Israeli Police Use Stun Grenades to Break Up Al-Aqsa Protest
Israeli police hurled stun grenades to disperse dozens of protesters who threw stones outside the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, after Friday prayers.
Two people were slightly injured and one person was arrested for attempting to stab a policeman as he was being taken into custody, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The mosque is part of a site revered by Jews as well as Muslims, and is a frequent source of friction between these religious groups. Deadly riots erupted at the same site after a visit by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, at the outset of a several year Palestinian uprising in 2000.
Tensions flared this week after police arrested Israeli ultranationalists who tried to hold prayers at the compound, known by Jews as the Temple Mount, as the site of two biblical temples.
That incident occurred during a seven-day Jewish holiday, a time of pilgrimage to the adjacent Western Wall remnant of the second temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, now a focal point of Jewish prayer.
The compound where al-Aqsa stands, which Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, also houses the golden Dome of the Rock which marks the spot from which the Prophet Mohammad made his night journey to heaven.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in a 1967 war including the walled old city where the holy sites are located, and annexed it as part of its capital in a move never recognised internationally.
Palestinians want that part of the city as capital of a state they seek in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
