For six years, between 1987 and 1993, Israeli troops battled stone-throwing Palestinian youths in the Intifada uprising against Israel's occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Yesterday, the two sides did battle again, only this time the clashes were between troops and many of the most prominent leaders of the Palestinian Authority, frustrated would-be peace negotiators wearing suits and ties.
The extraordinary confrontation erupted inside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, where a nationalist Jewish group, Ateret Cohanim, is seeking to establish a new community. Earlier this month, in one of the narrow alleys nearby, a student at the Ateret Cohanim seminary was stabbed to death. The appropriate response, the group decided, was to emphasise their Jewish presence in the area by bringing in more families. And so, overnight on Monday and early yesterday, they poured concrete foundations for seven metal shack-style homes.
Yesterday morning saw dozens of Israeli "Peace Now" demonstrators gathering at the site to demand a halt to the building. And when news of the new Jewish "enclave" reached Ramallah, the Palestinian legislative council suspended its session there and members headed to Jerusalem.
The council's speaker, Mr Abu Ala, Mr Yasser Arafat's most senior official in Jerusalem, Mr Faisal Husseini, Palestinian cabinet ministers and clerics all converged on the site. In the ensuing melee, Palestinian protesters ripped the red metal roofing off one of the shacks, and Israeli forces used wooden clubs to try to force them back. Mr Husseini was hurt on the arm. The Palestinian minister Mr Abdel Jawad Saleh was pushed down some stairs. Mr Abu Ala, one of the architects of the Oslo talks which ended the Intifada, screamed above the fray: "If they will continue this kind of violation, to hell with all kinds of agreements."
Rubbing salt in Palestinian wounds, the visiting US Congressman Mr Newt Gingrich made clear to the Knesset where his sympathies lay. He and his colleagues, he declared, recognised "Jerusalem as the united and eternal capital of Israel".