July 26, 2004
By Jonathan Lis, Yuval Yoaz and Nadav Shragai
Haaretz
Photo: Israel's Security Minister warned on July 24, 2004 of a possible attack on a Jerusalem mosque that is Islam's third holiest shrine by Israeli right wing groups seeking to derail a plan to pull out of Gaza. The al-Aqsa mosque in Arab East Jerusalem is known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or Holy Sanctuary, and is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount. The extremists would take advantage of the fact that the shrine served as 'the most sensitive, most volatile, most sacred site for Muslims' in order to attack either the mosque itself or its worshippers, according to Israel's Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi. The site is seen in this August 20 file photo. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)
Israeli security officials have recently become increasingly concerned that right-wing extremists might be plotting an attack on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to derail Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The Shin Bet security service and the police are preparing for a number of possible terror attack scenarios at the sacred Old City site, Israeli security sources said on Saturday night.
Speaking on the Channel Two "Meet the Press" program yesterday, Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi confirmed that the security establishment had identified rising intent among right-wing extremists to carry out a Temple Mount attack.
"There is no information about specific individuals, because the Shin Bet and police would not let them continue [with their plot]," said Hanegbi. "But there are troubling indications of purposeful thinking, and not detached philosophy... There is a danger that [extremists] would make use of the most explosive site, in the hope that a chain reaction would bring about the destruction of the peace process."
Security sources on Saturday night said possible actions included an attempt to crash a drone packed with explosives on the Temple Mount, or a manned suicide attack with a light aircraft during mass Muslim worship on the Mount. Other possibilities include an attempt by right-wing extremists to assassinate a prominent Temple Mount Muslim leader, perhaps from the Waqf Islamic trust.
Yehuda Etzion, one of the leaders of a plot in the early 1980s to blow up the mosques on the Temple Mount, said Sunday that blowing up the Dome of the Rock, the gilded mosque at the center of the compound, was a "worthy" goal, but that it was not the proper way to fight the disengagement initiative.
"Losing one's patience after so many years of distortion is something understandable," Etzion told Army Radio. "Is this a worthy act? First of all, it is worthy. On the other hand, it is unworthy as an act to thwart the disengagement."
Israeli security sources speculate that the assassination scenario might be chosen, even though it would not cause mass injury or damage to the Al-Aqsa mosque or the Golden Dome shrine. The aim of the Temple Mount attack conspiracy, they said, would be to carry out a visible provocation that sparked violent confrontation in the territories.
Due to stringent security routines at the Temple Mount, Israeli security officials said Saturday, right-wing extremists would find it virtually impossible to use conventional routes to penetrate the site with explosives. Hence, the possibility of a large bomb being planted at one of the Muslim holy sites is "a lower-level possibility."
Photo: An aerial view of the golden Dome of the Rock Mosque, center, and the Al Aqsa Mosgue, bottom left, at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in east Jerusalem's Old City is seen in this Tuesday Feb. 17, 2004 file photo. The compound, known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, the third holiest shrine in Islam, and to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of their biblical temples and Judaism's most sacred shrine, is the most sensitive spot in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel's public security minister warned Saturday that Jewish extremists could attack the site, in a bid to provoke an Islamic backlash that would fan fresh violence and wreck the Israeli plan to shut down Jewish settlements in Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. Some fundamentalist Jews believe that destroying the mosques and rebuilding the ruined Temple will bring about the coming of the messiah. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Saturday's disclosures about possible Temple Mount terror plans were preceded in recent months by a number of troubling indications. Nine months ago a suspect in a Jewish underground terror group affair, Shahar Dvir-Zeliger, told authorities a prominent West Bank settler activist had planned a Temple Mount attack. Zeliger cited two other names of West Bank settlers, suggesting the two were involved in the Temple Mount attack conspiracy.
Last Thursday, the Temple Mount Faithful group petitioned the High Court, asking to be given clearance to go up to the Holy Site for prayers later this week for Tisha B'Av.
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