East Jerusalem Palestinians protest Israeli ban on Temple Mount access

Schools, businesses strike over restriction imposed after terror attacks; streets in Old City and Arab neighborhoods deserted

By Tamar Pileggi
  • Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
 4 October 2015, 7:45 pm
The entrance to the Souk of the Old City in Jerusalem on Sunday, October 4, 2015. The streets, usually bustling with tourists, are almost deserted, after the government decided in an unprecedented step to ban entry to Palestinians who are not residents of the city. Other store owners closed down shop in protest at the move. (Benjamin Pileggi/The Times of Israel)

Palestinian businesses and schools in East Jerusalem went on strike Sunday to protest the temporary Israeli restrictions on West Bank Palestinians from entering the Old City, home to the Temple Mount.

Israel on Sunday took the unprecedented step of preventing Palestinians from entering the Old City, after two Palestinian stabbing attacks in the capital killed two Israelis and wounded three others, including a toddler.

Police announced on Sunday that Israeli citizens, tourists and Palestinians who live or work in the Old City would be permitted entry to the ancient walled city during the 48-hour ban.

Shops inside the Old City’s walls, including trinkets store popular with tourists, closed down in protest of the punitive measures. Few people could be seen at the usually bustling Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the Old City from East Jerusalem.

Outside of the Old City, businesses and schools in East Jerusalem also declared a strike in solidarity, leaving the city’s Arab neighborhoods largely empty.

The entrance to the Souk of the Old City in Jerusalem on Sunday, October 4, 2015. The street, usually bustling with tourists, are almost deserted, after the government decided in an unprecedented step to ban entry to Palestinians who are not residents of the city. Other store owners closed down shop in protest at the move. (Tamar Pileggi/The Times of Israel)

On the Temple Mount compound, “Muslim prayer will be limited to males aged 50 and above while there will be no age limitation on female Muslim worshipers,” police said in a statement.

The Muslim worshipers were only allowed in through the Old City’s Lions Gate.

Israeli police and troops have beefed up their presence in Jerusalem and the West Bank, amid fears of continued Palestinian violence, as low-level fighting and attacks roiled the capital and West Bank Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Israel has carried out a number of raids in the West Bank since a Palestinian terror attack Thursday night in the West Bank that killed an Israeli couple in front of their children. IDF operations in Nablus and Jenin, launched in a bid to catch the couple’s killers, have sparked clashes with local Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have condemned the PA for its silence in the wake of the attacks, which came following a period of steadily intensifying violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank surrounding tensions over the Temple Mount.

On Saturday night, Palestinian Muhannad Halabi went on a stabbing spree in Jerusalem’s Old City, killing Nehemia Lavi, 41, and Aharon Banita, 21, and wounding Banita’s wife and 2-year-old baby, police said.

Hours later, Palestinian Fadi Aloon stabbed an Israeli teen near the Old City’ Damascus gate.

Both Halabi and Aloon were shot and killed at the scene.

AP and Elhanan Miller contributed to this report.

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