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Israelis on High Alert for First Friday Ramadan Prayers
Israel deployed about 3,000 policemen around a disputed shrine in East Jerusalem Friday, December 1, bracing for the Palestinians' first Friday prayers there in the Muslim holy fast month of Ramadan, police officials said.
The police are worried that the prayers at the shrine, known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Israelis as the Temple Mount, would lead to a riot and an escalation of the ongoing deadly violence between the two sides.
The compound hosted the two most important mosques in Jerusalem, Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa. It was a flashpoint in the early stage of the wave of violence.
Israel's opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the shrine on September 28 was widely seen as the fuse triggering the violence. Over 280 have been killed and thousands wounded, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
After Prime Minister Ehud Barak Tuesday announced that he agreed to an early election, Israeli officials hoped the Friday prayers will be as quiet as possible and will not result in a resurgence of violence, which they said will surely damage the prime minister's hope to be reelected.
Israel police gestured by announcing there will be no age limits on the worshippers for the Friday prayers in the Jerusalem shrine, the first time since the violence broker out more than two months ago.
In the past two months, the police allowed only Muslims over the age of 45 to pray there. The age limit had once been lowered in October to block off more younger Palestinians, but later it was again raised to 45 and over.
However, police officials said that only those with Israeli ID cards, namely the Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, could be allowed to pray Friday in the compound, and those living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will be barred from gaining access to the shrine.
The Palestinians are angry at the ban, which they said is a collective punishment against the Palestinians and an unfair restriction of the freedom of religion.
It was reported that Chairman Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement of the Palestine Liberation Organization has called on Palestinians to break through roadblocks set up by Israeli army and march to Jerusalem for praying at the mosques.
Police officials revealed that the policemen have held practice runs for that on Thursday.
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