STREETS EMPTY, SHOPS SHUT AND ANXIETY HIGH AS JERUSALEM NEARS BOILING POINT
▶ Storming of Al Aqsa Mosque by Israeli police leaves many too nervous to venture out in once-busy Old City
The main question hanging over Jerusalem during the past month has been when – rather than if – tensions would boil over during Ramadan.
The Old City’s shopkeepers might have got their answer yesterday morning.
After Israeli police stormed Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound, attacking worshippers and arresting hundreds, a walk through the Muslim Quarter shows the vast majority of businesses closed.
In the busiest tourism and pilgrimage season, that decision is not made lightly.
Many shut after Israeli forces stormed the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, firing stun grenades as Palestinians threw stones and fireworks. The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least 12 people were injured.
Some shopkeepers said closures were only during the daytime in Ramadan. Many more said the events at the mosque the night before were to blame and that they were waiting for noon prayers to finish in case of further incidents.
On Saturday, Palestinian Mohammed Al Asibi, 26, was shot dead in Al Aqsa compound. It was another moment that could have reignited tensions but the situation then felt more contained than it does now.
At the time of Mr Al Asibi’s death, crowds were far bigger this Ramadan than in the recent past, said a Palestinian photographer from Jerusalem.
That meant local shopkeepers were getting more business than in previous years, when Israeli authorities allowed far fewer worshippers into the site.
If shops stayed shut, that buffer would disappear. Foreign embassies warn that sudden closures are a sign that their citizens should leave the area.
That was the case yesterday morning. On Suq El Qatanin, a main thoroughfare that leads to the compound, one shop selling spices was open.
The owners said it was a Ramadan lull.
But further up the street, an owner of a souvenir shop said that he would open in the afternoon and that the violence was to blame.
The owner of a restaurant called City of Peace, one of the only establishments open yesterday morning, said the same.
The elderly chef stayed away from Al Aqsa last night. “It would have been too dangerous for me,” he said.
Some returned in the afternoon. Two English tourists sitting in the restaurant, Rod and Ruthie, were unsure about whether to stay. They chose to remain drinking coffee, keen to observe how quickly things can change in the Old City.
Others were less subtle. A religious tour group stationed itself next to a smaller gate to Al Aqsa, outside the Little Western Wall, a pilgrimage site.
Pointing to the compound, sacred for both Muslims and Jews, the guide told about 30 tourists: “Neither me nor you can go there. Why? Because of the mosque. It’s only for Muslims.”
Only a few metres away, Israeli soldiers, one of them smoking, were turning away more than they were letting in. Two of the unsuccessful Muslims, a husband and wife, made a small protest and trudged on.
“We’ll just try another gate,” one said. At an entrance down the road, no one was being let in at all. Nadim, a teacher, sat outside. “There will be holy war soon, I’m sure of it,” he said. “It will be terrible for Jerusalem.”
Many of the conditions typical for escalation are present.
Ramadan has fallen in the same month as Passover and Easter, at a time when Israel has the most right-wing government in its history – and after one of its ministers encouraged Jews to access the compound.
Anger is rising throughout the Palestinian Territories. There is a new generation of militants in the West Bank.
Last month, former Israeli general Amir Avivi said the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, which is rapidly losing local support, and a takeover of a West Bank city by a militant group would be a red line.
“We cannot have a second Gaza in the West Bank, because of its proximity to Israel’s main cities,” he said. “If one were to happen, we would see a largescale Israeli military operation.
“The army has recently conducted exercises on such a scenario.”
Militant group red lines are also clear.
The one on minds yesterday was a Jewish citizen getting into the compound and ritually sacrificing an animal, an ancient Passover tradition.
It barely happens now and would be a drastic provocation of Muslims. Yesterday, Israeli police arrested a man trying to perform the ritual.
Militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have called for Palestinians to confront Israeli forces at Al Aqsa.
Even Jordan, a crucial diplomatic and stabilising player, is stepping up its messaging. “It is the duty of every Muslim to deter Israeli escalations against holy sites in Jerusalem,” King Abdullah II said on Sunday.
Yesterday, on Suq El Qatanin, a main thoroughfare leading to the compound, one shop selling spices was open