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Lieberman: Arab MKs envoys of enemy
Photo: Yaron Brenner
Lieberman: World accustomed to Muslim violence
Right-wing minister slams Muslim riots on Temple Mount, demands more severe Israeli response. On other side, Arab MKs condemn ‘premeditated Israeli aggression’ in carrying out renovations at holy site
The government’s Right-wing contingent, Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, said the Muslim riots on the Temple Mount were a provocation aimed at distracting attention from the intra-Palestinian conflict in Gaza.
“Taleb el-Sana called to support Hizbullah. Another MK encouraged the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers. Arab MKs visited Damascus, and it is clear they are collaborating with the enemy. Israel must punish anyone who aligns himself with terrorism,” he noted.
“The world has already grown accustomed to the fact that Muslims react violently,” Lieberman said, “same as after the Pope’s speech and after caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were printed.”
It is perfectly clear to any rational onlooker that Israel is not harming any Islamic holy sites, Minister Lieberman asserted. He accused the Israeli government rather of discriminating against its Jewish citizens.
“The State of Israel promises freedom of worship to Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem,” he said. But for Jews, it’s a different story, he said. “Since the second Intifada, Jews cannot enter the Temple Mount, and Israel is showing that it is prepared to make compromises and concessions. But there needs to be some rational limit. We cannot agree to an attack on Israel’s sovereignty at the Temple Mount.”
The minister censured the conduct of Israeli Arab Knesset members since the start of the construction work at the Mugrabi Gate. “They are envoys of our enemies,” Lieberman charged.
Riots in Jerusalem
Police chief Franco says decision to break into Mount to quell Muslim riots was difficult but necessary. Police respond with stun grenades after rioters hurl stones, Molotov cocktails in protest of excavations near al-Aqsa Mosque
Lieberman criticized Jerusalem police forces, who failed to arrest Islamic Movement leader Shiekh Raad Salah Friday despite his aggressive behavior. “The man attacked policemen, spit in their faces – and he wasn’t arrested. What needs to happen for him to be arrested?” Lieberman demanded.
Arab MKs slam ‘premeditated aggression’
Meanwhile, Israeli Arab parliament members continued to protest the controversial construction, rejecting Israeli explanations that it was structural work on an unstable bridge.
Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “to pull the occupation forces out of the mosque at once.”
Barakeh slammed the construction work as “premeditated Israeli aggression.”
“This government insists on playing with fire and causing bloodshed, especially after the Palestinians attained a unity government agreement. It is the Palestinians’ right to protest the provocative construction next to the al-Aqsa Mosque,” he said.
MK Taleb el-Sana, who attended prayers at the mosque Friday, said, “I was shocked when even before the prayers ended, Border Guard and police forces stormed the Mount with stun guns and caused unjustified damage.”
“Maybe a few stones were thrown, but this response was exaggerated,” he said.
National Democratic Assembly MK Jamal Zahalka, an East Jerusalem resident, claimed the bridge was being built to enable 300 policemen to storm the Temple Mount at once.
"Wakf, the Jordanian government and UNESCO expressed their fierce opposition to the bridge’s construction, which brutally damages the Mugrabi Gate,” he said.
Roee Nahmais and Efrat Weiss contributed to the report
