Transfer of part of Western Wall to right-wing group to be blocked
Cabinet secretary says plan to give City of David Foundation control over Robinson’s Arch won’t go through after Reform, Conservative cry foul
February 28, 2014, 3:07 am
0-The Times of Israel
Cabinet Secretary Avichai
Mandelblit intends to block a draft agreement that would transfer
control of parts of the Western Wall to a right-wing Israeli nonprofit.Mandelblit’s
decision to oppose the tentative deal comes shortly after a group of
Reform and Conservative rabbis sent him a letter strongly protesting the
transfer of control.Under the deal, the government would have
transferred control of the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and Davidson
Center to the City of David Foundation, according to Haaretz.The foundation currently runs the City of
David tourist site outside Jerusalem’s Old City and works to settle Jews
in the surrounding Arab neighborhood.The Israeli Reform and Conservative movements
have been negotiating with the government for months to expand a
non-Orthodox prayer space at Robinson’s Arch, a section of the Western
Wall that the deal would have included.On Wednesday, the CEO of Israel’s Masorti
Movement, Yizhar Hess, told JTA that the Reform and Conservative
leaderships were not notified of the deal with the City of David
Foundation before it was drafted.Hess said that if implemented, the draft
agreement would depart from a compromise on the Western Wall outlined
last year by the Jewish Agency for Israel’s chairman, Natan Sharansky.
Sharansky’s outline proposed creating a pluralist council to manage the
site.“One of the primary issues of our negotiation,
from the earliest stages of the Sharansky plan, was that religious
governance and authority over the site would be granted to duly
appointed religious leaders of the Reform and Masorti/ Conservative
movements, to serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister or his
designates,” the rabbis’ letter stated. “Surely you will understand that
we would like to know why the Government of the State of Israel does
not accept our legitimacy to form a governance body, but find the [City
of David Foundation] suitable to do this and much more.”Women of the Wall, a women’s prayer group that
meets monthly at the Western Wall and that is also negotiating the
Robinson’s Arch expansion, also protested the draft agreement.
Police to restrict Friday prayers on Temple Mount
Announcement comes after protesters burn Israeli flag, throw rocks near entrance to al-Aqsa compound
February 27, 2014, 11:14 pm
0-The times of Israel
Muslim prayers on the Temple
Mount Friday will be restricted Friday for fear of riots, police said.
Only women, children and men over the age of 50 bearing Israeli ID cards
will be allowed access to the holy site.
The
announcement followed a protest in Jerusalem’s Old City that turned
violent Thursday, when dozens of Palestinians hurled firecrackers and
stones at police forces, while others attempted to set fire to the
Lions’ Gate near the entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque compound.According to Ynet, several demonstrators also
burned an Israeli flag in protest of a recent government debate over
Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount, as well as the death of an
Arab inmate in the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba several days ago.
The protesters were heard chanting “a million martyrs [will] march to
Al-Aqsa.”The protests began after a large number of
youths requested to carry the body of Jihad al-Tawil, a traffic violator
who died after being diagnosed with cancer and suffering a heart
attack, up to the Temple Mount.After police did not grant them access to the
holy site, the youths attempted to ignite an abandoned police post near
the Lions’ Gate. At that point, police broke up the gathering and the
protesters fled towards East Jerusalem.
No one was reported to have been injured during the clashes.
Israeli riot police seen during clashes on the Temple Mount in September. (photo credit: Sliman Khader/Flash 90)
On Tuesday, the Knesset held a first of its
kind debate to examine the right of non-Muslims to enter and pray at the
holy compound in Jerusalem, with over 30 MKs from both right-wing and
left-wing parties seeking to voice their opinion on the divisive topic.The discussion ended late Tuesday with no vote being taken.Almost all of the parliament’s Arab members chose not to attend the session in protest over the decision to hold it.
The debate, headlined “the loss of Israeli
sovereignty on the Temple Mount” and rescheduled from last week, was
initiated by right-wing lawmaker MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), whose visits
to the Temple Mount have drawn media and police attention. Feiglin was
arrested for praying there in October 2012 and January 2013, before he
became an MK, and visited the Mount earlier this week ahead of the
debate.Police restrictions bar Jews from praying or
engaging in other religious activities while on visits to the Mount for
fear that they will provoke a violent reaction from Muslims, a policy
Feiglin said was absurd.The Temple Mount is jointly administered by
the Jordanian government and the Jerusalem-based Islamic Waqf, an
arrangement that has been in place since Israel captured the Old City
and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed them.
Regarded as a holy site by both Judaism and Islam, proposed changes to
the status quo at the Mount are often a source of unrest.Hamas and Palestinian Authority officials,
together with leaders of the Islamic Movement in the Galilee, have long
accused Israel of planning to take control of the Muslim sites on the
Mount.Lazar Berman, Gavriel Fiske, The Associated Press and AFP contributed to this report.
Poll: Three quarters of Israeli Jews would accept peace deal
More than 50% define themselves as right wing and don’t trust the Palestinians, yet would vote for a new Netanyahu-led centrist party
February 27, 2014, 9:59 pm
11-The Times of Israel
Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas promotes the Arab Peace Initiative
during a speech at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North
Africa in Jordan, May 26, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Jim Young)
Three quarters of
Hebrew-speaking Israelis would support a peace agreement with the
Palestinians based on the Arab Peace Initiative, and more than half
would vote for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he were to leave the
Likud and create a new party, according to a new poll published
Thursday.The
survey, commissioned by the non-profit Israeli Peace Initiative, was
conducted earlier this month among a representative sample of 500
Hebrew-speaking Israelis. The poll’s sponsors said it indicated that a
large majority of the country’s Jews hold hawkish views regarding the
peace process but would be willing to accept a deal if they understood
what Israel stands to gain from an accord normalizing diplomatic and
trade relations with the entire Arab world.According to the survey,
76 percent of respondents said they are “sure” or “think” that they
would be willing to support an agreement after they were told about nine
different elements of the deal, all based on the Arab Peace Initiative,
presented to them in a way that made them seem beneficial to Israel.
More than 60 percent of respondents said they would likely support a
regional peace treaty even before any components of it were discussed.“This represents a statistically significant
increase over the findings in other surveys conducted over the past few
months,” according to the authors of the survey.“The significance of this poll shows that a)
Israelis indeed hold right-wing views, b) they don’t believe the
Palestinians, c) they will accept a far-reaching deal based on the Arab
Peace Initiative if presented properly to them and d), that they will
support Bibi Netanyahu if he does make such a heroic decision,” said
IPI’s Koby Huberman, during a conference call with reporters Thursday.“If [Israelis] understand the underlying logic
of involving the Arab states in the equation and moving toward the end
of the Israeli-Arab conflict, then they would be willing to accept a
package deal that is far-more reaching than if it was a just a bilateral
agreement.”More than half of the poll’s respondents said
they consider themselves either “extreme right wing” (28 percent) or
“soft right” (24 percent). About 30 percent define their political
position as centrist and 16 percent as either “soft left” or “extreme
left.”First adopted by the Arab League in 2002, the
Arab Peace Initiative promises Israel “full diplomatic and normal
relations” with 57 Arab and Muslim states, in exchange for a
“comprehensive peace agreement” with the Palestinians. Israelis leaders
have so far reacted mostly coldly to the initiative, unhappy about some of its terms.This week’s
poll presented respondents with what Huberman called a “legitimate
interpretation” of the Arab Peace Initiative, though not with its exact
wording. Some of the terms presented to the respondents included the
creation of a demilitarized Palestine, settlements remaining under
Israeli sovereignty with only “minor territorial exchanges,” East
Jerusalem as capital, no right of return for Palestinian refugees (with
the with the exception of “a symbolic number”), security arrangements to
protect against Iran and terror, and the promise that economic access
to “300 million consumers and a billion residents [in the Arab and
Muslim world] will improve the situation of Israeli citizens.”Some 70 percent of respondents indicated a
willingness to support these parameters. Only two of the nine components
— the future of the holy sites, which would not be under any specific
sovereignty but managed separately by each religious group, and the
division of Jerusalem — received the support of slightly less than 50
percent.Seventy-two percent of respondents believed
that Israelis are interested in signing a peace treaty to end the
conflict. However, 77 percent are convinced that the Palestinians are
not interested in reaching such an agreement.Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that any
possible peace agreement would have to be submitted to a referendum. “It
is important that every citizen have a direct vote on fateful decisions
such as these that will determine the future of the state,” he said in
July, when the ongoing US-brokered peace negotiations resumed last
summer.According to the poll, conducted by Israeli
research institute New Wave Research, 73 percent of the Israeli public
would support the prime minister if he were to present a peace treaty
based on the nine components. Fifty-six percent said they would vote for
him if he broke away from the Likud — most of whose senior members are
opposed to a two-state deal with the Palestinians — and were to create a
new centrist party.“In summarizing the demographic variables, it
is important to note that previous surveys reveal that younger
respondents and women tended towards weak support for the principle of a
regional agreement to end the conflict,” the poll’s authors noted.
“This time, it is clear that support for peace agreements and
willingness to support the components of the agreement among these two
population groups is now similar to that what they are among the rest of
the population.”
Massive ultra-Orthodox demonstration set for Sunday
Protest against draft law expected to disrupt routine in Jerusalem; Route 1 and bus station to close; schools near city entrance to shut early
February 27, 2014, 11:56 pm
14-The Times of Israel
A large demonstration called by
ultra-Orthodox leaders on Sunday in Jerusalem is expected to snarl
traffic, close roads and shut down public transportation around the
entrance to the city and the Knesset, police said on Thursday.The
protest against the draft law is expected to disrupt normal routine in
Jerusalem and authorities are to deploy a large security contingent in
an effort to keep the peace. In the past, ultra-Orthodox protesters have
clashed with police — earlier this month in Ashdod, a protest which
drew several hundred led to over a dozen arrests for rioting.The authorities said that Route 1, the main
road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, would be closed after 2 p.m. Sunday
from the Latrun area to the capital, and the Jerusalem Central Bus
Station would also be shut down in the afternoon.Police warned of heavy traffic and blocked
roads in the area around the entrance to Jerusalem and the
Knesset. Buses and light rail service near the entrance to the city will
cease Sunday afternoon, and public schools near the entrance to
Jerusalem will close at 1 p.m.Most public transportation and schools in the city are to function normally, police noted.
Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor Yisrael Kellerman,
one of the organizers of the event, said he hoped hundreds of thousands
of ultra-Orthodox would come. “We wanted to bring the Haredi community
from the entire country,” he told Haredi news site Kikar Shabbat. “There
were some difficulties because within a few short days we had to bring
everyone — we have to bring thousands of buses; we hope that hundreds of
thousands will arrive.”Kellerman also said that Mayor Nir Barkat was cooperating in coordinating the event, as were security and rescue services.Last week, ultra-Orthodox leaders debated the wisdom of holding large-scale public protests against the proposed draft law, which
would require yeshiva students to do military or national service and
punish individuals who do not report for service or institutions which
facilitate resisting the law.The latest version of the draft bill has faced
scathing criticism from ultra-Orthodox leaders over its inclusion of
individual criminal sanctions against draft-dodgers that would kick in
if the community as a whole failed to meet rising quotas for the draft. But it has also faced criticism from proponents of an equal draft for delaying such criminal sanctions until mid-2017, after the next election.Haviv Rettig Gur contributed to this report.
