AP
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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: February 23, 2005 |
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| AP |
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Police have asked the government for an additional 61 million shekels ($14 million) to deal with what they said are serious warnings about a possible attack by Jewish extremists on the Jerusalem holy site, officials said Wednesday.
Israeli security officials have warned for months that extremists might try to attack the shrine -- known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif -- to inflame Israeli-Arab tensions and sabotage Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip this summer.
At the shrine, police on Wednesday arrested a 23-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank who had a knife in his possession. Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the man told investigators he had come to stab a Jew.
Police Chief Moshe Karadi appeared before parliament's Finance Committee on Tuesday to ask for more money to protect the shrine, but did not elaborate on the nature of the threats, a committee spokesman said Wednesday.
Karadi said he wants to hire 187 more officers to help protect the site from attack, the committee said in a statement.
The holy site is one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and any attack would resonate worldwide. The Al Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest site, is built atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples, Judaism's holiest site.
In 1969, an Australian Christian fundamentalist set fire to Al Aqsa and caused extensive damage, saying he wanted to clear the way for rebuilding the Temple.
In 1982, an Israeli reserves soldier from the United States opened fire on the Dome of the Rock, the golden-capped mosque opposite Al Aqsa, killing two Palestinians and wounding nine. Two years later, the Shin Bet security service caught Jewish extremists who had amassed large amounts of army explosives to blow up the Dome of the Rock. |
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