In 2009, clashes between Muslim Palestinians and Israeli police erupted on September 27, 2009, and continued to late October. Violence spread through East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, and included throwing of Molotov cocktails and stones at Israeli security forces and civilians. Israeli police responded with arrests of rioters and sporadic age-based restriction of access to the Temple Mount. Several dozen rioters, police and Israeli civilians have been injured.
The Al-Aqsa compound sits atop the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, and is also the site of the existing al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, and is the third-holiest site in Islam. Israel gained control of the Mount in 1967 from Jordan, and incorporated it along with the rest of East Jerusalem into its (largely unrecognised) capital of Jerusalem; the Islamic holy sites on the Mount are managed by the Islamic waqf, while Israel is in charge of overall administration. The permanent status of the Temple Mount is generally considered to be determined by future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The clashes followed rising tensions beginning on 2 August with the forcible evictions of nine Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah. During Ramadan Palestinian access to Al Aqsa Mosque was increasingly restricted. During the last week of Ramadan ending on 19 September, Palestinians from the rest of the West Bank were barred from entry into East Jerusalem for the Jewish New Year.[1]
Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel's northern branch, told followers in early October that should Muslims have to choose between renouncing the al-Aqsa Mosque and becoming martyrs they will choose the latter.
Should the State of Israel make us choose... we will clearly choose to be martyrs, we are a nation that does not give up, we will die and win; the al-Aqsa Mosque is not a matter that can be given up on, and we shall win, God willing.
On 5 October, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad condemned Israel's decision to restrict entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the wake of the riots, and called on Palestinians "to confront Israel".
We call on the Palestinian public to confront Israel and its plans, that are intended to prevent the Palestinian people from fulfilling their aspirations of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied territories.
The Authority also decried "Israel's attempts to conduct Jewish prayer services in the Aksa compound" and urged the world "to force Israel to halt its efforts to Judaize the city."
In early October, Hamas called for a new intifada (uprising) to "defend" Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque, located in the Temple Mount compound. The group issued a statement blaming Israel for the violence and saying that "harming al-Aqsa will blow up in the face of the Zionist aggression."[5]
Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal said on 25 October declared that Jerusalem's fate would be decided by confrontation rather than negotiation, and called for angry protests throughout the Arab world.
The Israelis want to divide al-Aqsa Mosque, and this is not all. They want to hold their religious ceremonies in the mosque... in preparation for demolishing it and building their temple there... Jerusalem is all of Jerusalem, not only Abu-Dis. The Arabs and Muslims are [the city's] residents, and the Zionists have no claim over it... I call for angry protests in Palestine and in the Arab world. Today, protests began in [the] Gaza [Strip], and we hope they will spread to the West Bank. It is important for there to be a united Palestinian position. We must send a message to the world: In light of the settlements and actions in Jerusalem, there are no negotiations and we must rethink our steps.