JERUSALEM, 12 February 2007 — Israel resumed controversial renovations near Jerusalem’s most contentious holy site yesterday, as 2,000 police were out on the streets braced for a third straight day of violent demonstrations. A few dozen protesters scuffled with police outside the Old City’s Dung Gate, chanting over the rumble of bulldozers excavating near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest place.
Despite the street protests and dissent from within his own governing coalition, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refused to call off the renovations.
“Work will continue because it is a question of fixing a dangerous situation,” he said at his weekly Cabinet meeting, according to army radio. “The building site is not on the mosque compound and does not offend the sensitivities of Muslims,” he was quoted as saying.
Leaders of Israel’s left-leaning Labor party called for the work to halt after rioting on Friday and again Saturday left dozens wounded in Jerusalem and parts of the occupied West Bank.
The unrest comes ahead of a Feb. 19 summit between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Olmert as the West redoubles its efforts to revive the stagnant Middle East peace process.
Police were on high alert across the holy city for a third straight day manning checkpoints and deployed in force, implementing extraordinary procedures to maintain order. Touring the site yesterday morning, Israel’s public security minister, Avi Dichter, said he believed “that reason will return, and in the coming period we’ll see things settle down on this matter.”
Access to the compound — known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as Temple Mount — remained off limits to Muslim men under 45 and all Palestinians from the West Bank, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Checkpoints around Jerusalem remained in place to prevent Palestinians from the West Bank sneaking into the city to fuel the protests, Rosenfeld said.
Police moved quickly to disperse early gatherings of protesters, scuffling with a few dozen Palestinians chanting outside the walled Old City that lies in occupied East Jerusalem. Five people were arrested, three for throwing stones and two for attacking a police officer, Rosenfeld said.
“We dispersed them because it was an illegal demonstration,” Rosenfeld said.
Muslim leaders have vowed to press on with protests until the repair work is halted. “We’re just here to defend our mosque,” said Saleh Nutfi, a spokesman for the Islamic Movement in Israel.
