Gaza, March 16: An Israeli border police officer fires tear gas towards Palestinian stone-throwers in East Jerusalem neighbourhood… Enlarge Photo An Israeli border police officer fires tear gas towards Palestinian stone-throwers in East Jerusalem neighbourhood…
Dozens of Palestinians clashed with Israeli police in East Jerusalem on Tuesday on a “day of rage” declared by Hamas Islamists in protest against Israel’s consecration of an ancient synagogue in the city.
The violence was another challenge to U.S. efforts to revive Middle East peace talks after Israel angered Palestinians and touched off a dispute with Washington by announcing a Jewish settlement project near East Jerusalem, an area captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war.
In a deepening U.S.-Israeli crisis, U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell cancelled plans to return to the region on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not curb such construction, opposed by the United States.
Clashes erupted in several areas of East Jerusalem. Palestinians hurled stones at police and burned tyres and trash bins. Police responded with tear gas and fired rubber bullets.
Some 40 Palestinians were treated at East Jerusalem hospitals for minor injuries and two policemen were hurt, medical officials said.
A police spokesman said some 3,000 officers were put on high alert after Hamas, an Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip and wields influence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, urged Palestinians to mount anti-Israeli protests.
“We call on the Palestinian people to regard Tuesday as a day of rage against the occupation’s (Israel’s) procedures in Jerusalem against al-Aqsa mosque,” Hamas said in a statement.
RESTORATION
Hamas leaders said renovation of the Hurva synagogue, in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s walled Old City, was an Israeli plot to demolish al-Aqsa mosque, some 400 metres (yards) away.
Israel, they said, wanted to build a Jewish temple to replace al-Aqsa at the compound Muslims call the Nobel Sanctuary Jews revere as Temple Mount, the site of two destroyed biblical temples.
Israel has denied the allegation and the U.S. State Department, appealing for calm, voiced concern at what it described as Palestinian incitement and mischaracterisation of the restoration work.
An inauguration ceremony was held on Monday at the synagogue, which was blown up by Jordanian forces when they overran the Jewish Quarter in the 1948 Middle East war. Israel captured the area 19 years later.
Sporadic violence has erupted in recent weeks in Jerusalem after Israel decided to include West Bank religious sites in a Jewish national heritage plan stoked Palestinian anger.
Citing biblical and historical links, Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its capital, a claim not recognised internationally. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel’s announcement, during a visit last week by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, of the plan to build 1,600 homes for Jews near East Jerusalem embarrassed the White House. The Palestinians, who had just agreed to begin indirect talks with Israel, demanded the project be scrapped first.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in unusually blunt remarks, called Israel’s actions an insult. Netanyahu voiced regret at the timing of the move but made no move to cancel the plan. Israel said construction was several years away.
Clinton telephoned Netanyahu on Friday to convey unspecified demands about the housing project as well as about demonstrating commitment to the U.S.-mediated peace talks, the State Department said, without elaborating.
U.S. officials said they were still waiting for Israel’s formal response. Israeli media reports said Clinton had asked for the settlement plan to be scrapped and for Israel to agree to discuss core statehood issues with the Palestinians.
—Agencies