Word: jerusalem
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Disputes between religious communities over access to holy places are a staple of life in Jerusalem's Old City, but it was more than just another sectarian turf battle that saw Israeli police on Oct. 25 enter the Muslim-controlled area on the Temple Mount to quell stone-throwing by Palestinians. Instead, the riot in the Holy City was yet another sign that, in the absence of any real peace process, the two sides may be headed for renewed confrontation...
...weeks now, tensions have been mounting in Jerusalem. Spurred by the Obama Administration's efforts to revive final-status negotiations and emboldened by its successful rebuff of Washington's demand for a settlement freeze, Israel has moved to consolidate its control of occupied East Jerusalem by demolishing Palestinian homes and expanding Israeli construction there. Islamist groups have seized on archeological excavations in the Old City to claim that Israel plans to seize control of the Muslim holy sites - a charge vehemently denied by Israel, but one that has nonetheless roused outrage across the Muslim world. In response to feared protests...
...confrontation may have had less to do with keeping Jews from praying at al-Aqsa, however, than with the erosion in Palestinian faith in President Mahmoud Abbas' path of negotiating peace with the Israelis and Americans. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal set the tone that day by declaring, "Jerusalem's fate will be decided with jihad and resistance, and not negotiations." The symbolic power of the Jerusalem issue has a radicalizing effect not only on the Palestinians, but all across the Arab and Muslim world, with anti-Israel sentiment at a fever pitch even in Turkey, a long-standing Israel ally...
...With reporting by Aaron J. Klein / Jerusalem...
...that his impeccable credentials at the head of tribunals investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda - as well as the fact that he is Jewish, is said by those close to him to be a friend of Israel, and is a trustee of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - would make him acceptable to the Israeli side. Goldstone only agreed to head the inquiry after the U.N. heeded his insistence on expanding the probe to include not only allegations of Israeli war crimes, but also the actions of Palestinian militants shelling Israeli civilians...