Israel removes metal detectors from Jerusalem holy site
JERUSALEM: Israel removed metal detectors from a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site yesterday after their installation triggered deadly violence, but Muslim officials said worshippers should continue a boycott for now.
The Israeli move came in the face of intensive international diplomacy seeking to stop the dispute over the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, sparking wider Palestinian unrest.
The government said it would introduce subtler measures instead to secure the compound, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, following a deadly attack on Israeli police nearby.
A work crew removed the metal detectors from one entrance to the compound in the early hours, and cameras installed on overhead bridges in recent days were also gone, an AFP correspondent reported.
Dozens of Israeli security personnel stood quietly outside the entrance, where Muslims have prayed for days in protest at the metal detectors.
A small group of women prayed outside. One of them, Widad Ali Nasser, said they would “not enter the Al-Aqsa mosque until the situation returns to how it was before ... without surveillance cameras, without searches, without metal detectors.”
The women later held a small demonstration, chanting they would “sacrify their soul and blood for Al-Aqsa.”
Israel’s security cabinet took the decision to remove the detectors early yesterday.
They decided “to change the inspection with metal detectors to a security inspection based on advanced technologies and other means,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Details of the advanced technologies the cabinet envisaged were not immediately clear.
A statement from the Waqf, the Islamic endowments organisation which administers the compound, said there should be “no entry into Al-Aqsa mosque until after an assessment by a Waqf technical committee and the return of the situation to how it was before the 14th of this month.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged all Muslims to visit Jerusalem to protect the holy places.
“From here, I make a call to all Muslims. Anyone who has the opportunity should visit Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa mosque,” Erdogan said in Ankara. “Come, let’s all protect Jerusalem.”