Israel: Riots in Mosque Square shake Naftali Bennett’s coalition government

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s coalition government is shocked by a new wave of violence in Jerusalem Square.

Early in the morning, hundreds of Palestinian protesters began collecting stones in the square before the arrival of Jewish believers at the site, the holiest site of Judaism and the third shrine of Islam, according to Israeli police.

Israeli police again raided Mosque Square to provoke clashes and sharp criticism from the Muslim world.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 19 people had been injured, some of them by rubber bullets, two days after widespread clashes at the same site injured more than 150 people.

Late tonight, the Israeli Arab party Raam suspended its support for the ruling coalition of Naftali Bennett, who managed to unite the parties of the Israeli right, left, center and, for the first time in the history of Israel, in June. , an Arab party to oust Benjamin Netanyahu.

Political consultation

“If the government continues the arbitrary measures” in the Mosque Square, “we will submit our collective resignation,” threatened the Raam party, which has four members in the 60-member coalition, one less than the parliamentary majority.

The suspension of Raam’s participation has no short-term consequences for the government of Naftali Bennett, because the work of the Knesset has been suspended until May 5, but it further weakens the government that lost its parliamentary majority a month ago with the resignation of one of its members. right.

Political sources in Jerusalem said that until the reopening of the parliament, the prime minister will try to calm the spirits and stabilize the coalition.

For his part, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party again called on right-wing lawmakers today to leave the coalition government and form a “right-wing government” with the participation of the Orthodox Jewish parties and the far right.

“When the Jews can not walk safely to Jerusalem for Easter … there are right-wing MPs in the coalition who realize that the government has reached the end of its journey,” Likud said.

The issue of holy places

“Al-Aqsa is ours and the Jews have absolutely no right to this place,” said Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the political wing of Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip.

Since the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967 during the Six Day War and its subsequent annexation, Jews have been able to access the Mosque Square for some hours, but not to pray. Prayer is usually performed on the Tear Wall, although in recent years Orthodox Jews have been secretly going to pray in the Mosque Square, the Temple Mount in Jewish tradition.

Jordan, the site of the Mosque Square, today blamed Israel for the new escalation of violence, and King Abdullah II called on the Jewish state to “put an end to the illegal and provocative measures leading to further escalation.”

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had a telephone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to congratulate him on his “calmness and good judgment” in the case and to assure him that Turkey will always be on the side of Palestine and that he will contact the two sides to end the Israeli escalation, according to a statement from the Palestinian Authority.

In the Vatican, during the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing for Easter, Pope Francis called for “free” access to the holy sites of Jerusalem: let Israelis, Palestinians and all the inhabitants of the Holy City, together with the pilgrims, live the experience the beauty of peace “.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ