Text 11267, 93 rader
Skriven 2005-04-09 14:41:12 av Alan Hess
Ärende: why can't Jews..
========================
visit their holiest site?  I'm not talking about extremists who intend to
commit violence, but people who wish to pray there.  Muslims aren't barred from
the site - why are Jews?
*********

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/printedition/bal-te.gaza09apr09,1,4386573.sto
ry?coll=bal-pe-asection
Parading Hamas members say truce at risk
Planned Jewish rally could trigger attacks on Israeli targets in response


Associated Press

April 9, 2005

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters paraded through
downtown Gaza City yesterday, threatening to end a monthlong truce if Jewish
extremists follow through on a pledge to hold a rally at a disputed holy site
in Jerusalem next week.

In Beirut, Lebanon, the leader of the militant Hezbollah group warned Israel
that such attacks would trigger an Arab and Muslim response. Sheik Hassan
Nasrallah urged Arab and Muslim peoples and governments to act to stop any
possible attack by Jewish extremists on the disputed holy site.

Israeli authorities, trying to avert violence, tightened access at the site and
stepped up preparations to bar Jewish demonstrators from the area during
tomorrow's planned march.

The hilltop site in Jerusalem's Old City is known to Jews as the Temple Mount
and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Al Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's
third-holiest site, is there, built above the ruins of the biblical Jewish
temples.

Jews opposed to Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip want to rally
at the site in a move aimed at sabotaging the pullout.

Jewish access to the compound has been strictly limited since Israel captured
east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, and a large-scale rally would raise
tensions with the Palestinians. A September 2000 visit to the compound by Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, then the opposition leader, touched off Palestinian
riots that escalated into 4 1/2 years of bloodletting.

In Gaza City, some 40,000 Hamas supporters gathered after Friday prayers and
warned that the rally could lead to an immediate resumption of violence.

Hamas, the largest militant group, and other violent Palestinian factions
agreed last month to honor a cease-fire declared by Sharon and Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas on Feb. 8.

Nizar Rayan, a top Hamas official, said the group would resume its attacks on
Israeli targets if tomorrow's march takes place.

"We will move with our rockets and our warriors in order to defend Al Aqsa and
to protect it. Not only Hamas but all the Palestinians and Muslims," he said.

Leaders of Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group affiliated with Abbas'
Fatah movement, also have threatened violence.

Hezbollah's Nasrallah warned Christians that their holy sites in Jerusalem
faced the same threat.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has announced that it will leave settlers'
houses in Gaza intact after its summertime pullout, choosing environmental and
international factors over settler feelings of anger and insult because
Palestinians will take over their homes.

The question of what to do with the hundreds of red-roofed houses scattered
throughout Gaza in 21 settlements has vexed the Israeli government for months
as it prepares to evacuate Jewish settlers from the strip of coastal land.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had initially recommended destroying the
homes and greenhouses in the settlements, wanting to avoid scenes of jubilant
Palestinians taking over the settlers' homes.

But many are also concerned that the destruction would damage the environment,
make the pullout process longer and more expensive than planned, and generate
international criticism. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
urged Israel not to engage in "wanton destruction" of the settlers' homes.

Under the new plan, announced by Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim on Army
Radio Thursday, the settlement synagogues and ritual baths would be dismantled
and moved to Israel while the private homes will be left standing. The mezuzahs
- religious objects attached to door frames - would be removed.

The buildings will be handed over, either to the Palestinians or to a world
agency, once the evacuation is completed, according to the plan. The army bases
would all be destroyed.

Copyright + 2005, The Baltimore Sun

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