Muslim site closure in Jerusalem like ‘declaration of war’

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas yesterday termed Israel's decision to close Jerusalem's Temple Mount compound, in response to the shooting of a Jewish activist, tantamount to a "declaration of war".

“This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation,” Mr Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, quoted him as saying.

Israel ordered the flashpoint compound closed to both Jews and Muslims yesterday after a Palestinian gunman on Wednesday night shot Jewish activist Yehuda Glick, who remains hospitalised with chest wounds described as life-threatening.

Last night Israel said it would allow limited access to the Muslim shrines from today.

Mr Glick (48), a US-born rabbi, is a well-known campaigner for the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, the location of two ancient Jewish temples which served as centres of Jewish life, which today is the site of the al-Aqsa mosque, considered the third-holiest place in Islam.

Although non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound, Jews are not allowed to pray there and Mr Abbas recently urged Muslims to prevent any attempts by “settlers” to visit the site.

Jewish access

Mr Glick was shot after addressing a conference at the Menahem Begin heritage centre in west Jerusalem, urging Jewish access to the Temple Mount.

The alleged assailant, Moataz Hejazi (32), worked as a waiter at the centre, which is frequented by senior Israeli politicians, even though he was an Islamic Jihad member and had served an 11-year prison term for nationalistic attacks against Israelis.

Mr Glick’s alleged attacker fired four times at close range just outside the centre, shortly after completing his restaurant shift, before making his getaway on a motorbike.

A few hours later, early yesterday morning, an Israeli police Swat team surrounded Mr Hejazi’s home in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Abu Tor, and killed him in a firefight.

The shooting further raised tensions in Jerusalem, which has witnessed four months of almost daily clashes in Arab neighbourhoods following the killing of an east Jerusalem Palestinian boy in July by Jewish extremists.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu blamed the upsurge in violence on Palestinian incitement.

"We are facing a wave of incitement from radical Islamists and also from the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who said that we need to prevent all Jews from going up to the Temple Mount. I still have heard nothing from the international community," he said.

Ambassador recalled

Meanwhile, Israel has recalled its ambassador to

Stockholm

in response to yesterday’s decision by

Sweden

to recognise a Palestinian state.

Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman called Stockholm's move "a miserable decision" that strengthens the extremist elements and Palestinian rejectionism.

“The Swedish government needs to understand that relations in the Middle East are more complicated than a piece of furniture from Ikea that you put together yourself, and it should act with responsibility and sensitivity,” Mr Lieberman said.

Joining two other European Union countries, Malta and Cyprus, who have already recognised a Palestinian state, Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom said her country had decided on the move because the "criteria of international law" had been fulfilled, saying there is "a territory, a people and government".