Israel Minister Calls for One-State Solution on Jerusalem Day
An Israeli minister marked Jerusalem Day by calling for a one-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians — as the Temple Mount was closed following clashes between Muslim worshippers and police.
Four Palestinians and an Israeli police officer were reported injured in the Wednesday morning clashes.
Masked Palestinians threw rocks and firecrackers at Jewish security forces on the Temple Mount. The attackers barricaded themselves in the Al Aksa Mosque after being pursued by Israeli police. Israeli police used rubber bullets to disperse the rioters, according to Palestinian reports.
The Temple Mount was closed to visitors following the clashes.
Muslim worshippers on the Temple Mount also threw rocks Tuesday at a group of Jews visiting the site. The annual Jerusalem Day flag procession through the Old City of Jerusalem will take place late Wednesday afternoon, with thousands expected to participate. Jerusalem Day marks the reunification of Jerusalem during the Six Day War in 1967.
Meanwhile, at a Tuesday evening program in honor of Jerusalem Day at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, Israeli housing minister Uri Ariel asserted that there would not be any more housing freezes in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
“We will not come to terms with the delays and restrictions [on construction] in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and we will continue to build in all parts of our land,” Ariel said. “Jerusalem will never again be divided. Between the Jordan River and the sea, there will be only one state: the State of Israel.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO