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By Bruce S. Ticker
April 9, 2004
Israel bends over backwards to ensure religious freedom for Christians, Muslims and adherents of other religions, yet Jews cannot be assured of praying at the Western Wall without being assaulted.
As worshippers gathered last Friday, April 2, at the Temple Mount's Western Wall, hundreds of Arabs tossed stones at Israeli police from the al-Aqsa mosque compound at the end of Friday prayers.
New York Newsday featured a photograph of a clearly frightened Israeli woman clinging against a wall awaiting evacuation as another woman behind her held her young daughter. Jews praying below either fled the area or clung to the wall in fear, according to the news account published in Newsday.
Israeli riot police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets at the Arabs, arrested 14 and reportedly injured dozens while a half-dozen Israeli police officers suffered minor injuries. Negotiations between police and Muslim religious authorities averted deaths and serious injuries.
What's wrong with this picture? Jews who pray at the Western Wall are consistently vulnerable to attacks by Arabs from above, especially after prayers on Fridays, the highlight of the Muslim week.
This is insane. Jews in Israel have no freedom from fear even when they worship at the site of their ancient temple - while Arabs come and go as they please into the mosque above.
If the Muslim authorities cannot maintain control at the mosque, some other arrangements must be made.
When the Israelis captured the mosque in 1967, were they under any obligation to hand over control of the mosque to the Arabs?
I don't think so. The mosque has nothing to do with living conditions of the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza. It is solely about religious concerns, and security certainly trumps allowing the Arabs the upper hand on a religious issue, no matter how sensitive.
Obviously, the Israelis and Muslim authorities must work things out so that such an incident does not recur.
The two sides must have some kind of reasonable relationship which allowed them to prevent further problems last Friday.
That's not good enough. The attacks should never have happened in the first place.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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