OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli security guard killed a Palestinian in an Arab neighbourhood of Jerusalem on Wednesday, triggering clashes between police and rioters, including in the compound of the al-Aqsa mosque.
The Palestinians withdrew into the mosque, Islam’s third-holiest shrine, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or further confrontations, a spokesman said.
Israeli authorities said the guard, who provided government-funded protection for a small Jewish settlement in the Silwan district, opened fire on dozens of Palestinians who had blocked and stoned his car before dawn.
“It was his life or theirs,” said Ariel Rosenberg, spokesman for Israel’s Construction and Housing Ministry.
Authorities said the man who was killed, Samir Serhan, had been detained in the past for “participation in unrest.”
Palestinian residents and local officials said it was not clear what sparked the violence, which erupted before dawn. Family members said Serhan left behind five children.
Violence erupted again during the funeral march, with Palestinian youths hurling stones at police cars and other vehicles, setting two of them on fire, according to an AFP photographer.
Israeli police said the two cars were civilian vehicles, and that three Israelis had been lightly wounded by the stones.
Private militias
Silwan, a crowded neighborhood where a few dozen Jewish families live in a guarded enclave surrounded by 12,000 Arab residents, is one of the most volatile areas of east Jerusalem.
Israel captured East Jerusalem along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war and regards the entire city as its capital — a status not recognized internationally. Many settlers claim a Jewish biblical birthright to the region.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they intend to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in a report earlier this month that violent confrontations between Palestinians and settlers in Silwan and other mixed neighborhoods was common and faulted the police for not providing “even the most minimal protection” to Palestinians.
“The fact that the Palestinian was killed by a security guard for a private company shows that we must dismantle these private militias in the service of settlers,” Yariv Oppenheimer, head of the Peace Now anti-settlement group, said on Wednesday.
Plans to demolish Palestinian homes to make way for an archaeological park in Silwan have triggered violent protests in the past.
The park is planned on what is believed to be the site of ancient Jerusalem during the reigns of the biblical kings David and Solomon. It is just outside the walls of the Old City, which contain some of the holiest sites in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Challenging peace talks
Wednesday’s violence highlighted the challenges Israeli and Palestinian negotiators face in peace talks which resumed on September 2 after a 20-month hiatus.
The fate of Jewish settlements and the future status of east Jerusalem have bedeviled peace efforts since the early 1990s.
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, to be illegal.
The Palestinians want a freeze on all settlement construction but are also pushing for the renewal of a partial moratorium on new West Bank settler homes that will end within days, even though it does not include east Jerusalem.
A partial Israeli moratorium on settlement building expires on Sunday and Palestinians say they will quit the talks if Israel carries through with a decision not to extend the freeze.
Source: AlArabiya.net
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