THE masked teenagers toting rocks and firebombs were surprised they had a chance to use them. They were converging on an Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of Ramallah used by Palestinian officials and visiting dignitaries. Palestinian police normally stop demonstrators from approaching: a few hundred metres down the road sits the entrance to Beit El, an Israeli settlement that contains the office of the military governor in the occupied West Bank. But last week the police melted away. “Abbas doesn’t even protect his own checkpoint anymore,” one protester marvelled.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, does indeed seem increasingly irrelevant as violence sweeps across Israel and the occupied territories. It started in September with tensions over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the venerated al-Aqsa mosque is built atop the site of the ruined Jewish temple of antiquity. Four Israelis have now been killed and more than 30 injured in a spate of attacks this month; there were two stabbings in Jerusalem on October 10th alone. In that time over two dozen Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and more than 1,300 Palestinians have been wounded in daily...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/1LFjoGQ
EmoticonEmoticon