Stones ready for throwing in Jerusalem this week
Photo: Courtesy of Jerusalem Police
Stones won’t make a difference
Palestinians will not regain their foothold in Jerusalem through violence
The Palestinian Intifada that took place this decade exacted a heavy price on Israel: More than 1,000 people were killed and more than 7,000 were wounded. The Palestinian Authority made a mistake by not trying (and it is doubtful whether it even wanted to) curb the killing campaign managed by its people against Israelis, most of whom were innocent civilians.
When summing up the results of their conduct during the Intifada, PA leaders as well as leaders of Hamas and other terror groups see the gravest damage they suffered – losing Jerusalem.
On August 9, 2001, immediately after the terrible terror attack in Jerusalem’s Sbarro restaurant (which killed 15 victims and wounded 132 people,) Palestinian Authority officials were expelled from Jerusalem. Offices that were legally opened were closed, and employees who were not Jerusalemites were expelled to the territories. Orient House, which the PA perceived as a compound that enjoyed the same immunity as that of the US embassy, was shut down and its contents were seized.
Above all, Palestinian Authority officials at Temple Mount were removed from there. The seven-year era where Israeli ignored or approved a Palestinian Authority presence in Jerusalem ended.
Neither the IDF’s return to Palestinian communities in Judea and Samaria during Operation Defensive Shield nor Gaza’s loss and its occupation by Hamas and Iran (during the Abbas era) mark the zenith of the PA’s failure, but rather, its lost foothold in Jerusalem.
No shortcuts
It was clear that the PA, as well as Hamas, will seek the first opportunity to again set Jerusalem on fire and attempt to display its sovereignty in the east of the city in general, and on Temple Mount in particular. The demand of US and European leaders to stop Israeli construction in Jerusalem, as if it was an unauthorized settlement, was the boost Palestinians needed in order to get going. If America is talking like this, what should the Palestinian Authority say?The timing was convenient. Ramadan prayers on Temple Mount were over, and it was easy to enlist the mobs to the cause. The incitement by PA officials, as well as by Hamas and its emissaries among Arab Israelis (Islamic Movement radicals, that is) brought the stone-throwers back to the streets.
The Israel Police and its commanders did well by rushing to reinforce their presence in Jerusalem in order to suppress the riots. Closing Temple Mount to visitors and limiting the number of Muslim worshippers were necessary precautions in order to calm tensions in the world’s most volatile area. In all of Jerusalem’s neighborhoods and quarters, including Temple Mount, there is only one government authority that can decide what is allowed and what isn’t – the State of Israel. Similarly, there is only one authority that is allowed to enforce the law – the Israel Police.
All those who hold on to delusions (be it in Arabic, English, or Hebrew) in respect to Jerusalem’s return to the 1967 borders would do well to sober up. We will see official Palestinian presence in Jerusalem in the future in the form of an embassy, and it will be established after a peace deal is signed between Israel and the PA. Until then, neither stones nor shoes will work as a shortcut.
