A Ceasefire, For Now

assimilated into the theo-
logical or mystical ethos of
the religion.
The recent weeks have
witnessed unprecedented
acts of sacrilege by
Muslims against Judaism,
and by Jews against Islam:
• In Nablus, the Tomb
of Joseph, traditionally
considered the burial place
of Jacob's favorite son, was
sacked and set on fire by a
Palestinian mob after the
Israeli army pulled out, fol-
lowing a week of incessant
gun battles around the site.
Subsequently, the Hamas
militants attempted to turn
the site into a mosque,
though this has been
stopped for the moment.
Again, the fact that the
desecration was committed
live on camera may have
made it infinitely more
potent and destructive.
DAVID LANDAU
• In response, a Jewish mob twice tried to torch an
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
old, nonfunctioning mosque in the center of Tiberias.
• Last week, Palestinian youths set fire to the ancient
Jerusalem
Jewish
synagogue in Jericho. Here, there had been no
he desecration of holy sites, rather than
fighting,
no violence, no unrest at all. It was an act of
atrocities committed against people, may
pure
desecration
of the other side's religion.
turn out to be the most resounding disaster
Many
Israelis
were
reminded of the willful desecra-
of past weeks of violence in the Middle
tion that the Jordanians perpetrated in the
East.
Jewish synagogues and cemeteries of east-
Even if the international community suc-
Police and paramedics
ern Jerusalem and the Old City after the
ceeds in dragging the Israelis and Palestinians tend to a border
Israeli War of Independence in 1948.
back to the negotiating table following
police officer shot
For the Palestinians, of course, the fatal
Tuesday's cease-fire agreement in Egypt, the
and critically
shooting of between five and seven
acts of sacrilege may prove a huge new
wounded by
demonstrators on the Temple Mount by
obstacle to any final peace accord.
Palestinian
the Israeli police on Sept. 29 was itself an
What is being referred to as the "Al-Aksa
gunmen in the
act of desecration. Their blood flowed out
Intifada" will go down in history as the first
Jewish neigborhood
upon the sacred stones of what the
time Israel has witnessed a lynching live on
of Gilo, Jerusalem,
Muslims, for 1,300 years, have called the
television. The sight of two of its soldiers
Tuesday Oct. /7.
Haram Al Sharif, or Noble Precinct, the
beaten and bludgeoned to death in
third holiest site in their faith.
Ramallah on Oct. 12 has been seared onto
The demonstrators were violent. They threw stones
the consciousness of the Israeli people.
over the Western Wall, seeking to hit the Jews in the
Similarly, the televised image of the 12-year-old Arab
plaza below. They threw stones at the police.
boy dying in his father's arms in the Gaza Strip, under
It was in response to that carnage that the new upris-
a hail of Israeli army bullets, has become the collective
ing
broke out across the Palestinian territories and
nightmare of millions of Palestinians. It, too, will linger
inside
Israel, too.
long in their national consciousness and will doubtless
The
series of desecrations is doubly noteworthy
make efforts to resume a peaceful dialogue all the more
because these two faiths, Judaism and Islam, have never
difficult.
been theological enemies.
But humankind has proved itself almost infinitely
Unlike Christianity, which for centuries professed to
resilient in its ability to, if not forgive, then at least put
replace
Judaism as God's elected religion, Islam broadly
out of mind terrible atrocities and acts of cruelty perpe-
respected the older religion and was accorded respect in
trated in wartime.
return.
The aftermath of World War II is one obvious exam-
On the practical plane, the acts of sacrilege will be
ple. The currently flourishing U.S.-Vietnamese rela-
seen
as betrayals of religious trust that make it hard for
tionship is an even more recent illustration of the
the
two
sides to believe each would guard the others'
capacity of nations to start over and collectively repress
holy
places
in any future peace agreement.
scenes of carnage and devastation in the interests of
The
religious
resentment could make the Jewish and
striving for a brighter national and international future.
Muslim
protagonists
too bitter to restart the political
But the collective memories of religions are much
negotiations
on
peace.
longer, with acts of violence against the faith often

Enduring Sacrilege

T

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10/20
2000

10

Promises Unkept

Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tust hours after Israeli Prime Minister
Ehuct Barak and Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat agreed at Sharm el-
Sheikh to restore law and order, violence
shook the region, much as it has for the past
several weeks. Both Barak and Arafat seemed

to be waiting for the other to take the steps
called for in the agreement, including a pub-
lic call for the end to violence.
Among the incidents:
• On the outskirts of Jerusalem, Palestinian
militiamen shot at homes in the Jewish neigh-
borhood of Gilo. Israel responded with
machine - gun fire from tanks stationed in the
area. One Israeli border policeman was in

critical condition after being shot, and one
Israeli civilian was slightly injured as Israeli
security forces evacuated residents from their
homes.
• In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of
Palestinians threw rocks and firebombs at an
Israeli military checkpoint. During the ensu-
ing fighting Tuesday, a Palestinian policeman
was killed by a bullet to the chest and 10
Palestinians were injured, according to local
hospital officials.
• In Nablus, Jewish settlers shot dead a
Palestinian and wounded three others as they
picked olives near the West Bank city. The
settlers reportedly said they fired the shots
because the land belonged to them. The
Nablus incident took place before Middle
East leaders agreed at the summit to end the
violence that has killed at least 103 people, all
but seven of them Arabs, since Sept. 28.
Returning from the meeting in Egypt,
Barak repeated his oft-spoken warning that
Israel "will know what to do" if Palestinian
violence persists. Arafat said the "important
thing" of the summit is the implementa-
tion."
In announcing the agreement at the end of the
summit on Tuesday, U.S. President Bill Clinton
said the two sides would act immediately to
return the situation to what existed before the
crisis erupted. This included restoring law and
order; Israel's redeploying its forces from and
ending its closure of major Palestinian popula-
tion centers in the West Bank; enhancing securi-
ty cooperation between the two sides; and work-
ing to eliminate points of friction.
The agreement also calls for a U.S.-led
committee to investigate the causes of the vio-
lence. But it will not be an international
inquiry as the Palestinians had wanted.
The agreement does not establish a timetable
for a return to peace talks, but calls, as Clinton
said Tuesday, for a c`pathvy-ay back to negotia-
tions" to reach a permanent-status agreement.

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