IAI COMMENTARIES 17 | 04 - JULY 2017 ISSN 2532-6570 © 2017 IAI 1 coexistence betweenIsraelis and Palestinians. East Peace (http://www.allmep.org), acoalition of NGOspromoting people-to-people Jews committed tothetwo-state solution (http://www.jcall.eu) and of theAlliance for Middle Giorgio Gomel, an economist, isamemberof the Board of Jcall, an association of European society have called for thedestruction extreme fundamentalists within Israeli prohibition of such actions. Some pray at thesite, despite Jewish law’s Jewish zealots who trytovisit and by recurrent threats and actions of Tensions intheareaarecompounded army. of collective punishment bytheIsraeli attacks followed byreprisals andacts the site usheredinastreakof Palestinian Israelis –,andin2015when tensions at the long wave of suicide terror against outbreak of thesecond Intifada and 1996, in 2000 – when clashes led to the of violence; mostrecently in1990, Mount haswitnessed repeated bouts highly contested place, the Temple Judaism and Islam. A sensitive and the city’s mostprominent holy site for Hebrew, in EastJerusalem (Har Ha-Bayit , in of theentrances of theTemple Mount Violence erupted againlastweekat one by Giorgio Gomel Violence Grips Jerusalem Haram-al-Sharif inArabic), manages theinsideof themosques and by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan) (a Muslim Trust fundedandcontrolled division of authority whereby theWaqf prayer rights at thesite; stipulates the recognizes theprimacyof Muslim and security arrangements: it and Jordan, concerns management the 1994peacetreaty betweenIsrael agreement, reiterated inthecontext of authority over theTemple Mount. The the Islamic Waqf’s administrative East Jerusalem while recognizing site since1967,when Israel annexed alter thestatus quo inplaceat the the Palestinians as an attempt to often with exaggerated rhetoric, by Such provocative actions are viewed, the firstcentury CE. that wasdemolishedbytheRomans in supposed site of the Second Temple the building of aThirdTemple on the Mount plazainorder tomake room for of thetwo mosques located on the IAI COMMENTARIES 17 | 04 - JULY 2017 ISSN 2532-6570 © 2017 IAI 2 to worshipers and then installed first closed the Mount andmosques government made matters worse. Israel The immediate response bytheIsraeli occupied territories. present among Palestinians in the tensions and feelings of abandonment site. Theyfurtherreflect themounting order andfreedom of worship at the Israel is not capable of maintaining extremists want todemonstrate that the Temple Mount point to the fact that attacks andthepresent escalation on were targeted,boththenumber of because in all cases police officers gates to theOld City, and precisely attack followed earlier incidents at the Mount plaza.Precisely because this worrying because it took place on the Secondly, theattack issignificant and dynamic. Druze minority, itself anothertroubling Israel killed members of the country’s attack inwhich Palestinian citizens of shot bythesecurity forces. Thiswasan two Druzeservicemen before being attack againstIsraeli policemen, killing which thethreethenusedinashooting who apparently provided weapons, compound followed by an accomplice Jerusalem. Threeattackers entered the rather thanfrom theWest Bankor East Arab city intheHaifaDistrict of Israel, coming from Umm al-Fahm, alargely were Palestinian citizens of Israel, troubling. First, because theattackers Mount on Friday 14July werevery The events that occurredat theTemple entry tothecompound. maintains authority for supervising entry arrangements, whereby theWaqf Israel securestheirsurroundings; and Violence Grips Jerusalem Meanwhile, Hamasandthe Islamic of thePalestinian National Authority. Israel, as did Mahmoud Abbas, leader site, lodged aformal protest with Israel plays akey role regardingthe which underits peacetreaty with 50 from accessing theplaza.Jordan, while barringmales undertheageof to impede accesstotheOldCity, East Jerusalem’s Arab neighbourhoods protests, erected roadblocks around Israeli authorities, bracing for violent as themetal detectors remaininplace. July, refusingtoenter theplazaaslong the city walls for Friday prayers on 21 actions. Thousandsgathered around come totheOldCity toprotest Israeli prayers in their mosques and instead Jerusalem areanottoholdFriday authorities called on imams in the Mufti of Jerusalem andtheWaqf Following theseevents, theGrand right of entry. over the compound, infringing on their now effectively extended its authority to Muslim worshipers that Israel has agreement. In otherwords, theysignal control andachangeinthestatus quo Palestinians asanextension of Israeli screening visitors, are perceived by the for Israel areastandardmethodof entrances totheMount plaza,which The metal detectors, placedat all eight ammunition. knives, clubs andslingshots,but nolive search turned up additional weapons: allow for asearch of thearea.Apolice – anunprecedented step–inorder to Mount had tobe closed for two days detectors isparticularly troubling. The The unilateral decision toinstall metal the plaza before reopening the area. metal detectors at theentrances to IAI COMMENTARIES 17 | 04 - JULY 2017 ISSN 2532-6570 © 2017 IAI 3 religion. conflict into adevastating war of could transform theIsraeli-Palestinian violence and stop aslippery slope that must also actwisely toprevent further Jordan, Egypt andSaudi Arabia – leaders andArab countries –mainly the Arab andMuslim world. Muslim as well asdamagetoits relations with situation and prevent a major escalation It isincumbent upon Israel tocalm the Jerusalem? ground inIsrael-Palestine and tolerance and moderation on the a modicum of stability, religious What should bedone thentosecure metal detectors. the government agreedtoremove the a freezeon all contacts with Israel until Palestinian President Abbas announced Following a day of protests and killings, located on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. die for Al-Aqsa”, Islam’s holy mosque words andtestament” before “going to taken to Facebook towrite his“last a Palestinian assailant who hadearlier in thecentral West Bankwerekilled by a Jewish family living inasettlement horrendous attack. Threemembers of events werefollowed byyet another Jerusalem and the West Bank. These more wereinjured across East were killed with live fireandmany services. Threeyoung Palestinians Palestinian youths andIsraeli security violent, with fierce clashesbetween Last Friday’s protests quickly turned “day of rage”. called on its supporters totake partina protesters, and the Fatah movement movement inIsrael furtherincited the Violence Grips Jerusalem the city. of tension betweenArabs andJews in measures will become a further source rather thanestablishsecurity, these Palestinian leadership. Otherwise, authorities, aswell asJordan andthe in cooperation with theIslamic Waqf necessary, thesemust be conducted While security arrangements will be checks asaresult of theoccupation. exposed todaily hardships andsecurity for Muslim worshipers, who arealready and somewhat humiliating experience to theholy sites along, cumbersome frame. Theirpresencewill make access to worship on theMount inashort time Friday prayers, when thousandscome realistically used tomaintain security at any event, metal detectors cannot be has todate refusedtobackdown. In them, but the political leadership advised thegovernment toremove and security services hadthemselves have toberemoved. TheIsraeli army The metal detectors will almost certainly of communication with them. fact that Israel now enjoys directlines somewhat restrained, reflecting the Arabia, Egypt andMorocco werealso (Knesset). Reactions from Saudi Arab membersof theIsraeli Parliament Abbas and, to different degrees, by the condemned byPalestinian President The attack that took placeon 14July was 23 July 2017 IAI COMMENTARIES 17 | 04 - JULY 2017 ISSN 2532-6570 © 2017 IAI 4 Latest IAICOMMENTARIES Violence Grips Jerusalem www.iai.it [email protected] F +39 T +39 Via Angelo Brunetti, 9-I-00186 Rome, Italy etc.). and otherpapers’ series related toIAIresearch projects (Documenti IAI,IAIWorking Papers, (Affarinternazionali), two series of research papers (Quaderni IAI and Research Papers) publishes anEnglish-language quarterly (TheInternational Spectator), anonline webzine and theMiddle East;defence economy andpolicy; andtransatlantic relations. TheIAI in the global economy and internationalisation processes in Italy; the Mediterranean research sectors are:European institutions andpolicies; Italian foreign policy; trends abroad andisamemberof various international networks. More specifically, themain end, it cooperates with otherresearch institutes, universities andfoundations inItaly and disseminate knowledge through research studies, conferences andpublications. To that economy andinternational security. Anon-profit organisation, theIAIaimstofurtherand Founded byAltiero Spinelli in1965,IAIdoes research inthefields of foreign policy, political Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) 17 |01 17 |02 17 |03 17 |04 06 3224360 06 3224363 Bobby McDonagh, Why Europe Matters More Than Ever Game Jean Pierre Darnis,Macron’s Foreign Policy: Not aZero Sum International Layers Cinzia Bianco, TheIntra-GCC Crisis:Domestic, Regional and Giorgio Gomel, Violence Grips Jerusalem