Israel removes metal detectors from Jerusalem holy site

Israel removed metal detectors on Tuesday in the face of intensive international diplomacy seeking to stop the dispute over the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The government said it would introduce subtler measures instead to secure the compound, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, following a deadly attack on Israeli police nearby.

A work crew removed the metal detectors from one entrance to the compound in the early hours, and cameras installed on overhead bridges in recent days were also gone.

Dozens of Israeli security personnel stood quietly outside the entrance, where Muslims have prayed for days in protest at the metal detectors.

A small group of women prayed outside. One of them, Widad Ali Nasser, said they would "not enter the Al-Aqsa mosque until the situation returns to how it was before …  without surveillance cameras, without searches, without metal detectors."

The women later held a small demonstration, chanting they would "sacrify their soul and blood for Al-Aqsa."

Israel's security cabinet took the decision to remove the detectors early on Tuesday.

They decided "to change the inspection with metal detectors to a security inspection based on advanced technologies and other means," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.

Details of the advanced technologies the cabinet envisaged were not immediately clear.

A statement from the Waqf, the Islamic endowments organization which administers the compound, said there should be "no entry into Al-Aqsa mosque until after an assessment by a Waqf technical committee and the return of the situation to how it was before the 14th of this month."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged all Muslims to visit Jerusalem to protect the holy places.

"From here I make a call to all Muslims. Anyone who has the opportunity should visit Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa mosque," Erdogan said in Ankara. "Come, let's all protect Jerusalem."

Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the compound after an attack nearby that killed two policemen on July 14.

Palestinians viewed the new security measures as Israel asserting further control over the site. They refused to enter the compound in protest and prayed in the streets outside instead.

Israeli authorities said the metal detectors were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the compound and emerged from it to shoot the officers.

The decision to remove the metal detectors followed talks between Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II, who demanded they be taken away.

Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and is one of only two Arab governments to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.

It also came after one of US President Donald Trump's top aides, Jason Greenblatt, arrived in Israel for talks on the crisis and with UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov warning of the risks of escalation.

Rallying cry

A separate diplomatic standoff between Israel and Jordan may have helped push negotiations to remove the metal detectors along.

On Sunday night in Amman, an Israeli embassy security guard shot dead a Jordanian who attacked him with a screwdriver, according to Israeli officials.

A second Jordanian was also killed, apparently by accident.

Israel had insisted the security guard had diplomatic immunity and rejected Jordanian demands to question him.

But on Monday night, the guard and other diplomats flew home after a deal was struck also involving the mosque compound.

"Amman authorized the Israeli diplomat to leave the country after hearing his account of the incident … and after reaching an understanding with the (Israeli) government on Al-Aqsa," a Jordanian government source said.

Friday's main weekly Muslim prayers — which typically draw thousands to Al-Aqsa — had brought the dispute to a boil.

Clashes erupted between Israeli security forces and Palestinians around the Old City, elsewhere in annexed east Jerusalem and in the West Bank, leaving three Palestinians dead.

They continued on Saturday, leaving two more Palestinians dead.

Friday evening also saw a Palestinian break into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank during a Sabbath dinner and stab four Israelis, killing three of them.

The Israeli army said the 19-year-old Palestinian had spoken in a Facebook post of the holy site and of dying as a martyr.

The mosque compound has served as a rallying cry for Palestinians.

In 2000, a visit to it by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon helped ignite the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which lasted more than four years.

The compound lies in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.

Considered the third holiest site in Islam, it is the most sacred for Jews.

by Joe Dyke/AFP