Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Elder of Ziyon
Tuesday, October 30, 2012Elder of ZiyonKasim Hafeez grew up hating Jews and hating Israel. Now the 28-year-old British Muslim of Pakistani origin travels the world explaining how and why he has gone from a hater to a lover of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.There have been other articles about Hafeez, for example here.
His personal journey of going from chanting “Death to Israel” in London’s Trafalgar Square to speaking about how he became a proud Zionist kept the Herald editorial board enraptured for much longer than our allotted hour on Thursday.
“To put it very bluntly, I was an anti-Semite,” the 28-year-old Nottingham-based university administrator said.
[...]
In 2000, Hafeez travelled to Pakistan and got swept up in radical Islam in a big way, believing that Muslims had to rise up and fight the “evil Jews and help his oppressed Muslim brothers and sisters.”
Upon returning to the U.K., Hafeez said he got further radicalized. He pulled out his iPad and showed photos of books, CDs and DVDs — including ones put out by the terrorist group al-Qaeda — that he bought openly at South Asian shops all over the U.K.
But his radicalization really ramped up upon attending university, where he studied political science, and with the help of his professors, turned virtually every class discussion towards how the Jews stole Muslim Palestinian land and were the root of all evil in the world.
After 9/11, Hafeez and his radical friends started attending “Stop the War” protests, which would “instantly turn into Israel hatefests.”
He and his Muslim friends made a point of befriending “middle-class white kids from Oxford” for their PR value. “We didn’t really see them as friends because we abhorred everything they stood for,” he admitted.
Eventually, all of his activism didn’t seem enough and Hafeez started saving money, hoping to return to Pakistan to attend a jihadi training camp. “Thankfully, it didn’t pan out that way,” he said, with a chuckle.
Hafeez’s plans were scuttled by reading The Case for Israel, by Alan Dershowitz. He read the book with the intent to “prove it all wrong.”
What he ultimately found out instead was that he knew virtually nothing about the region — that Jews, for instance, had lived in Israel for thousands of years and that a Palestinian state never actually existed. As he tried to prove the book wrong, the opposite started to happen:
“In hindsight, I never actually gave a real damn about Palestine, I was just obsessed with hating Israel.”
Starting to suspect the cause he was prepared to die for was a colossal lie, Hafeez fell into a depression. When he got better, he decided to travel to Israel to see for himself in 2007.
What he noticed was, even though he was held for eight hours at Ben Gurion Airport for questioning, he was treated with great courtesy and decency by the Israeli guards, who apologized to him repeatedly and who were the first Jews he had ever actually talked to.
The contrast to how he was treated in Saudi Arabia in 2002 when he went on a religious pilgrimage, shocked him. At the Saudi airport, while waiting in line for passport control, he was sent to the back of the line five times to make way for Arab Muslims, who are considered superior to South Asian Muslims: “I’ve never experienced the level of racism like I did in Saudi Arabia.”
By contrast, in Israel, while expecting to find apartheid signs directing Muslims to wait for one bus or another, what Hafeez saw instead were Muslims, Jews and Christians all going about their lives in harmony.
“Here’s a state that’s constantly called an enemy of Islam, yet Muslims have more rights in Israel than they have anywhere else in the Middle East,” he said.
In Jerusalem, Hafeez visited the Muslim mosque — the Dome of the Rock, where no Jews are allowed — the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre and then also visited the most holy site in the world for Jews, the Western Wall. With his Saudi experience still fresh in his mind, he assumed Muslims would be barred, but he was welcomed.
As he stood among Orthodox Jewish men and others praying, Hafeez said when he reached out and touched the wall, he “burst into tears.”
A rabbi asked him if he was OK. Hafeez said that he was. The rabbi asked him if he was Jewish. Hafeez said no. The rabbi then said, “That’s OK, this is Jerusalem, it’s everybody’s home.”
Years of hatred and animosity toward Jews and Israel melted away at that moment and Hafeez became a free man — like the people of Israel.
“Being so full of hate is just not healthy,” said Hafeez, who visited 10 Canadian cities on this tour. “Life is just so much better when you’re not so angry and full of hate.”
In many respects, the costs have been great for speaking the truth. Hafeez has received death threats, and his father would rather continue to invest his life into hating Jews and Israel, than loving his son, whom he refuses to see.
Ultimately, Hafeez said he seeks to warn the West of the incompatibility of radicalized Islam with a liberal democracy.
“Radical Islam has been brilliant at using this term ‘Islamaphobia’ to stifle any debate about the negative influence of radical Islam on western society,” he said.
“Radical Islamists are using freedom of expression rights to limit our freedom of expression,” he warned. “We must stop this now.”
Monday, October 29, 2012Elder of ZiyonAfter allegedly insulting an Egyptian customs officer at the Aqaba port, an American woman was barred from entering Egypt, the ministry of interior said Tuesday.The rest of this article shows what is obvious to anyone who actually observes the region, and it is missed by those who refuse to see the truth:
The woman, who was trying to cross into Egypt from the eastern port of Aqaba, allegedly “verbally attacked” the customs officer over visa-related issues and when the ministry was made aware of the incident, the decision to forbid the women from entering the country was put into action.
Amr Roshdy, the spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs said that the necessary legal steps were made against the banned visitor.
Reports mentioning the incident were cheered by online commentators.This is the honor/shame mentality that is the key to understanding the Arabic-speaking world.
One man said it was “a step in the right direction to regain Egypt’s dignity” while another said that “this action puts us on the same level with the US.”
Egypt’s decreasing regional role and US dominance across parts of the region has made Egyptians yearn for action that proves Egypt’s power and asserts its place internationally.
Monday, October 29, 2012Elder of Ziyon
administriviaConcerned that U.S. policies toward Israel and Palestinians are hampering, not helping the peace process, an organization of Rabbis and peace advocates turn to Hollywood for a new script...a trilogy of satirical videos of which this is the third. Real Peace Middle Eastvia Daphne Anson
British taxpayers are helping to pay the salaries of jailed bomb makers.
"Many British taxpayers, struggling to pay their family's way through a recession, might rightly wonder why their money is going to pay as much as £2,000 a month to people serving the longest sentences—those who have targeted Israeli buses and other civilian targets with suicide bombers, for instance. That is higher than the average wage in nearly all of Britain. You might be forgiven for wondering, if you were a struggling teaching assistant in the North of England, why failing to tick "suicide bomber" on your careers form should have left you so much worse off than a terrorist in the Middle East."
"Here’s the issue: A number of supposed allies of the United States don’t act as friends. In fact, they are major headaches, often subverting US goals and interests. But to avoid conflict and, for Obama, to look successful to the domestic audience, Washington pretends that everything is fine."
"Halevy’s airbrushed “history” leaves out Republican then-president Nixon’s extraordinary backing of Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and Ronald Reagan’s formalization of strategic cooperation with Israel, which created the web of ties between the Pentagon and IDF and the progressive strengthening of Israel’s military capability still in effect today. He omits Republican presidents who fought bitterly against the United Nations’ “Zionism is Racism” resolution — and finally got that resolution repealed — and ignores then-president George W. Bush’s diplomatic cover for the Second Lebanon War."
"Abbas's term in office expired in January 2009, but this has not stopped him from continuing to cling to power. In wake of the results of the local elections, it has become obvious that Abbas does not have a mandate -- even from his Fatah faction -- to embark on any significant political move, such as signing a peace treaty with Israel or applying for membership for a Palestinian state in the UN.
Instead of going to New York next month to ask for Palestinian membership, Abbas should stay in Ramallah and work toward reuniting and reforming Fatah before his political rivals drive him and his veteran loyalists out of office."
"Elaph, a Saudi-owned news site, reported that Egyptian police received notice that the packages were being held at a shipping company in the Nasser City district of Cairo. Upon arriving at the scene, police found over 1.7 million documents dating back to the 19th century, dealing with Jewish ownership of assets in Cairo. The documents, according to the security source speaking to the Saudi site, weighed over two tons."Covered on EoZ over a week ago: Egyptian police: Attempt to smuggle Jewish property papers out of Egypt
"A weekend paper showed two maps - a map marking the distance from Israel to Khartoum, and a map showing the distance from Israel to Iran. Significantly, the distance to Khartoum is quite a bit further and so, in this airstrike, Israel is sending another message to Iran."
Monday, October 29, 2012Elder of ZiyonThe Facebook page for Fatah in Lebanon has posted this picture of a mother dressing her young son with a suicide belt. This picture was posted on the Fatah site together with an imaginary conversation between the son who is being sent to his death and the mother encouraging it.
"My mother dressed me in a strange belt (i.e., a suicide belt).That photo has been going around the Internet for a couple of years; not sure where it originally came from.
I asked her: 'What is this, mother?'
She said: 'I will put it on you and you will go to your death!'
I said to her: 'Mother, what have I done that you want me to die?'
She shed a tear that hurt my heart and said: 'The homeland needs you, son. Go and blow up the sons of Zion.'
I said to her: 'Why me and not you?'
She said: 'I will stay in order to give birth to more children for the sake of Palestine.'
I kissed her hand and said to her: 'Keep it up, mother, for you and for Palestine I will kill the impure and the damned.'"
[Fatah-Lebanon's Facebook page,posted Sept. 3, 2012, accessed Oct. 28, 2012]
Monday, October 29, 2012Elder of ZiyonA belly dancer stirred a wave of anger among Shiites in Egypt as she appeared in an Egyptian movie raving to a song praising Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad and the wife of Imam Ali, highly venerated in Shiite Islam, who called for banning the movie to screen in theaters.Here is Dina performing. May be NSFW.
Baha Anwar Mohammed, spokesman of Egyptian Shiites, has condemned belly dancer Dina for her performance in the film “Abdo Mouta” to be offensive and highly disrespectful to the People of the House (Ahl al-Bayt), the family of Prophet Muhammad, particularly important to Shia Muslims.
Baha was quoted by Egypt’s al-Sabah newspaper as saying that the country’s Shiites will file a complaint to the general prosecutor against the film demanding to ban it from screening as it insults prominent Islamic figures.
Shiites believe Imam Ali and the rest of Ahl al-Bayt as prophet’s successors. Baha called on Egypt’s Al-Azhar Islamic School and its Grand Mufti to condemn “such abuse” to the prophet’s family.
Dina, the belly dancer, denied her performance in the movie was meant to offend Islamic prominent figures.
She responded, "I am a Muslim and no one can say that I abused the people of the Prophet, God forbid. It's just a song, and the dance was not tacky at all"
Although the song “Virtuous Mother of Hasan and Husain” praises Fatima, the fact that a belly dancer dances to it was seen as highly inappropriate.
Monday, October 29, 2012Elder of ZiyonOh Islamic nation, oh all Muslims...martyrdom on the path of Allah is a religious duty incumbent upon you, oh believers. It is your path for salvation in the eyes of the Lord. Oh Islamic nation, oh all Muslims. (repeated twice)
Pray: "Oh Allah, destroy Israel" (Amen) Oh Allah, destroy Israel. [inaudible] the accursed Sharon, Bush and Obama.The kid looks, literally, brainwashed. He shows no comprehension of his words, and he appears more like a distracted singer who knows the lyrics by heart than someone who understands the hate he is mindlessly chanting.
Monday, October 29, 2012Elder of Ziyongideon levyFive days after the publication of a distorted headline which was picked up by numerous international media outlets, Ha'aretz today published a clarification. In the last several days, numerous critics, including CAMERA, have weighed in about Ha'aretz's coverage of the Dialog poll, including the false headlines. The English online version was "Survey: Most Israeli Jews support apartheid regime in Israel," and the print edition was likewise wrong and damaging: "Survey: Most Israeli Jews advocate discrimination against Arab citizens."Read the whole thing, including how this is a pattern at Ha'aretz.
Today, this clarification appears in the Hebrew print edition:
It states (CAMERA's translation):
The wording of the front-page headline, "The majority of Israelis support apartheid in Israel" (Ha'aretz, Oct. 23), did not accurately reflect the findings of the Dialog poll. The question to which most respondents answered in the negative did not relate to the current situation, but to a hypothetical situation in the future: "If Israel annexes territories in Judea and Samaria, in your opinion, should 2.5 million Palestinians be given the right to vote for the Knesset?"
...A small correction buried on page five about a highly visible front-page headline does not do justice to the problem. Levy's articles about the poll continue to inflict damage on Israel's international image. The clarification, though important, does not begin to put out the fire. It's reasonable to assume that most of those who celebrated the initial erroneous reports have no clue that a clarification was printed.
Monday, October 29, 2012Elder of Ziyon
Arabic media is reporting that the IDF has been dropping leaflets onto southern Gaza Monday morning warning residents to stay safe.
Monday, October 29, 2012Elder of ZiyonSome Tunisians are accusing Ennahda's leader of pursuing a hidden agenda with salafists.
A leaked video featuring Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi strategising with young salafist leaders is causing controversy in Tunisia.
In the video, which was first broadcast last April and re-broadcast October 9th, Ghannouchi said, "The secularists are still controlling the media, economy and administration. Therefore, controlling them would require more time." He added that "the police and army's support for Islamists is not guaranteed, and controlling them would also require more time."
"I tell our young salafists to be patient... Why hurry? Take your time to consolidate what you have gained," Ghannouchi said before advising them to "create television channels, radio stations, schools and universities" to push their agenda.
The Ennahda leader said, "We've met with Hizb ut-Tahrir, and the salafists, including Sheikh Abou Iyadh and Sheikh al-Idrissi."
Abou Iyadh, also known as Seif Allah Ben Hassine, is currently wanted by Tunisian police in connection with the September 14th attack on the US embassy.
In the video, Ghannouchi said he was "not afraid" to include an article in the new constitution on Sharia law. He went on to mock secularists who accept Islam and fear Sharia. "They are like those who accepted content but rejected the name itself," he said.
He also told the salafists about achievements that were made for them after Ennahda came to office. "The government is now at the hands of Islamists, the mosques are ours now, and we've become the most important entity in the country," he said.
"The Islamists must fill the country with associations, establish Qur'anic schools everywhere, and invite religious preachers because people are still ignorant of Islam," Ghannouchi continued.
In his first reaction to the leaking of video, Ghannouchi said that his words were "taken out of context", adding that the secularism he denounced was "the radical and extreme secularism".
Sunday, October 28, 2012Elder of Ziyon
Informed sources in the northern Sinai said that notice has been given to plan for Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain, to visit the Gaza Strip, this coming week.If UNRWA is facilitating a visit between a head of state and the head of Hamas, that means that the UN is officially recognizing Hamas - a terror group that just today asserted that there is no room for Israel in the Middle East - as the official political leadership of Gaza, and it would be a slap in the face of the PA.
The sources confirmed the King will fly from Bahrain in Arish Airport International, and then transfer via helicopter to the city of Rafah, 40 kilometers from the airport, and then will cross into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing amid heavy Egyptian and Bahraini security forces.
The sources pointed out that it is expected that the king of Bahrain to provide some financial aid and grants to the Gaza Strip, during his visit.
The visit was arranged by UNRWA and Khalifa is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.
Sunday, October 28, 2012Elder of Ziyon"Today, a sizable section of the European left has been reluctant to take a clear stand when anti-Zionism spills over into anti-Semitism. Beginning in the 1990s, many on the European left began to view the growing Muslim minorities in their countries as a new proletariat and the Palestinian cause as a recruiting mechanism. The issue of Palestine was particularly seductive for the children of immigrants, marooned between identities."
One of the strange paradoxes of our age is the unholy alliance between many self-designated Western social progressives and assorted tyrants, homophobes, xenophobes and anti-Semites in the Middle East.
"Three atrocities were examined: the Bulgarian bomb attack, the Toulouse shootings and the Fogel family murders (which took place in 2011). In brief, only the Bulgarian bomb attack was actually reported by the Cape Times while the other two were essentially ignored. Nevertheless, the paper did find space to present other either irrelevant or anti-Israel articles at the time these atrocities took place."
“For instance, between 2006 and 2011, 44 Israelis were killed and 1,687 injured by Gaza rockets. These figures include many children, as terrorists often fire rockets when Israeli children are walking to school. More than one million Israelis live in range of rocket attack from Gaza.
What do Israel’s critics have to say about this?
Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow describes the rockets thusly: “pretty pathetic things – nobody gets injured”. The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah complained only yesterday about Israelis “whining about rockets”. Other opponents of Israel have dismissed the rockets as mere “fireworks”, and sneered that their only effect is to unsettle the pets of a handful of Israeli families.”
Another object which appears on the website is a Canaanite bottle from around 2,000 BCE. It is described as coming from “Jericho, Palestine”, but of course the term Palestine did not come into use for a further two millennia until it was introduced by Hadrian in 135 CE.
"International intelligence officials say that Iran has installed nearly 3,000 centrifuges at a nuclear site called Fordo, located under a mountain and inside a military base near the holy city of Qum, the Washington Post reported."
On Thursday, Lebanon's Al-Joumhouria newspaper, quoting security sources, said the Malaysians were detained by army intelligence on charges of being al-Qaeda members.
Investigations revealed they were recruited into al-Qaeda by another Malaysian before being taken to Yemen where they met other members of the organisation.
Al-Joumhouria said that about two months ago, the two Malaysians had tried to enter Syria via Turkey on a jihadist mission to carry out suicide attacks.
"A ninth-grade textbook published by the Ministry of Education states, “The Jews and the Christians are enemies of the believers, and they cannot approve of Muslims.” An eighth-grade textbook says, “The Apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews; and the Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians.” These are just two examples of a long list of hate-filled passages."
Sunday, October 28, 2012Elder of ZiyonA prized goat has been put up for sale in India with a whopping £128,000 price tag.
Islam Bhati, 37, from Rajasthan in India, is trying to sell his finest goat for 11 million rupees to a Muslim family celebrating the Eid al-Adha festival.You might think this is a unique, once in a lifetime occurrence. After all, how many goats have spots that can be interpreted by idiotic Muslims as Allah?
The two-year-old animal is organic and has the word 'Allah' in Arabic emblazoned on one side of his fur. He also has a crescent and star on the other side.
Mr Bhati said: ‘It’s a miracle animal and I feel blessed to own him. We have looked after this goat like our child and he’s the best goat around. We can easily charge 11 million for such a divine animal, it's pretty reasonable.’
Mr Bhati, who run's the family's marble business, bought the goat from a nearby farm two years' ago.
He said: ‘I noticed the inscriptions soon after I bought him. I knew it was sacred. Since we took him into our home we have cared for him and fed him pulses, fresh tree leaves and dry fruit. His meat will be very good.’
Mr Bhati has been offered huge sums for the goat since he posted an advert on the Internet last week. However, no one has stepped forward and paid the asking price yet.
Sunday, October 28, 2012Elder of Ziyon
Jewish weather control stations had a minor glitch late last week, and as a result a small meteorological disturbance is headed directly towards La maison Elder which may entail some emergency measures at EoZ Central.
Sunday, October 28, 2012Elder of ZiyonTemple MountA simple, ancient ritual is threatening the delicate security balance atop Jerusalem's most sacred plaza: Jews are praying.
On most days, dozens — sometimes hundreds — of Jewish worshipers ascend to the disputed 36-acre platform that Muslims venerate as Al Aqsa mosque and Jews revere as the Temple Mount with an Israeli police escort to protect them and a Muslim security guard to monitor their movements.
Then, they recite a quick prayer, sometimes quietly to themselves, other times out loud.
Jewish activists call the prayers harmless acts of faith. Police and Muslim officials see them as dangerous provocations, especially given the deep religious sensitivities of the site and its history of violence. Twelve years ago, the presence of Jews on the plaza was so controversial that a brief tour by Israeli politician Ariel Sharon helped trigger a Palestinian uprising that lasted more than four years. [Lie #1]
But today Jewish worshipers are commonplace, coming in greater numbers than at any time since Israel's founding and perhaps, some scholars say, as far back as half a millennium ago. Their goal? To challenge the Israeli government's tacit acceptance and enforcement of a ban on Jews praying there by the Islamic trust that has continued to administer the site even after Israel captured the Old City in 1967.
Jewish visits to the plaza are expected to surpass 12,000 this year, up 30% from 2011, according to estimates by Jewish worshiper groups.
"What is provocative about a person wanting to pray?" Rabbi Chaim Richman asked after defying mainstream rabbinical religious rulings and risking arrest by praying on a recent morning near the golden Dome of the Rock. The world's oldest surviving Islamic monument, it's built atop the site where Jews believe their first temple held the Ten Commandments.
"It's the most basic human right," said Richman, international director of the Temple Institute. "I'm not asking to build a temple. I'm just asking to move my lips."
His group and others that advocate the rebuilding of a Jewish temple have often been dismissed by other Israelis and the international community as extremists and zealots who seek to destroy the Dome and the nearby Al Aqsa mosque. Now they are betting this prayer campaign will give their cause more mainstream support, portraying it as a matter of religious equality and free speech.
How can it be, they ask, that in the state of Israel, Jews and Christians are banned from praying at Judaism's holiest site, while Muslims can worship freely? Even the U.S. State Department has cited Israel's ban on non-Muslim prayer on the plaza in its annual report on religious freedom, they note.
The groups want the Israeli government to implement a time-sharing plan that would set aside certain hours for Jewish worship, similar to one used to divide Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs, a holy site for Muslims and Jews.
Palestinians and Muslim leaders call the prayer campaign the latest ruse designed to instigate clashes so that Israel can justify putting the plaza under military control.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas this month accused Israel of launching a "fierce assault" on the mosque after soldiers broke up a Muslim riot triggered by a group of Jewish worshipers. [Lie #2]
Jordan, which has maintained day-to-day supervision of the plaza through an Islamic trust called the Waqf, is asking the U.N.'s cultural body, UNESCO, to condemn Israel for permitting an increase in Jewish prayers.
"The Israeli strategy is to take it over," said Mahdi Abdul Hadi, chairman of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, a Jerusalem think tank. "We don't want to share, not because we don't accept them, but because we don't trust them." He said the Hebron agreement was supposed to result in sharing, but it led to bloody clashes between Jews and Muslims, and finally a military takeover. [Lie #3]
Hadi also noted that temple-rebuilding extremists set fire to Al Aqsa mosque in 1969 and plotted to bomb the Dome of the Rock in the 1980s. [Lie #4]
Jewish prayer at the Jerusalem holy site is certainly not new, but it has been rarely seen during the last 2,000 years. After the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, a Jewish presence on the plaza was mostly banned or severely limited during Christian and Islamic rule.
Under the Ottoman Empire, Jews were given access to the Western Wall — believed to be a remnant of the Second Temple compound — but banned from the plaza above, which was reserved for Muslims only, according to Israeli historian F.M. Loewenberg.
Even after Israel took control of East Jerusalem in 1967, most Jews stayed away because of rabbinical prohibitions that warned them against visiting the site lest they inadvertently step on hallowed ground.
In recent years, however, a small but growing number of rabbis have softened that position. At the same time, national religious groups have argued that Israel should exert greater control over what is considered Judaism's holiest site.
In 2000, Jewish visitors were allowed onto the plaza only in groups of two or three at a time and even moving lips in silent prayer might led to arrest, Jewish activists say. Today Jewish groups as large as 150 are allowed to roam the plaza, sometimes drawing nothing more than cold stares and quiet curses from Muslims.
But instead of furtive prayers when police aren't looking, more worshipers are sometimes singing and lying on the ground in keeping with Jewish traditions. Such overt prayer often sparks clashes with Muslims, as occurred this month during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot when a right-wing Israeli politician was arrested for praying.
Police officials say they oppose any attempt to allow non-Muslim prayer on the plaza.
"As soon as that takes place, it causes a response from Israeli Arabs, and the Israeli police have to respond and separate them," said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. "Our aim is to keep the status quo and make sure the different religions can use and respect the site."
Right-wing Israeli lawmaker Arieh Eldad, who recently drafted a bill to impose a time-sharing plan that would allow Jews to pray at specified times, accused Palestinians of using the threat of violence to keep the plaza to themselves.
"Muslims are blackmailing the West, saying they will burn, riot and murder if we practice our right of freedom of speech," he said.
Temple group activists say their strategy is to keep praying and getting arrested, hoping Israeli courts will force the government to drop the ban.
Israel's Supreme Court upheld the right of Jews to pray on the plaza, but gave police broad latitude to restrict access in the name of security. Muslim males younger than 45 are also sometimes banned from the holy site for security reasons.
"We're focusing on prayer for the next year," said Aviad Visuli, a Haifa attorney who represents Jewish activists. "It's something nobody can object to."
Waqf leaders in Jerusalem declined to speak publicly, citing the sensitivity of the issue. But one Waqf official warned that Palestinian and Arab Israeli worshipers are increasingly uneasy over the prospect of sharing the plaza.
"This is a Muslim site," the official said. "If the police don't stop this, the people will. For Muslims, this is a red line."
It now seems as if the leading role that the Palestinian leadership has played in the current spate of violence is finally being admitted. The Palestinian semi-official daily Al Ayyam reported on 6 December that Palestinian Minister of Communications, Imad Al Falouji, confirmed that the Palestinian Authority had begun preparations for the outbreak of the current intifada from the moment the Camp David talks concluded, this in accordance with instructions given by Chairman Arafat himself. Mr. Falouji went on to state that Arafat launched this intifada as the culminating stage of "Palestinian steadfastness" in the negotiations, and not merely as a protest of Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount (Al-Ayyam, 6 December 2000)
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