TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Lots of unrest lately.

Battle of the Al-Aqsa mosque erupts

Published Date: 26 October 2009 (The Scotsman)
By MATTI FRIEDMAN AND BEN LYNFIELD in Jerusalem

ISRAELI police with stun grenades fought masked Palestinian protesters hurling stones and plastic chairs outside the Holy Land's most volatile shrine, where past violence has escalated into prolonged conflict.

A wall of Israeli riot police yesterday marched towards young men covering their faces with scarves and T-shirts, sending many running for cover into the Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the Islamic structures in the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

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The police accused the Islamic Movement, a fundamentalist group among Israel's Arab citizens, of provoking the violence.

But Zahi Najedat, a spokesman for the Islamic Movement, said tensions had been high because of a leaflet issued by Jewish extremist groups calling on Jews to come to the site, Judaism's holiest place because it housed ancient temples destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans.

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