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Israel Arrests Waqf Security Chief, Upholds Mosque Ban On West Bank Muslims
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli police said they arrested Thursday a security chief of Waqf, the organization that manages the al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem, accusing him of trying to incite violence during last Friday's prayer services.
Mohammed Abu Kteish, the chief of a Waqf security unit, had called for "a war in the Middle East" during last Friday's prayer services, said Shmuel Ben Ruby, an Israeli police spokesman.
He also assaulted an Israeli police officer on the edge of Jerusalem’s old city, said Ben Ruby, who added that Kteish was arrested Wednesday.
Earlier Thursday, the Israeli government extended a ban on Muslims from the West Bank entering occupied east Jerusalem to pray at the al-Aqsa mosque compound for the second Friday prayers of Ramadan.
"The citizens of the West Bank cannot come to Jerusalem tomorrow," a spokesman for the Jerusalem police said, without elaborating.
But the move drew an angry reaction from leading Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, who complained that the Israeli restrictions prevented both Muslims and Christians from visiting Jerusalem to pray at its holy sites.
"This is the 10th week that Israeli has maintained the blockade against our people in violation of international law," he told reporters.
Israeli police earlier said authorities were considering easing restrictions to allow worshippers from the West Bank to visit the mosque site, which is the third holiest site in Islam and Judaism's holiest shrine.
Last Friday, 3,000 police deployed in the area as tens of thousands of Muslims poured into the Old City's mosque compound for the first major prayers of the holy month of Ramadan.
Only Jerusalem residents and Muslims with Israeli citizenship were permitted to enter al-Aqsa and thousands of frustrated worshippers from the West Bank were prevented from reaching the city.
Police had braced for potential unrest, but relative calm prevailed.
Authorities will enforce the same restrictions this week, the police spokesman said.
However, Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami had earlier called for the ban to be lifted due to the relative calm of last Friday's services.
The Muslim shrine, built on the vestiges of the second temple was the scene of clashes after a provocative visit there by Israel's hawkish opposition leader Ariel Sharon on September 28th.
The violence unleashed an Intifida, or uprising, against the Israelis which has since claimed more than 300 lives, most of them Palestinians.
A blockade on the Palestinian territories by Israel has been in place virtually since the unrest began.
At varying times since the violence erupted, Israel has only allowed women, and men over 35 or 45 years old, amid changing rules, to enter the compound.
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