Posted By  richards on October 31, 2014    
				
				    Jerusalem  Tensions over Jerusalems most hotly contested holy    site flared Thursday after a prominent rightist campaigner for    Jewish prayer there was shot in an apparent assassination    attempt, and police tracked down and killed an Arab they said    was the attacker.  
    American-born Yehuda Glick, 48, who led efforts to allow Jews    to pray on the plaza known to Israelis as the Temple Mount, the    site of Al-Aqsa mosque, was reported in serious but stable    condition after he was shot multiple times Wednesday night as    he left a gathering of activists. The shooter sped away on a    motorcycle.  
    Early Thursday, a police counterterrorism unit shot and killed    Moataz Hijazi, 32, in the mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood of Abu    Tor, which straddles the old border between east and west    Jerusalem.  
    Hijazi worked in a restaurant in the Menachem Begin Heritage    Center in west Jerusalem, where Glick had attended the meeting.    Moria Halamish, who was with Glick as he left the meeting, told    Israel Radio that the shooter approached him outside the    center, addressed him by name and said in Arabic-accented    Hebrew, Im sorry I have to do this, but you really hurt me,    before opening fire.  
    Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said that Hijazi, a former    prisoner who had served more than a decade in Israeli jails,    fired on officers who had surrounded his house hours after the    shooting. Relatives and neighbors accused the police of an    execution-style killing, showing reporters multiple bullet    holes on a rooftop where the suspects body was found.  
    The spike of violence raised fears of a broader eruption of    unrest triggered by mounting tensions surrounding the compound    in Jerusalems Old City. It is revered by Jews as the site of    the first and second Jewish temples and by Muslims as their    third holiest shrine, the place toward which the Prophet    Muhammad prayed before God instructed him to turn toward Mecca.  
    There have been increased clashes at the compound between    Muslim youths and police in recent weeks, triggered by alarm    over increased visits by right-wing Jewish activists intent on    pressing the Israeli authorities to allow Jews to pray at the    site.  
    Under arrangements established after Israel captured the area    in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Al-Aqsa mosque plaza is reserved    solely for Muslim worship, though Israelis and foreigners are    allowed to visit.  
    In response to the attack on Glick, Israeli authorities banned    all entry to the compound for the first time in 14 years,    triggering a sharp protest from Palestinian Authority President    Mahmoud Abbas, who called the Muslim and Christian sacred sites    in Jerusalem a red line.  
    Israeli officials said later that Al-Aqsa would be opened for    prayers on Friday, but men under 50 would be barred to prevent    further unrest.  
Link:
Israel Limits Prayers at Mosque
				
Category: Jewish American Heritage Month |  
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