Israel is under pressure to curb settlers after clashes at al-Aqsa Mosque

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Israel faced growing international pressure to curb right-wing Jewish settlers and stop planned evictions in a crucial East Jerusalem neighborhood that have sparked violent clashes between police and Palestinians, including the mosque grounds in the -Come to Jerusalem.

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, which signed a peace treaty with Israel last year, condemned Israel, while the United States, the Jewish state’s strongest ally, said it was deeply concerned about the plan. of eviction of several Palestinian families who have lived in Israel. the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for generations. Turkey called Israel’s actions “terrorism.”

“It is crucial to avoid steps that exacerbate tensions or take us away from peace,” said the U.S. State Department, which lists Israeli expansion activities in the occupied West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem, as triggers. .

Thousands of young Palestinians protested near the peaks surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex on Friday evening, and Israeli police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the crowd after breaking their daily fast during the Ramadan. About 200 Palestinians were injured, no dead, and 17 police officers were injured, Palestinian and Israeli doctors said.

Police said Palestinians had thrown rocks, fireworks and other objects at officers. Videos posted online showed police throwing stun grenades at crowds, including one that entered the mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.

The mosque is located in an Israeli-controlled area, which captured East Jerusalem from Jordanian control in 1967, but managed by an Islamic foundation.

Turkish officials condemned Israel for confronting Al-Aqsa
mosque.

“Attacking innocent people during worship is blatant terrorism,”
Fahrettin Altun, senior communications adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told state channel TRT on Friday. “These attacks on the Palestinian people are the most fundamental human rights violations, everyone sees it. Unfortunately, a large part of the world, especially in the west, plays the three monkeys and shuts up.

The area where the mosque sits is called the Temple Mount by the Jews and is the holiest site of Judaism, the original house of the second temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Many Jews worship on the western wall, the surviving part of the temple, and face off in its direction during prayers.

Jewish settlers have for decades headed to Sheikh Jarrah, a middle-class Arab quarter located between the east and west of Jerusalem, with the goal of making the area mostly Jewish.

Sheikh Jarrah is home to the well-known American Colony Hotel, a relatively affluent middle-class Arab town that ends near the ancient Damascus Gate, an entrance to the walled old city of Jerusalem. It also houses an ancient tomb for a great Jewish priest, Simon the Just.

The lengthy lawsuits related to the homes of several Palestinian families are expected to come to a verdict soon, with lawyers for the families preparing a sentence that will hand over their homes to the settlers.

At the heart of the dispute is whether the families owned the houses legally before 1967, when Jordan controlled the neighborhood. This property is technically recognized by Israeli law, but human rights groups have documented that Palestinians regularly lose court cases related to property rights, especially in the occupied West Bank.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said they had already provided documentation that the families were the “legitimate owners” of their homes.

A hearing on the case is scheduled for Monday, which is also Jerusalem Day, the anniversary of Israel’s victory in the 1967 war, when it captured the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

While relatively peaceful in the rest of the country, Jerusalem Day is a common turning point between Palestinians in East Jerusalem and right-wing Israelis.

Arab groups have announced mass protests on Saturday and Israeli police have bolstered their deployments with protests expected to arrive on Monday.

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