Against the backdrop of tensions centred on Al-Aqsa Mosque, signs are emerging of an on-again, off-again uprising that some have already dubbed a “third Intifada”. Two Palestinians armed with a meat cleaver and a gun killed four people in a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday before being shot dead by police, the deadliest such incident in six years in the holy city amid a surge in religious conflict. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement condemning the attack, which comes after a month of unrest fuelled in part by a dispute over Jerusalem's holiest Islamic shrine. The synagogue attack came a day after a Palestinian bus driver was found hanged in his vehicle in Jerusalem. Israel said an autopsy showed he committed suicide, a finding rejected by his family, which said he was attacked. Hundreds of mourners at the driver's funeral Sunday chanted for revenge The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, says it carried out the synagogue attack. Almost daily, Palestinian youths clash with Israeli occupation forces. Violence has escalated on both sides. An attempt on the life of extremist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, infamous for his call to demolish Al-Aqsa Mosque, added another layer of venomous zeal to the strife. Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, known to Muslims as Haram Al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, is at the heart of the current flare up. But many analysts claim that the real driving force is not the fate of religious sanctuaries, but rather the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. As Israeli extremists continued to clamour for rights to pray at Haram Al-Sharif, Israeli soldiers tightened security around the complex and deployed inside it in a move that inflamed Palestinian sentiments. Over the past few weeks, tension rose to new heights in the city that Israel calls its capital, and on whose fate a long-awaited political settlement is predicated. Mustafa Al-Barghouthi, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the current events as “a third Intifada”, asserting that young Palestinians have given up on negotiations with Israel. “The entire Palestinian people are taking part in the intifada... as a result of Israel's repression and crimes, and its unprecedented encroachments on Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Al-Barghouthi said. During the past few months, confrontations between the Israeli forces and Palestinian youth have escalated, with Israel occasionally closing Al-Aqsa to worshippers. On 5 November, Ibrahim Al-Akkari, a Palestinian, drove a vehicle through crowds of police and civilians in Jerusalem, and then got out of his vehicle and started hitting pedestrians with a metal rod. He killed two people and injured 13 before police shot him dead. A similar attack two weeks earlier led to the death of a woman, a child, and the Palestinian assailant. On 30 October, Moataz Hegazi, 32, a member of the Islamic Jihad, shot Rabbi Glick at point-blank, wounding him critically. Hegazi was later shot dead by the police in his home. Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki said that there would be no stability in Jerusalem if Israel continued to claim Jerusalem as its “eternal capital”. “The Israelis have taken leave of their senses and they are setting fire in their own lap. What they are doing in Jerusalem will have consequences that would be hard to contain,” Zaki added. Last Monday, clashes broke out in various parts of Jerusalem, after Youssef Al-Ramouni, 32, was found hanged inside a bus on which he worked as a driver in northeast Jerusalem. Israeli police said the death was a suicide, but Al-Ramouni's colleagues said he was attacked by six settlers and lynched. Israeli encroachments on Al-Aqsa Mosque, meanwhile, have triggered a strong reaction by Jordan, which threatened to review its 1994 peace treaty with Israel unless the latter refrains from further assaults on the sanctity of Muslim and Christian shrines. Jordanian Minister of Information Mohamed Al-Momani said that Israeli actions in Jerusalem contravene international law and the Geneva Conventions. Any move by Israel to abrogate Jordan's current custodianship of Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, Al-Momani said, is “a red line for Jordan”. Several right-wing Knesset members had urged the government to end Jordan's custodianship of Muslim sites in Jerusalem. Concern over developments in Jerusalem prompted a visit to Amman by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who held a tripartite meeting in Amman with King Abdullah of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. During the meeting, the Jordanian king voiced concern over the visits to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound of Knesset members, noting that their actions conflict with Israeli assurances that the current arrangements governing the compound will remain unchanged. Netanyahu, for his part, pledged to take measures aiming to defuse current tensions. Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it in 1982 in clear violation of international law. The annexation is not recognised internationally. Speaking after a three-hour meeting with Abdullah and Netanyahu, Kerry said that Israel and the Palestinians promised to take tangible measures to restore calm in Jerusalem. Kerry also pointed out that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi joined the discussions by phone, offering to help restart Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. Following Kerry's remarks, the Israeli police allowed Muslims of all ages to perform Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, suspending earlier restrictions on younger worshippers. Israeli Interior Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich said that he expects the current tensions to subside, ruling out the possibility of a third Intifada. But David Pearl, head of the Regional Council of Gush Etzion, a group of illegal settlements situated between Bethlehem and Hebron in the West Bank, said that the continued attacks in which Palestinians try to run down Israelis by vehicles prove “beyond doubt” that a third Intifada is underway. Pearl called on the Israeli government to clamp down on the “insurgents” who are trying to “uproot” the Israelis from their land. Ron Ben-Yishai, a military analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth, said that the third Intifada broke out 10 months ago, led by President Mahmoud Abbas. “Unlike the first Intifada, this is not a mass movement, and unlike the second Intifada, no bombings took place,” he noted. According to Ben-Yishai, the current situation has emerged since the collapse of the peace talks and can be described as a “low-heat” Intifada. “The incidents of last summer, from the abduction and killing of teenagers at Gush Etzion to the reprisal murder of young Mohamed Abu Khdeir in Jerusalem, to Operation Protective Edge, have all accelerated events and added to the conflagration, but the Intifada broke out before that,” he noted. The Palestinian president is the one who triggered the Intifada, said Ben-Yishai. “But unlike the previous two intifadas, this time Israel's extremist right wing is keeping it alive through provocations.” The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that police warned the government against the visits of Knesset members to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, saying that these visits, as well as the provocative statements by Israeli public figures, were fomenting tensions. According to the Israeli media, Netanyahu and senior aides considered deporting Palestinian “troublemakers” to Gaza as a punishment. But the legal adviser to the Israeli government, Yehuda Weinstein, had reservations about this “complex and thorny” measure. Experts meeting at the Israeli Ministry of Justice concluded that deportation was not an option, as it may lead to action by the International Criminal Court. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman lashed out at the Kensset members who conducted unauthorised visits to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, calling their action “imprudent” and “cheap” publicity. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said that political disputes must not be allowed to turn into religious ones, for this may antagonise the entire Muslim world.
