Kerry asks all to calm down and watch the camera
A technician fixes security cameras overlooking approaches to Jerusalem’s Old City, 2013. Photo by Noam Moskowitz
Palestinian FM says Al-Aqsa surveillance ‘a new trap’
Unrest continues in West Bank after US said Israeli-Jordanian plan to instal cameras inside mosque could calm tensions.
By Al Jazeera
October 25, 2015
The Palestinian foreign minister has reacted warily to an agreement by Israel and Jordan to install more security cameras at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in a bid to defuse tensions.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Saturday, said Israel had embraced “an excellent suggestion” by the king for round-the-clock monitoring of Al-Aqsa.
But Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki called the measure a “new trap”.
He told Voice of Palestine radio on Sunday that Israel was planning to use such footage to arrest Muslim worshippers it believes are “inciting” against it.
There was no immediate comment from Abbas.
Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said Abbas had told Kerry “that he should look into the roots of the problem – and that is the continued occupation”.
Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews, has been the focal point of the recent wave of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Knife attacks, shootings and protests have become near-daily occurrences since October 1 in violence partially triggered by Israeli incursions at Al-Aqsa. At least 57 Palestinians and eight Israelis have been killed since the beginning of the month.
In a spate of incidents on Sunday in the West Bank, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl was shot dead after she allegedly attempted to stab Israeli border police. Palestinian witnesses disputed the police account.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian man was seriously wounded after being shot several times by an Israeli settler while picking olives, according to Palestinian security sources.
In another incident, near the city of Nablus, a Palestinian man stabbed and wounded an Israeli settler before fleeing, according to Israeli police.
‘In Israel’s interest’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new measure at Al-Aqsa was taken to allay Palestinian fears that Israel was planning to change long-standing rules governing the site.
Netanyahu vowed that Jews would continue to be allowed to visit but not pray at the compound and agreed that 24-hour surveillance cameras could be installed, adding these were in Israel’s interest.
“Firstly, to refute the claim Israel is violating the status quo. Secondly, to show where the provocations are really coming from and prevent them in advance,” said Netanyahu.
Currently, cameras film the outside plaza of the compound, but not the inside of holy monuments on the site, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on public radio.
He said having cameras inside will allow the Jordanian Waqf, which administers the site, “to control things better”.
In 2013, Jordan and Abbas signed an agreement granting King Abdullah “custodianship of Jerusalem holy sites”. However, neither Jordan nor the Palestinian Authority has de facto control over the sites.
According to a 1994 peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, Israel “respects the special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim holy shrines in Jerusalem”.
But the treaty stops short of giving Jordan any legal, political or religious authority over Islamic holy shrines in Jerusalem.
Kerry said Israel had also given assurances it had no intention of changing the status quo at the compound in occupied East Jerusalem, home to Al-Aqsa Mosque and another Islamic icon, the Dome of the Rock.
Jews perform religious rites at the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known as the Temple Mount in Judaism.
Palestinians flee tear gas fired by Israeli border police during clashes at a checkpoint between Shuafat refugee camp and Jerusalem. Photo by Ammar Awad/Reuters
Cameras planned for Jerusalem holy site in bid to defuse Mideast tensions
By John Reed in Jerusalem, Financial Times
October 25, 2015
Israel has agreed to install cameras streaming round-the-clock video coverage of the sensitive Jerusalem holy site that is home to the al-Aqsa mosque compound, at the urging of the US and Jordan.
The agreement was announced on Sunday after John Kerry, US secretary of state, met with Jordan’s King Abdullah and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Amman on Saturday in an effort to defuse a wave of violent unrest provoked in part by clashes over the site, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount.
Eleven Israelis, an Eritrean and more than 50 Palestinians have died in violence in and around Jerusalem in the past month.
The deal marks the first diplomatic undertaking aimed at ending the latest flare-up of Palestinian-Israeli violence, which comes a year and a half after the collapse of the last round of US-sponsored peace talks.
“This will provide comprehensive visibility and transparency, and that could really be a game changer in discouraging anybody from disturbing the sanctity of this holy site,” said Mr Kerry, who on Thursday met with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin in a bid to end the violence.
“I expect Jordanian and Israeli technical teams will meet soon to discuss the implementation of this idea alongside other measures to maintain and enhance public order and calm.” Jordan serves through a Muslim religious trust as a custodian for the site.
Mr Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel was committed to keeping unchanged the status quo on the site under which only Muslim prayer is allowed but non-Muslims can visit.
“As we have said many times, Israel has no intention to divide the Temple Mount, and we completely reject any attempt to suggest otherwise,” Mr Netanyahu said in a statement. “Israel will continue to enforce its longstanding policy: Muslims pray on the Temple Mount; non-Muslims will visit the Temple Mount,” he added.
The site, which Israel’s army seized as it swept into Jerusalem’s Old City during the 1967 Six day war, has long been a source of friction between Muslims and Jews.
Over the past year, visits by Israeli political and religious figures stoked Palestinian fears’ that Israel was preparing to change the status quo, possibly by setting up separate Muslim and non-Muslim visiting hours.
The tension rose in September when young Palestinians seeking to “defend” the mosque barricaded themselves inside, throwing rocks and other projectiles at police and visitors. Police responded on a few occasions by entering the mosque building to subdue them, producing news reports and pictures that inflamed emotions among Palestinians and in the broader Muslim world.
In response to the clashes, Israel has limited access to the mosque to some categories of Muslim worshippers on several days in order to keep out young men it suspects of fomenting unrest. Mr Netanyahu has also prohibited visits by politicians to the site in a bid to quell the violence and defuse tensions with Jordan.
It remains unclear how the camera system will work in practice and whether images of worshippers, visitors and Israeli police will serve to quell tensions or fuel more. An Israeli official, who requested anonymity, said technical details were still being organised, but the assumption was that footage would go both to the Waqf, an Islamic trust, and Israeli police.
Palestinian leaders on Sunday expressed scepticism over Mr Kerry’s announcement. Speaking on radio, Riyad al-Maliki, foreign minister, said the camera system was a “new trap”, accusing Israel of planning to use film footage to arrest worshippers it accuses of incitement.
Ahmad Tibi [L], a member of the Knesset from Israel’s Palestinian minority, called the US secretary of state’s visit “disappointing”, and said Mr Netanyahu should have guaranteed free access to all worshippers at al-Aqsa.
“The problem is not cameras or video in al-Aqsa mosque, but 24/7 free entrance to all Muslims,” he said at a news briefing. “This is the decision that should be taken; this is the promise that Mr Netanyahu should give and he is not.”
Yehuda Glick, a far-right Jewish religious activist who survived an assassination attempt last year, was quoted in Israel’s Maariv newspaper on Sunday as saying that Mr Kerry’s announcement made clear “the importance of massive ascent by Jews” to Temple Mount. “Prayers are a spiritual act that neither an army nor a police can stop,” he said.
Jordan, a key Israeli and US ally in the Middle East, withdrew its ambassador to Israel a year ago after tensions at the holy site escalated.
This year some Palestinian individuals and political leaders have used al-Aqsa as a rallying cry for knife and other attacks against Israeli civilians and security officials, and for demonstrations at the Gaza border.
Israel has responded by shooting and killing some of the people involved, the worst surge of Palestinian-Israeli communal violence since the second intifada in 2000-2005.