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Fatah Helping to Organize Temple Mount Riots

[Ha'aretz] Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel - The pattern repeats itself: Muslim clerics, Palestinian politicians and members of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel urge Muslims to flock to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to defend it from Jewish "takeover attempts," even though nothing has changed on the ground at the Temple Mount. The man who holds the Jerusalem portfolio for Fatah, Hatem Abdel Qader, was arrested there this week on suspicion of incitement. On Sunday, the bureau of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas released an extraordinarily scathing statement condemning Israel for "extremist activities at Al-Aqsa," using such terms as "resistance" and "battle." The problem is that members of Fatah's military wing - who dropped out of the armed struggle against Israel after Hamas' violent coup in Gaza in June 2007 - could take the talk about resistance literally, and go back to initiating attacks. By the same token, Fatah's attempts to help organize the riots on the Temple Mount are liable to exact a high price in violence. The PA, whose leaders urged Israel to take stronger action against Hamas in Gaza last January, played a key role in the anti-Israel campaign launched over the Gaza operation and the ensuing affair of the Goldstone report about the war.
2009-10-30 06:00:00
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