Clashes raise Jerusalem tensions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

Tensions over the complex containing al-Aqsa mosque and the Western wall have boiled over into rioting several times in the past two weeks. Police and rock-throwing Palestinians clashed on Sunday and Monday at the religious site and in East Jerusalem. Palestinian officials accused Israel of trying to "Judaize" Jerusalem. The religious site, known as Temple Mount to Jews and Haram al-Sharif to Palestinians is hotly contested and was the flashpoint that led to the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which broke out in 2000.

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Peace must be made on Temple Mount
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
(Opinion) October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

With home demolitions and evictions occurring on a near daily basis, the theft of villagers' land going on round the clock, and the illegal and immoral siege of Gaza still in force years after it began, few would begrudge Palestinians airing their grievances against their oppressors. However, given that there are so many opportunities for legitimate protest against Israeli government policy, it is to certain Palestinians' discredit that they refuse to choose their battles more judiciously.

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'Old City violence may lead to 3rd intifada'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Abe Selig - October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

Recent violence in the capital and the ongoing tensions surrounding the Temple Mount could trigger a third intifada, senior Fatah official Hatem Abdel Kader warned in a conversation with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "It's a very sensitive situation," the former Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem affairs said as he stood outside a home in the city's Wadi Joz neighborhood.

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PA waging diplomatic war over Temple Mount
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority has been waging a diplomatic campaign against Israel for the past two weeks over what it terms "provocations" on the Temple Mount. At a closed briefing for foreign ambassadors last Tuesday, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad warned that the situation on the mount could quickly deteriorate into a "loss of control" by the PA and asked them to submit official protests to Israel over its "provocations" there, a senior Israeli government official said.

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Arab reporter wounded during Jerusalem riots slams police conduct
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Sharon Roffe-ofir - October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

A reporter for the Arab-Israeli news website PLS48.net was injured during the riots that broke out Sunday morning at the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem's Old City. He claims a police officer struck him with a baton and disappeared. Police reject the claims. Reporter Abdallah Zidan arrived at the Temple Mount at dawn to cover the prayers for his website, which is sponsored by the Islamic Movement's northern branch.

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Fresh clashes at Jerusalem shrine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

The protesters threw stones and bottles at the police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades. Several Palestinians are reported to have been detained, including a former minister, Hatem Abdulqader. The Israeli police said they had closed the compound because Palestinians had planned a mass gathering there. Palestinians say they are trying to protect the site, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, from Jewish hardliners, who they fear intend to desecrate it.

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In Jerusalem, clashes over Temple Mount, Al Aqsa Mosque
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - October 4, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli police shut down access to key Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday, spurring Palestinian protesters to throw rocks and bottles in protest – marking the second consecutive Sunday of disturbances near the city's overlapping points of prayer for Jews and Muslims.

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Heavy Israeli police presence in Jerusalem; clashes feared
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli police imposed strict restrictions over Muslim worshippers coming to pray Friday at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Israeli sources said that men holding Jerusalemite or Israeli identity cards (blue cards) who are over fifty and women with the same ID cards who are over 45 will be permitted to enter the old city and holy sanctuary. Young men and women will be turned away, West Bank Palestinians are strictly prohibited from the area.

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Creating new reality?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Michael Jansen - (Opinion) October 1, 2009 - 12:00am

Sunday’s clashes at Jerusalem’s Haram Al Sharif between Palestinians and armed Israeli police and soldiers have been either misrepresented or underestimated by the world media. But not by the Palestinian Authority. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad summoned all the foreign representatives to a crisis meeting in Ramallah where he warned of the dangers posed by such events. The Israelis arrested at least 50 Palestinians they said had taken part in the violence that spilled out of the compound into the narrow streets of the Old City.

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A hostile takeover of Zionism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Globe and Mail
by Patrick Martin - (Analysis) September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has come a long way. No longer are they the inward-looking anti-Zionists who only cared that the government provide them with money for their separate schools, welfare and exemptions from military service. These days, many of the Haredim – the word means “those who tremble” in awe of God” – have joined with right-wing religious Zionists to become a powerful political force. They now are equipped to redefine the country's politics and to set a new agenda.

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