ME anger at Israeli 'escalations'

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protestors over the issue of holy sites have provoked a wave of condemnation in the Arab press for Israel's behaviour. On Sunday several Palestinians were arrested after Israeli security forces entered the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem. The incident followed clashes in the West Bank town of Hebron on Friday over Israel's decision to list two disputed shrines as heritage sites. In Israel, one editorial acknowledged that the decision to list the disputed shrines may have been a "tactical mistake", while another commentator attacked the US response to the issue. The US silence shows that ongoing attempts to resume negotiations have stalled and that those might have to wait until after a new Palestinian intifadah or even war.

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Israel names two biblical tombs in West Bank heritage sites

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clipped from www.csmonitor.com Israel named the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel's tomb in the West Bank heritage sites on Monday. Both biblical tombs are in Palestinian cities, and the decision brought warnings of violence and protests on Tuesday. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a shrine holy to Jews and Muslims, in the West Bank city of Hebron, Tuesday. The site is one of two biblical tombs in Palestinian cities that have been added to a list of Israeli national heritage sites. The warnings came as dozens of Palestinian protesters threw rocks at Israeli soldiers and burned tires for a second day in the city of Hebron "Every intelligent person in the world will say that this is a Jewish site. It was a Jewish site thousands of years before Islam ever existed,'' The uproar over the government decision highlights the potential of even a symbolic declaration about contested holy sites to threaten months of relative calm in the West Bank.

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Israeli 'provocation' over holy sites risks holy war: Abbas

clipped from www.google.com BRUSSELS — Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday denounced Israeli "provocation" over two contested holy sites in the occupied West Bank that could unleash a "religious war". Netanyahu sparked outrage in the Arab world on Sunday when he said he hoped to include Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron in a national heritage plan. "Such provocation cannot contribute positively to the progress of the peace process," "This could provoke a religious war" Abbas warned earlier, in comments to the Belgian Senate. The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, where the biblical patriarch Abraham is believed buried, is sacred to both Muslims and Jews and has long been the scene of tensions. The Islamist Hamas movement has also denounced the Israeli plan which they also see as provocation against Muslims.

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