Wednesday night, while most Israelis sat around the seder table, police forces once again burst into Al-Aqsa Mosque and used stun grenades, foam-tipped bullets and batons. This operation, like the one that preceded it late Tuesday night, not only disrupted the Ramadan routine of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Jerusalem but also immediately diminished the security of all Israelis. In response to these actions, two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip Wednesday night, and on Thursday rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel.
The chain of events that led to police raiding the mosque began with the provocation caused by a small group of far-right activists when they tried to sacrifice a goat for Passover on the Temple Mount. Police claim they are preventing the activists from approaching the site and that in any event they won’t be allowed to disrupt Muslim worship there during the month of Ramadan. Nevertheless, the Palestinians’ fear of harm to their holy site, especially during Ramadan, is understandable: In recent years, police have allowed Jews to pray on the Temple Mount despite the status quo; furthermore, the most prominent Temple Mount and “Third Temple” activists are a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, an integral member of the most extreme movements and the lawyer of participants in past animal sacrifices, is now in charge of security on the Temple Mount. The dividing line between Temple activists and the Israeli government has never been blurrier. Police officials claim the Al-Aqsa raid was unavoidable, after hundreds of young people barricaded themselves inside the mosque with rocks and fireworks. This claim, however, must be examined. The vast majority of Muslims who come to Al-Aqsa do so to pray, not to brawl. If only they had the necessary will, the police and government would have found many moderate elements in the Jerusalem Waqf and in Jordan, and dialogue with them would have made it possible to avoid the use of force.
Continuing with the current policy is liable to set off a wave of violence and another round of fighting like that in May 2021. The events on the Temple Mount and the shock waves in the south and the north are part of the price we pay for the irresponsible coalition that Netanyahu established. The pyromaniacs who make up this coalition could drag Israel into a dangerous large-scale conflict. They will bear the responsibility for its consequences.
The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.
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April 07, 2023 at 09:50AM
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