| Israel |
An Israeli far-right activist was shot and wounded in Jerusalem on Wednesday outside a conference promoting a Jewish campaign to be permitted to pray at a flashpoint Old City compound holy to both Jews and Muslims, Israeli officials said.
Police confirmed that a man on a motorcycle had shot and wounded a Jewish man in his 50s outside the Menachem Begin Centre complex located near the walled Old City.
Jonathan Halevy, director of Shaarei Tzedek Hospital, identified the man as Yehuda Glick and said he was in serious but stable condition, undergoing surgery for gunshot wounds in the chest and abdomen.
Israeli politicians and media said the U.S.-born Glick has been a prominent activist in a far-right movement to win Jews permission to pray at the site known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary.
The elevated marble and stone compound is the third most sacred site in Islam and the holiest in Judaism, where the ancient second Jewish temple once stood. It contains the 8th century al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock, where the Prophet Mohammad is said to have ascended to heaven.
Since the end of the Gaza war in August, tension has risen steadily in the eastern, Arab side of Jerusalem, with almost nightly clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters throwing rocks and petrol bombs.
A major focus of Palestinian anger is the increasing number of visits by Orthodox Jews, including some politicians, accompanied by Israeli police to the sacred Old City compound.
Moshe Feiglin, a prominent far-right lawmaker in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, said Glick was shot after exiting the conference entitled "Israel returns to the Temple Mount".
"What happened tonight is the attempted murder of (our)organization head, Yehuda Glick," Feiglin said. He said he had seen Glick shot at close range several times by a man who spoke to him in Arabic-accented Hebrew before opening fire.
"This is a very serious incident," Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said at the scene of the shooting. "We will hold those responsible fully accountable."
While the Old City compound is ultimately administered by Jordanian religious authorities, Israeli and Palestinian police secure it. Non-Muslims are allowed to visit under close monitoring but are not allowed to pray, a prohibition at the heart of the tensions.
Palestinians fear the increasing Jewish visits, along with the moving-in of dozens of Israeli settlers to homes in a crowded Arab district in the shadow of the holy compound, aim to deepen Israel's claim to the city as its eternal and indivisible capital.
Netanyahu has promised repeatedly that the "status quo" governing Jerusalem's holiest site is not about to change, though his reassurances have not eased Palestinian fears.
Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as their capital, all territories Israel captured in a 1967 war. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally.
...culled from YAHOO
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