they involved state sovereignty.
Pipeline flow
It did add, however, that Egypt should take steps to monitor the price and quantity of its exports ensuring domestic needs are met before selling gas abroad.
Gas started flowing to Israel from Egypt through a pipeline in 2008, under an agreement contracted to last for 20 years.
In reality, supplies were never cut off when there was a court ruling banning sales.
It was ignored by the government, pending a review.
The final legal decision is unlikely to enjoy wide support in Egypt.
Although the country has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1979, Israeli policies in the Palestinians territories make it unpopular with many Egyptians.
During the conflict in Gaza, there were increased calls to stop gas exports.