Police closed the Temple Mount to non-Muslims in response to Arab riots at the holy site Sunday. Young people threw rocks and lit firecrackers at police.

Ten Arab youths were detained for questioning. Two police officers were wounded.

Police closed the Temple Mount for a short time Sunday morning after dozens of Arabs hurled stones at Israeli police, injuring two of them, but the rest of the city is relatively calm.

Media reported that Arabs hurled firebombs and rocks at police in predominantly Arba neighborhoods Saturday night, but there has been no repeat of the larger scale chaos that followed the kidnap-murder of a Jerusalem Arab by six Israeli hoodlums two weeks ago.

The violence and vandalism closed down the Jerusalem Light Rail system used by Jews and Arabs in northern Jerusalem, but service now has been restored, much earlier than previous estimates. Damages amounted to several million dollars.

However, the rioting Arabs managed to inflict “collective punishment” on Arab neighborhoods, where the light rail does not stop. That mean that the large majority of Jerusalem Arabs, like most in Judea and Samaria, who simply want to work and raise a family in peace, without the shenanigans of a corrupt Palestinian Authority regime, have another reason to blame fellow Arabs and not Israel for their woes.

There are approximately 250,000 Arabs in Jerusalem and about 249,000 don’t riot. This a big problem for the media establishment, which wants to promote the myth that Israel is “occupying” Jerusalem and that the Arab citizens of Israel really would prefer to give up all of their benefits from the Israeli government and medical service for the right to be subjected to the corrupt regime ruin by Mahmoud Abbas.

Twenty years of Palestinian Authority incitement against Israel and American and European Union promotion of the idea of “occupation” have educated a large part of the younger generation to hate Israel, but not enough are buying the lie to support a rebellion.

There is not much Arab love for Israel, but when they see that the propaganda has made lives even more miserable for their friends in Judea, Gaza and Samaria, there is even less fondness for the alternative.

Hundreds of Arabs gathering on the Temple Mount cheering that a rocket launched by Hamas in the Gaza Strip has hit Jerusalem.

Odd that there would be such celebration when Jerusalem is claimed to be such a holy site for Muslims.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas took the first opportunity possible Wednesday to call on Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to “condemn the kidnapping and murder [of an Arab youth]… as we condemned those of the three Israelis.”

Except that Mahmoud Abbas took several days to get around to his condemnation, whereas Prime Minister Netanyahu had already condemned the murder of young Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, 17, by the time Abbas was demanding that he do so.

The entire Israeli leadership, in fact, rushed to unequivocally condemn the murder, from one end of the political spectrum to the other. That, despite the fact there were quiet indications by sources that requested anonymity the killing might be connected to a blood feud, a clan war or an “honor killing.”

Nor is Abbas doing anything on his own to discourage the violence of Jerusalem Arabs, who are rioting in every neighborhood in which they live.

The young Arab teen is believed to have been kidnapped from the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina overnight Tuesday. His parents called police to report him missing at about 4:00 a.m. and his body was allegedly found in the Jerusalem forest about an hour later, at 5:00 a.m., burnt and showing other signs of violence.

The efforts by Abbas to compare the murder to the kidnapping and subsequent murder by Hamas terrorists of three Israeli teens from Gush Etzion on June 12 was obvious, as was his attempt to place the blame for the killing at the doorstep of Israeli Jews, as a “revenge attack.”

Equally clear was his determination to seek a way to halt the IDF’s continued Operation Brother’s Keeper as soldiers proceed with the intensified search for the murderers of the boys, whose bodies were laid to rest Tuesday in the Modi’in cemetery.

Abbas blamed Israel for the death of the young Arab teen, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported. He said in his statement to the WAFA news service that Israel should “take real measures” to “stop all revenge attacks.”

But Netanyahu had already referred to the killing as a “despicable murder” in public statements at the start of the day. The prime minister also spoke with Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovich, urging him to get police moving to track down Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir’s killers.

The family of Naftali Frenkel, one of the murdered Israeli teens, meanwhile, told reporters Wednesday morning there was no difference between Arab and Jewish blood.

“If the Arab youth was murdered for nationalistic reasons then this is a horrible and horrendous thing. There is no difference between [Arab] blood and [Jewish] blood,” said Yishai Frenkel, uncle of the young terrror victim. “Murder is murder. There is no forgiveness and no justification for any form of murder,” he said.

However, there are many issues that are not yet clear.

It is still not known, for instance, whether in fact the two incidents are related, according to police officials. The prime minister called on security agencies to work swiftly to track down the perpetrators and identify their motives — but Abbas has obviously ignored his words.

Netanyahu also called on all sides not to take the law into their own hands, warning that Israel is “a nation of laws and everyone must act according to the law.”

Moreover, reports have surfaced of an Arab teen who was allegedly forced into a car in Shuafat late Tuesday night. It is not yet clear who was behind the kidnapping, nor whether the teen mentioned in the report is Muhammad, or someone else.

Nor has the body that was found in the Jerusalem forest definitely been identified as that of Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir. It may belong to someone else. All these issues have yet to be clarified.

An undercover police officer narrowly escaped death Wednesday as an Arab mob tried to lynch him in the Shuafat refugee camp in northern Jerusalem.

The officer was discovered in the heat of Arab riots following the murder of an Arab teenager, Muhammad Abu Khdeir,  overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday. Abu Khdeir’s charred body was found in the Jerusalem forest at about 5:00 a.m., about an hour after police received a call from his parents reporting him missing. The boy, a 17 year old resident of Shuafat, was allegedly kidnapped from nearby Beit Hanina.

The discovery sparked riots by Arabs in northern Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods such as Shuafat and Beit Hanina, who claimed the murderers were Jews avenging the murders of Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Sha’ar and Naftali Fraenkel.

Israeli leaders, including Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) and Yesha Council spokesman Dani Dayan, condemned the murder immediately.  “I vigorously condemn barbaric murder of boy in #Jerusalem. I am confident security forces will bring perpetrators to justice,” Tweeted Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

Large Scale Riots

Throughout Wednesday morning, residents clashed with police and security forces in Arab-majority neighborhoods around the city.  Light Rail service in the area was suspended as rioters hurled rocks and rolled burning tires at police. At least one person injured in the melee and taken to the hospital.

In the Old City Arab worshipers stoned security forces on the Temple Mount and threw rocks over the wall at the Western Wall plaza below. In response to the violence police closed the Mount to Jewish visitors, while leaving it open to the Muslims responsible for the violence.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed that no arrests have been made as a result of the clashes, but added that police would likely detain participants in the riots “soon. “It is likely there will be (arrests), following review of CCTV footage of the incident,” Rosenfeld told The Jewish Press. 

Rosenfeld added that the Temple Mount area has since quieted down, although riots are continuing in the Beit Hanina neighborhood.

Police are continuing their investigation of the circumstances that led to the murder of the young Arab teen, who sources requesting anonymity said may have been killed in a blood feud between two rival clans.

Arab youths clashes with Israel Police officers Tuesday morning on the Temple Mount, hurling rocks at the security forces in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Police used routine riot control methods to disperse the mob, according to police officials and did not close the complex to visitors, in a departure from past practices.

No one was injured in the incident, and officials said the Temple Mount remained open to visitors for the time being.

In the past, radical Islamists have used rock throwing and other rioting methods as a means of preventing Jews and other tourists from gaining entry to the area, thus retaining exclusive access to the site.

Today’s class will be a quick one.

In the top half of the photo, we observe hundreds of religious Muslim women on the Temple Mount, cursing at Jews, and praising the kidnapping of 3 Jewish boys.

In the bottom half of the photo, we observe hundreds of Jewish women at the Kotel, crying and praying to God for the safe return of the 3 kidnapped boys.

If you understand the difference, give yourself an ‘A’.

Class dismissed.