Metal detectors removed from Jerusalem mosque
NEW MEASURES REJECTED Palestinians also not happy with CCTV cameras
JERUSALEM: Israel removed metal detectors from entrances to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on Tuesday in favour of CCTV cameras, hoping to calm days of bloodshed, but Palestinians said the modified security measures were still unacceptable.
Israel installed the detectors at entry points to the mosque after two police guards were shot on July 14, setting off the bloodiest clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in years.
The tensions and the deaths of three Israelis and four Palestinians in violence on Friday and Saturday raised international alarm and prompted a session of the UN Security Council to consider ways of defusing the crisis.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and the Muslim cleric who oversees al-Aqsa compound turned down the new Israeli measures and demanded all of them be removed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet of senior ministers voted to remove the metal detector gates early on Tuesday after a meeting lasting several hours.
The decision to remove the metal detector gates was an about-turn after the rightist Netanyahu, wary of being seen to capitulate to Palestinian pressure, pledged on Sunday that the devices would stay put.
But on top of the outbreak of violence, a move on Friday by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to suspend security coordination, plus international criticism, cranked up pressure on Israel.