Israel has lifted its closure on the West Bank, and also allowed visitors to the Temple Mount. The relaxing of restrictions on March 17 came one day after Palestinian rioting in eastern Jerusalem and the Old City. Some 100 Palestinians and 14 Israeli troops were injured, including a soldier by live gunfire.
The West Bank had been closed since March 11.
Jerusalem remained calm in the hours after the restrictions were lifted, though police remained on high alert, according to reports.
The rioting was to protest the March 15 rededication of the ancient Hurva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The violence also reportedly is linked to Israel’s approval of a 1,600-apartment building plan in an east Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood.
At one point, police used stun grenades to disperse dozens of Arabs who were blocking the Majlis Gate, one of the Old City entrances to the Temple Mount.
More than 3,000 Israeli police were deployed in Jerusalem for the rededication. Palestinian leaders had called on Israeli Arabs to flock to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to protect it, distributing pamphlets claiming that the rededication was the first step toward the construction of a Third Holy Temple.
“All we are doing is resurrecting the Hurva that was destroyed 60 years ago,” said Rabbis Yona Metzger, the chief rabbi of Israel. “All the rumors that suggest we will later march on Temple Mount are just that — rumors.”
Metzger and Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall, together placed the mezuzah on the synagogue door post.
The unfinished Hurva Synagogue, whose name means ruins, was destroyed in an Arab riot in 1721.
— jta & jpost.com