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Palestinians Hold Trouble-Free Ramadan Prayers in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa
JERUSALEM, Nov 16 (News Agencies) - Tens of thousands of Palestinians held prayers at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the first Friday of the Muslim holy of Ramadan and dispersed peacefully amid a heavy Israeli police presence, news agencies reported.
Police put the number of Muslim worshippers at almost 100,000, while religious officials gave an estimate of more than 50,000, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
Around 2,000 police were deployed and a helicopter hovered overhead for fear of clashes at the scene of the outbreak of the almost 14-month-old Intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
The violence at Islam's third holiest site broke out after a September 28, 2000, visit to the scene, which is sacred to Jews and Muslim alike, by right-wing leader Ariel Sharon, who is now Israel's prime minister. Many Muslims and Arabs hold Sharon responsible for the 1982 massacre of up to 2,000 Palestinian refugees at the Lebanese camps of Sabra and Shatila.
Israeli police and soldiers on Friday reinforced checkpoints into annexed east Jerusalem and the mosque compound, AFP journalists reported.
Unlike for last year's Ramadan, police did not issue an official ban on certain categories of Palestinians.
But most Palestinians from the West Bank have been kept out of east Jerusalem because of Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territories since the start of the Intifada.
A general ban is in force against males under 40.
In the West Bank town of Ramallah, more than 5,000 people crammed into the city's main mosque, while hundreds of others spilled onto the street and prayed on their own carpets or cardboard.
However, the mood was downcast after more than a year of the Intifada, which has claimed more than 970 lives in the past 14 months.
"This month of Ramadan is not normal," 28-year-old Raid Sakhed said as he left the white and pink mosque.
"People are still suffering a lot and having many difficulties in living. Look at people's faces - they're sad. Ramadan is festive but they don't have their heart in it," he said.
About 400 people in the crowd carrying political banners held a protest to make a Ramadan appeal for a continuation of the uprising against Israel.
They carried the green flags of the Islamic movement Hamas, black of Islamic Jihad, and red of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which claimed the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister in mid-October.
Members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement were also among the protesters.
"We will continue the Intifada on this first day of Ramadan until the day we have secured our rights," the crowd chanted.
Israel announced Thursday that some curbs would be eased for Ramadan, 30 prisoners released, and prison visits allowed for families. And the number of Palestinians allowed into Israel for business was raised to 5,000.
Some Israeli military roadblocks in the West Bank would be lifted and the opening hours of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip extended.
A Palestinian security chief, General Amin al-Hindi, called for Israel to take a "positive initiative" for Ramadan.
"It's a difficult period for all of us. Ramadan is a holy month for the Muslims, a month where one turns to Allah and conducts oneself in a reflective manner," he said in a statement published in the Israeli daily
Yediot Aharonot.
On the political front, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said at the United Nations Thursday that most Israelis favored an independent Palestinian state, although it was not official government policy.
Right-wingers, including from Sharon's Likud party, promptly attacked him.
"It's shameful that the foreign minister said this, acting like he doesn't represent the government and the parliament," the environment minister and Likud member, Tsahi Hanegbi, told public radio.
But the more moderate Israeli tone was bolstered by Israeli President Moshe Katsav's call for a ceasefire on Thursday, when he asked "our Palestinian neighbors, the people and their leadership, to put out the fire so that we can engage in a serious and fundamental dialogue that will lead us to real peace and security."
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