Even though there is no specific alert for riots, large police and Border Guard forces deploy near Old City and in east Jerusalem. Islamic Movement says dozens of bus loads of people will arrive in capital in coming days.

Shmulik Grossman
Published: 03.15.10, 16:23 / Israel News

Police deployment in Jerusalem out of concerns for riots in the Old City reached its peak Monday afternoon amid tensions on the backdrop of the rededication of the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter.


More than 3,000 police and Border Guard officers are deployed in Jerusalem, mainly near the Temple Mount and in east Jerusalem neighborhoods. "There is no specific alert for riots this evening," said a source in the police. "The police are prepared for any possible scenario. Only 250 Muslim worshippers attended services on the Temple Mount."

New Torah Scroll



Old City synagogue opened amid heightened tensions / Shmulik Grossman

After PA urges Muslims to barricade themselves in Al-Aqsa Mosque, hundreds of Jews take part in ceremony bringing new Torah scroll to restored shul in Jewish Quarter. 'If this angers Obama, Netanyahu should choose a different partner,' celebrator says
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The Islamic Movement continued sending dozens of buses to Jerusalem on Monday. The bus organizers claimed that police detained a few of the buses, and some were even turned back. The police, on the other hand, said that only one passenger bus was asked to return.


A senior police source said the "revolving door" policy by which they are operating stipulates that "any vehicle, mainly buses, on which sources that will likely act as an inflammatory source on the Temple Mount will be forced to turn back in its tracks."


The Islamic Movement's transport operations started on Saturday, and are being run by the al-Bayarq bus company belonging to the al-Aqsa Foundation, which is linked with the northern branch of the Islamic Movement. The operations organizers told Ynet that dozens of buses transported believers from the Galilee, the Triangle, the Negev, and Jerusalem.


High deployment. Police in east Jerusalem (Photo: Noam Moskowitz)


The organizers also said that the police, who are deployed with heavy reinforcements, set up roadblocks along the Bakaa road and along Route 6. "It won't help. We believe that the al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the holiest sites to Islam, and there is no reason we shouldn't keep visiting it," said Islamic Movement spokesman, Attorney Zahi Nujidat.


"We call upon people to visit the al-Aqsa Mosque on every day of the year – today, yesterday, and tomorrow, too," said Nujidat, who denied that there was a call for worshippers to go to Jerusalem today in particular.



"We helped and we will help a few people who wanted to reach the mosque," he clarified.


High response

MK Talab El-Sana, a Bedouin resident of the Negev, told Ynet there has never been such a high level of responsiveness on the part of Bedouins to go to the al-Aqsa Mosque.



"The buildup of a number of elements that took things too far, starting with adding Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs to the list of heritage sites, the evacuation of Palestinians and entrance of settlers to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, settlement expansion and the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem which is slated to be rededicated – all these and more, bolster the feeling that there is a real and concrete threat to the existence of the al-Aqsa Mosque. This is why seculars are also joining the fight, because al-Aqsa is not just a religious symbol, but also a national symbol," he said.



Earlier, President Shimon Peres tried to send a calming message ahead of the Hurva Synagogue's rededication. "Israel will respect every holy site and place of worship. What is holy to the Muslims will be holy to us; what is holy to Christians will be holy to us. And of course, vice versa," the president told his Brazilian counterpart Luis Lula da Silva, who is currently in Israel.



Thousands of police officer were deployed throughout Jerusalem since Monday morning, following declarations made by senior Palestinian leaders calling to "ignite the area" ahead of the rededication ceremony.

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For educational purposes only.

Website: www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3863006,00.html

Got a bad feeling about all of this!

my nerves are really bad too.

Email: maria callison@hotmail.com

Old City’s Hurva shul reopens
By ABE SELIG
14/03/2010 23:59



Police brace for violence as Fatah official urges Palestinians to "converge on Al-Aksa."
Talkbacks (2)

Jerusalem’s historic Hurva Synagogue, which was last destroyed by Jordan’s Arab Legion on May 25, 1948, and has been rebuilt after nearly a decade of construction, will be rededicated during a ceremony in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter on Monday evening.

While festivities kicked off on Sunday with the welcoming of a Torah scroll into the renewed house of prayer, Monday evening’s ceremony will be the official reopening of the Hurva, which was first built in 1701 and has been destroyed and rebuilt twice.

The rededication comes as security measures in the Old City and elsewhere in east Jerusalem are at a peak.

A shaky calm has held since the weekend’s clashes between security personnel and Palestinian youths in the Muslim Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods, although rumors regarding the synagogue, together with the perceived implications its reconstruction holds for the Temple Mount, continue to propagate.

Palestinian clerics have claimed that the rebuilding of the Hurva would pave the way for plans by right-wing Jews to lay a cornerstone for the construction of the third temple on the Temple Mount – a rumor, based on an 18th-century rabbinic tradition purportedly declared by the Vilna Gaon, which has been brushed off by right-wing activists themselves as having been given a “certain poetic license.”

The Muslim clerics’ claims have been bolstered by a request filed with Jerusalem police last week to lay such a cornerstone. The request was filed by the Temple Mount Faithful — a group that actively seeks to rebuild the third temple on the holy site.

While police rejected the request out of hand and have also canceled all tourist visits to the site, the clerics’ warnings continued to build steam on Sunday, as top Fatah official and holder of its Jerusalem portfolio, Khatem Abd el-Kader, called on Palestinians to “converge on Al-Aksa to save it” from “Israeli attempts to destroy the mosque and replace it with the temple.”

Khader called the renovation of the Hurva a “provocation” and warned Israel that it was “playing with fire.”

Israel Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen warned that incitement to violence by Palestinian elements could inflame an already tense situation in the capital.

Responding to the allegations that Al-Aksa Mosque was “in jeopardy,” Cohen held a special evaluation meeting with police brass on Sunday evening that was attended by Jerusalem Police chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco.

“Extreme statements and incitement do not match the reality on the ground. I expect all sides at this time to be responsible and to tone down their statements,” Cohen said at the end of the meeting.

The police chief said he was concerned that the incitement to violence could lead to an “unnecessary escalation” in the capital.

Cohen said police were “deployed with increased forces around Jerusalem, due to continuous intelligence and joint evaluation meetings with other domestic security elements,” and that police were ready to deal with “every potential incident and scenario.”

More than 3,000 security personnel have been
deployed in the Old City and throughout east Jerusalem since Friday, and police announced on Sunday that the this would continue through Tuesday, and that only Muslim men above the age of 50 and women of any age would be permitted into the Temple Mount compound – a common step taken to reduce the potential for violence.

Friday’s decision by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to impose a general closure on Judea and Samaria has also been extended until Tuesday.

News that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would not attend Monday’s ceremony fueled speculation he had decided to skip the event, in an effort to avoid conflict with the Obama administration, after a diplomatic storm erupted with the US last week regarding construction over the Green Line in the capital.

A spokeswoman from the Prime Minister’s Office, however, denied that Netanyahu had ever planned on going to the re-dedication.

The spokeswoman said that the prime minister “didn’t go to every synagogue dedication, and he hadn’t planned on going to this one.”

Yaakov Lapin, Herb Keinon, Khaled Abu Toameh and Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.

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For informational & educational purposes only.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=171000

Website: www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=171000

Yowza! The official ceremony should be happening right about now - Jerusalem time.

Things seem to really be heating up now! Woo Hoo, maybe it's almost time to fly!

I hope the IDF holds their ground and Israel starts pushing for their rights. This, of course, will lead to some kind of conflict, but it has to happen that way if the new temple is ever going to be started, and our last chapter on this earth is ever going to be played out.

J'lem: Hurva Synagogue inaugurated

Published: 03.15.10, 18:35 / Israel News

The Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem's Jewish quarter has been inaugurated. Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger and Western Wall rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz both set the mezuzah at the synagogue jamb.

Thousand of police officers and military troops were deployed in Jerusalem ahead of the ceremony, in light of the tensions in the capital. (Kobi Nahshoni)

Website: www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=171009

looks like the cameras for Eastern Wall have been deactivated ??

http://english.thekotel.org/cameras.asp

least it is on my computer - can someone else check

Email: rapture5770@gmail.com

JIM, the cameras are working fine for me. I was on earlier too and they were working. Try clearing your cookies and going back in. Maybe that will clear it.