For about the past two weeks in Jerusalem, dozens of Israeli police officers have been clashing with hundreds of young Palestinians in the plaza in front of the Damascus Gate of the Old City. They’re the worst confrontations that Jerusalem has seen since May, when Israel and Hamas fought the war that followed Hamas’ firing of rockets at Jerusalem.
Unlike previous rounds of violence in East Jerusalem, this time, it’s difficult to point to a broader grievance as the catalyst. Granted that tensions have increased over Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, and the threat of eviction still hovers over Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood – one of the sources of tension in the run-up to May’s hostilities with Hamas.
But Palestinians cite a completely different explanation now – a birthday celebration for Yedidia Epstein, a 16-year-old ultra-Orthodox teenager.
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Epstein is a right-wing activist and a very familiar figure in East Jerusalem. He can be seen around all of the sites of friction. He takes pictures of clashes and makes them public and voices indignation over what he views as Israeli weakness against the Palestinians.
Two weeks ago, he celebrated his birthday with several friends at the Damascus Gate plaza with Israeli flags. It wasn’t long before the Jewish teens and young Palestinians were cursing and shoving each other.
Police ordered Epstein to steer clear of the area for 15 days. But almost every evening after that, Jewish young people have come to the scene to taunt Palestinians there. Palestinians issued repeated calls on social media for people to come to defend the plaza against the Jews, and every evening, dozens and even hundreds of Palestinians have shown up.
As usual, the police have resorted to force to disperse them, even when they haven’t been throwing stones or engaging in any other violent acts. And several Jewish young people have been caught on video throwing stones at Palestinians.
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The Palestinians, for their part, have stoned Israeli Egged busses en route to the Western Wall. The problem has become so serious that Egged was forced recently to cancel a number of bus runs due to the danger that the stones have posed to passengers.
On Tuesday, when Muslims marked the birthday of the prophet Mohammed, the situation reached a climax. Dozens of Palestinians were lightly injured in the clashes and 22 were arrested. In one incident, an undercover policeman drew his gun and fired into the air after stones were thrown in the course of a suspect’s arrest.
That such riots could be sparked by an ultra-Orthodox teen’s birthday reflects the enormous sensitivity of Palestinians in Jerusalem to threats by Israelis – whether real or imagined. The lives of the 40 percent of the residents of Israel’s capital who are Palestinian and who hold citizenship of no country are so filled with a sense of humiliation and fear that anything can be perceived as a threat to be defended against. In the view of most of them, their main reason for going to the Damascus Gate has been to mount a defense.
Celebrations of the prophet Mohammed’s birthday Tuesday on the Temple Mount.Mahmoud Illean/AP
The violence usually only erupts after a police officer decides to forcibly disperse the crowds that are congregating. But other threats have surfaced as well. Work carried out by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Jerusalem Development Authority has exposed the skeletons of Muslims buried near the walls of the Old City, prompting a new wave of engagement by the Palestinian public.
As Muslims celebrated Mohammed’s birthday this week, hundreds gathered in the plaza. Due to the holiday and the crowds, tit-for-tat violence burgeoned – between the police and young Palestinian men.
Photos and video clips of police officers using batons, shoving without provocation and violently carrying out arrests have only poured fuel on the fire. One feature of the latest wave of violence is the return of the batons. Until May, sponge-tipped bullets – thick and padded projectiles that can sometimes cause serious injuries – were the main weapon used by the police and Border Police in East Jerusalem.
In the clashes at the time, thousands of the sponge-tipped bullets were fired, but towards the end, it was decided to replace the bullets with a simpler and cheaper weapon – the batons. The police officers use the batons on the legs of the Palestinians.
Last week, one police officer, Fadi Ghanem, was filmed hitting a young Palestinian man who came up to him to complain about violence on the part another police officer.
Like in this year’s observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in May, celebrations of Mohammed’s birthday were totally ruined by police stun grenades and their use of a truck that sprays foul-smelling “skunk water.” Time after time, families have fled the presence of the weapons.
The foul smell appears to have has become part and parcel of the scene in the splendid Damascus Gate plaza. The site is second only to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as the most important public space in the Palestinian ethos in Jerusalem.
It’s not only the most important entrance to the Old City and the Temple Mount. It’s also the social and economic heart of East Jerusalem and a site of incredibly important symbolism.
In 2014 and 2015, lone-wolf terrorists preferred to be killed time after time by the large contingent of Israeli forces at the Damascus Gate rather than trying their chances elsewhere -in the name of the symbolism of the site. The decision of the police to close off the steps off at the plaza on the first evening of Ramadan was the first domino that led in the end to the firing of rockets at Jerusalem from the Gaza Strip and all-out war between Hamas and Israel. The war also saw riots in Israel’s mixed Arab-Jewish cities.
One is left to hope that this time around, the events will end in the confines of the plaza.
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