Palestinian officials yesterday reacted warily to what US Secretary of State John Kerry hailed as Jordan’s “excellent suggestion” to calm Israeli-Palestinian violence by putting a sensitive Jerusalem holy site under constant video monitoring.
“This is a new trap,” Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki said on Voice of Palestine radio, accusing Israel of planning to use such footage to arrest Muslim worshipers it believes are “inciting” against it.
Kerry, who met Jordan’s King Abdullah and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman on Saturday, said Israel gave assurances it has no intention of changing the “status quo” at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is holy to Muslims and Jews.
Muslim fears, amplified in social media, that Israel seeks to lift its long-standing ban on Jewish prayer at the site, have fueled a three-week-long wave of Palestinian stabbings in Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and Israeli cities. Israel has repeatedly denied the allegation.
At least 52 Palestinians, half of whom Israel says were assailants, have been killed in attacks and during anti-Israeli protests in the West Bank and Gaza since Oct. 1. Nine Israelis have been stabbed or shot dead by Palestinians.
Palestinians are also fuming over what they see as excessive use of force by Israeli police and soldiers. Israel says it is justified in using lethal force to meet deadly threats.
Kerry, stepping up diplomatic efforts to stem the worst Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed since last year’s Gaza war, said Israel had accepted a proposal by Jordan’s monarch, the custodian of the al-Aqsa compound, for around-the-clock monitoring by cameras.
Such surveillance, Kerry said, “could really be a game-changer in discouraging anybody from disturbing the sanctity” of the al-Aqsa site, which Israel captured along with the rest of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in a 1967 war.
There was no immediate comment from Abbas.
Palestine Liberation Organization secretary-general Saeb Erekat said Abbas had told Kerry “that he should look into the roots of the problem — and that is the continued occupation.”
In other developments yesterday, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, the military said. The wounded man fired at the assailant, who fled, and the Palestinian Ministry of Health later said a Palestinian was hospitalized after being shot by an Israeli.
Speaking to his Cabinet, Netanyahu said Israel “has an interest in cameras being deployed everywhere on the Temple Mount” to refute claims that it is changing the “status quo.”
Jews revere the site as the location of two destroyed biblical Jewish temples. For Muslims, it is the Noble Sanctuary and Islam’s third-holiest place.
Netanyahu said such surveillance on the plaza — where stone-throwing protests against Jewish visits often break out — would also “show where the provocations are really coming from” and to thwart them from the outset.
“He [Netanyahu] wants to install cameras in order to monitor and arrest our people; he is lying and lying,” Erekat said.
A US official said Israeli and Jordanian technical officials would discuss who would conduct the video monitoring, but no date for consultations was announced.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from