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Palestinian Speaker Decries Sharon's Visit to Temple Mount
Speaker of the Palestine Legislative Council (PLC) Ahmed Qurei strongly condemned the visit by Israeli right-wing Likud leader Ariel Sharon and some of the Likud legislators to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Thursday.
"The visit is a clear expression of the Israeli designs to eliminate the Islamic and Arab features of the Temple Mount," Qurei told the PLC session held in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Thursday.
"The visit testifies to the criminal designs of the Israeli government against Jerusalem," he said.
It is a tactical step in the negotiating process and falls in the framework of coordination between the opposition Likud and the Israeli government, he added, citing the protection provided to the visit by the Israeli government and police.
Meanwhile, Qurei praised the position adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat towards the issues of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
The aim of Sharon's visit was to show to grass-root Israelis that the Jewish state should not give up sovereignty over the Temple Mount, Likud officials said.
The visit sparked violent protests, leading to the injuries of dozens of Israeli soldiers and Palestinian demonstrators, including two Israeli Arab lawmakers.
The Temple Mount, located in the walled Old City of East Jerusalem, is the site of the former Jewish Temple, the most sacred shrine of Judaism. Muslims call it al-Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, which houses Al Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, the third holiest shrine in Islam.
Sovereignty over the holy site is the toughest issue in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. For now, Muslim clerics have autonomy in administering the site, although Israeli police remains
in charge of security.
In 1990, a Palestinian demonstration incurred by rumors that Jewish extremists planned to rebuild the Jewish Temple led to clashes, in which 19 Palestinians were killed and 140 wounded after Israeli police opened fire.
In 1996, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to reopen an "archaeological tunnel" just outside the compound triggered riots, leaving 58 Palestinians and 15 Israelis dead.
Arafat has said he regarded Sharon's visit as "a very serious matter" because of Sharon's role in the 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees near Beirut. Sharon was the mastermind of Israeli army's invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
He condemned Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount as a grave and provocative infringement on the Muslim holy sites, and he called on all Muslim countries to denounce Sharon's conduct and defend the holy sites in Jerusalem.
Palestinian leaders had warned that Sharon's visit could lead to a recurrence of the bloody clashes in 1990 and 1996.
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