Ramallah: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered Israeli police and security forces to be tougher in relation to Palestinian acts of civil unrest in occupied Jerusalem.
The news site Algemeiner has reported that Netanyahu “instructed that forces be increased in the confrontation areas and that vigorous action be taken against those who disturb the peace.”
The areas he referred to include sections of occupied East Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa holy compound.
According to unnamed eyewitnesses to a meeting between the PM, key ministers and police officials reported on Algemeiner, Netanyahu directed anger towards Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch for the failure to quell the social disturbances, giving him five days to reinforce his officers and curb the violence in the holy city.
Following Netanyahu’s instructions to his law enforcement authorities, Palestinians of the occupied East Jerusalem have testified to a major difference in the way the Israeli Police and Border Security handle Palestinians in Al Aqsa holy compound.
The Israeli police force all Palestinians out of the holy shrine without paying attention to the sex or age of the praying Palestinians. “Once the Israeli police get inside the mosque, they expell all Palestinians by force leaving no chance even to discussing the issue with Waqf leaders,” said Fakhri Abu Diyab, a member of the Higher Committee in Defence of Jerusalem.
“We feel the difference and that change has surprised all the praying Muslims at the mosque,” he told Gulf News. “The Israeli police tell us that it was not our time to stay at the mosque for prayers, and give a chance for the Jewish colonists to get into the mosque for prayers.”
At present, Israelis are celebrating the multi-day Sukkot festival and as a result increasing numbers of Jewish worshipers want to enter Al Aqsa Mosque to pray and perform their rituals. “The Israeli police have become more brutal and aggressive with the Palestinian and Muslim worshipers and show their hatred to the Muslim visitors to the holy shrine,” Fakhri Abu Diyab said.
“Despite the force the Israeli security forces are using in Al Aqsa holy compound, it can be assured that defending the holy shrine will never end and that more and more Jerusalemites are ready to get into the mosque to defend it,” he stressed.
