Did Palestinians Plan The Riot At The Holy City Of Jerusalem?

The riot in the Jerusalem, as The Inquisitr reported on, may not have been a very ugly one, but it has nonetheless provoked a lot of thoughts regarding the way the Islam’s holy site is managed or controlled for visitation.

The riot police on Wednesday were called in to disperse a mob of angry Palestinian Muslim worshipers, according to official records. Israeli police stormed a highly sensitive holy site in Jerusalem and fired tear gas to disperse the rioters.

The official records shared by Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says rioters hurled “objects” from atop the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. However, the response from the police was portrayed to be very mild. “The police then entered the site and dispersed the rioters with tear gas and other non-lethal means,” said Rosenfeld.

The compound is known to Muslims as the “Noble Sanctuary,” and is Islam’s third-holiest site. Israel captured the area along with the rest of east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war. It appears the Israel’s legal and law enforcement bodies now tightly control the site, and that’s why clashes erupt over the right of visitation, reported Time.

Israel permits Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount for visits, but Jews are not allowed to actually pray there. This was apparently the cause of tension as officially conveyed to the United Nations by Riad Mansour, the Palestinian representative.

However, Israeli media has openly accused the Palestinians of instigating the violence, and claimed that protesters slept at the holy site in anticipation of clashing with the Jewish pilgrims during Passover’s week-long festival. The story muddles up further since Sheikh Azzam Tamimi, head of the Waqf, the Islamic authority that manages the site, said worshipers had barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque “to defend” the site from Jewish groups, reported CSMonitor.

The entrance to a mosque appeared to be barricaded with pieces of furniture, as protesters inside threw objects toward police. Reports indicated the rioters even pelted the police with firecrackers besides stones & whatever else they could find. Tamimi said 30 people suffered from tear gas inhalation or had been struck by rubber-coated bullets.

Hence the circumstantial narrations and accounts suggest that Palestinians appeared to fortify the site, and may have forcefully restricted Jews from conducting their prayers. Though the law of the land may have been on their side, did the methods employed proved to be the primary cause of retaliation and riots?

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