Palestinian Authority FM warns: Temple Mount tensions could spark religious conflict
Outside Ofer prison, near the West bank city of Ramallah, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli forces who replied with tear gas to disperse the crowds.
By REUTERSPalestinian protesters clash with IDF following an anti-Israel demonstration over the recent entry restrictions to the Aksa mosque, outside Israel's Ofer military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah November 6, 2014(photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki blamed Israel on Thursday for the latest violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank and warned against a religious conflict over access to a holy site.Outside Ofer prison, near the West bank city of Ramallah, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli forces who replied with tear gas to disperse the crowds."If Israel will continue in the current policy this will lead to an unknown confrontation based on a religious background, which will not stay in Al-Aksa or Jerusalem but will move the confrontation out of Palestine (to the Islamic world)," al-Malki told reporters in a joint conference with his Czech counterpart Lubomir Zaoralek.After meeting al-Malki, Czech Foreign Minister, Lubomir Zaoralek, said that violence will make the situation more complicated in the region."We are condemning this violence on both sides and similar action that can only complicate the situation and then there will be no chance to find the way out of this crisis," said Lubomir Zaoralek.People in downtown Ramallah in the West Bank said that the car ramming attack in Jerusalem which killed an Israeli on Wednesday was a normal reaction as Israelis keep storming into Al-Aksa."This is a normal reaction to what the Nazi occupation actions in Jerusalem and Al-Aksa, desecration of Al-Aksa, so this is the less of what the residents in Jerusalem can do these days," said Ali Salah.A Palestinian man on Wednesday (November 5) was killed by Israeli security after ramming his car into pedestrians killing an Israeli Border Police officer in Jerusalem's city center after fierce clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians at the entrance to the 8th-century al-Aksa mosque, Islam's third most sacred place."Who occupied my land, attacked my religion and my dignity should I make peace with? What peace is this?" said Abu Mohammed, a taxi driver from Ramallah.With tensions soaring in Jerusalem over access to a compound housing Islam's third-holiest site - where biblical Jewish temples once stood - Jordan denounced what it described as Israel's violations in the city and said it was recalling its ambassador.
There have been daily Palestinian street protests in east Jerusalem, raising Israeli concern of a new intifada, or uprising, after the collapse of United States-brokered statehood talks last April and nearly a decade after a previous revolt ended.
