TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Palestinian protesters storm key Jerusalem mosque

Times Online and agencies in Jerusalem

Clashes erupted today at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound - the Holy Land’s most contested religious site - between Palestinian stone throwers and Israeli police who fired off stun grenades.

Police officers and rioters were wounded, a police spokesman said, in troubles that flared after Muslim leaders called for a “day of anger” to protest against Israeli public works that they charge endangers the holy site.

Explosions from stun grenades, bursts of smoke and shouting could be heard at the esplanade of the compound, which is venerated by Muslims as the third holiest site in Islam, and by Jews as the Temple Mount. Reports suggested that as many as 300 protesters had holed up in the mosque.

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Also, this BBC article has a diagram of the area (scroll down).

UPDATE: I just don't have the time and energy right now to keep track fully of developments in this situation. But here are two evaluative pieces noted by Joseph Lauer. The Jerusalem Post has an editorial entitled "Intimidation tactics". Excerpts:

What is Israel doing that has sparked such violent threats? Some years ago, the pedestrian ramp leading up to Jerusalem's Temple Mount fell apart. Now municipal authorities plan to build a permanent ramp to maintain access to this holy site, and are conducting, as required by law, an archeological salvage dig to make sure no artifacts are destroyed in the process.

All of this is completely outside the Temple Mount platform, and bears no relation or threat to that structure, let alone to the Aksa mosque. Why would Israel dream of undermining the Temple Mount, which is Judaism's holiest site? The claim that Israel is doing so is patently absurd, as anyone familiar with the area can immediately see.

So how can the Muslim world be awash in violent threats based on an entirely fabricated pretext? Must there not be something to it?

The answer is that Muslim indignation is taken as self-justifying, and the more violent it is, the more the Western victims of it tend to question themselves.

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Radical Islamist intimidation tactics will continue to multiply if the West, including Israel, does not show minimal respect for itself and the truth. Western condemnation of extremist threats should be swift, universal, and unequivocal. This time the victim happens to be Israel; next time it could be anywhere else.

The second is a backgrounder by Paul Reynolds from the BBC: "In Jerusalem archaeology is politics." Excerpt:

An independent observer, Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, from the French institute the Ecole Biblique in East Jerusalem, said that the work was "completely routine".

"This work is not inside the Haram. It is outside, leading to the Moors' Gate. The earth ramp fell down and has to be replaced," Father Murphy-O'Connor, author of an Oxford University guide "The Holy Land", told me.

"I do not know why the Palestinians have chosen to make an issue out of this. It is a recognised Jewish area under the arrangements that prevail in the Old City.

"One can contrast this to the extensive excavations just round the corner in a Muslim area where huge pilgrim hostels from the 8th Century were revealed, with no protest. There has also been no protest over digs at the City of David nearby.

"There is absolutely no danger to the foundations of the al-Aqsa mosque since that is built on the huge Herodian blocks that are still there."

The reason for the protest does not really have much to do with archaeology in fact. It is a protest about presence. The Palestinians and the wider Muslim world have an objection to anything the Israelis do that touches on the Haram.

Such work is seen as symbolising a threat to Palestinian and Muslim identity and a rallying point for Palestinians to express their desire for their own space, their own state.

In this atmosphere, the arguments of the archaeological academics do not carry much force.

Both worth reading in full.