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August 20, 1999/8 Elul 5759, Vol. 51, No.46
Battle for Jerusalem heats up before final-status talks
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Tensions ran high here last Friday, Aug. 13. According to Israeli intelligence reports, radical Muslims intended to stir up trouble during their noon prayers following an Israeli decision to seal off a window the Palestinians had carved out in the southern wall of the Old City.
A large number of officers were deployed around the Temple Mount to prevent a possible outburst. Potential troublemakers got the message and the majority of worshipers went home quietly.
Although Israel and the Palestinians agreed to leave the sensitive issue of the city to the end of the negotiations, both sides are engaged in a race for control on the ground. Jerusalem is not only the most sensitive issue standing between Israel and the Palestinians. It is also the destination of some 4 million pilgrims expected to visit the Holy Land at the turn of the millennium, which raises the possibility of new violence in the "City of Peace."
Less than five months before "M-Day," all sorts of people with personal, religious and political agendas are converging on Jerusalem: Jewish extremists seeking to replace the mosques on the Temple Mount with the Third Temple; Christians dreaming of an Armageddon to speed up the second coming of Jesus; and Palestinians who insist that all of eastern Jerusalem should become the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
From Israel's point of view, the nation should preserve the status quo in Jerusalem if it wants to overcome the challenges of this millennium year. The Israeli government realizes that it will be very difficult to make peace - and political concessions - if there is unrest in Jerusalem.
On the other hand, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat needs to prove to his supporters that regardless of the ups and downs in negotiations, his goal is the establishment of eastern Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Recently, Arafat has said he will not rest until the Palestinians take over "the walls, the mosques and the churches" in eastern Jerusalem. As he bargains with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak over a timetable for future Israeli withdrawals from portions of the West Bank, he also prepares himself for final-status negotiations - in which Jerusalem will be the key issue.
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