Editing Second Intifada (section)

====Ariel Sharon visits the Temple Mount====
On 28 September, Israeli opposition leader [[Ariel Sharon]] and a [[Likud]] party delegation guarded by hundreds of Israeli riot police visited the [[Temple Mount]], which is widely considered the [[Holiest sites in Islam (Sunni)|third holiest site in Islam]].<ref name="nytimes_outbreak">{{cite news |title=Palestinians And Israelis in a Clash at Holy Site|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E4DA1E3AF93BA1575AC0A9669C8B63 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=28 September 2000}}</ref> Israel has claimed sovereignty over the Mount and the rest of East Jerusalem [[Jerusalem Law|since 1980]], and the compound is the [[Jerusalem in Judaism|holiest site in Judaism]].

The Israeli Interior Minister [[Shlomo Ben-Ami]], who permitted Sharon's visit, later claimed that he had telephoned the Palestinian Authority's security chief [[Jibril Rajoub]] before the visit and gotten his reassurances that as long as Sharon didn't enter the mosques his visit wouldn't cause any problems. Rajoub vociferously denied having given any such reassurances.{{sfn|Bregman|2005|p=160}}

Shortly after Sharon left the site, angry demonstrations by Palestinian Jerusalemites outside erupted into rioting. The person in charge of the [[waqf]] at the time, Abu Qteish, was later indicted by Israel for using a loud-speaker to call on Palestinians to defend Al-Aqsa, which action Israeli authorities claimed was responsible for the subsequent stone-throwing in the direction of the Wailing Wall.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Hillel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KRKsAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA73 |title=The Rise and Fall of Arab Jerusalem: Palestinian Politics and the City Since 1967 |date= March 2013|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-85266-4 |language=en}}</ref> Israeli police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, while protesters [[Palestinian stone-throwing|hurled stones]] and other projectiles, injuring 25 policemen, of whom one was seriously injured and had to be taken to hospital. At least three Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets.<ref name=bbc2000sept28>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/28/newsid_3687000/3687762.stm |work=BBC News |title=On This Day: 'Provocative' mosque visit sparks riots |date=28 September 2000 |access-date=2014-09-01 |quote=Palestinians and Israeli police have clashed in the worst violence for several years at Jerusalem's holiest site, the compound around Al-Aqsa mosque. The violence began after a highly controversial tour of the mosque compound early this morning by hardline Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon. ... Soon after Mr Sharon left the site, the angry demonstrations outside erupted into violence. Israeli police fired tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets, while protesters hurled stones and other missiles. Police said 25 of their men were hurt by missiles thrown by Palestinians, but only one was taken to hospital. Israel Radio reported at least three Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets. ... Following Friday [September 29, 2000] prayers the next day, violence again broke out throughout Jerusalem and the West Bank. |archive-date=29 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129133239/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/28/newsid_3687000/3687762.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The stated purpose for Sharon's visit of the compound was to assert the right of all Israelis to visit the Temple Mount;<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803E4DB1F3DF936A35753C1A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title=Unapologetic, Sharon Rejects Blame for Igniting Violence |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=5 October 2000|first=Joel|last=Greenberg|access-date=23 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Israeli's Tour of Holy Site Ignites Riot; Palestinians Angered By Test of Sovereignty in Jerusalem's Old City |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |author=Lee Hockstader |date=29 September 2000 |page=A22 |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-534994.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904080029/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-534994.html |archive-date=4 September 2015 |access-date=28 September 2014}}</ref> however, according to Likud spokesman [[Ofir Akunis]], the actual purpose was to "show that under a Likud government [the Temple Mount] will remain under Israeli sovereignty."<ref>{{cite news |title=Palestinians say opposition tour of holy site could cause bloodshed |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/09/27/israel.palestinians.ap/index.html |publisher=CNN |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=27 September 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041210211004/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/meast/09/27/israel.palestinians.ap/index.html |archive-date=10 December 2004}}</ref> Ehud Barak in the Camp David negotiations had insisted that East Jerusalem, where the Haram was located, would remain under complete Israeli sovereignty.<ref name="Singh">Rashmi Singh, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AQ_TOiLtdtAC&pg=PA38 ''Hamas and Suicide Terrorism: Multi-causal and Multi-level Approaches''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818222348/https://books.google.com/books?id=AQ_TOiLtdtAC&pg=PA38 |date=18 August 2020 }} Routledge, 2013 p.38</ref> In response to accusations by Ariel Sharon of government readiness to concede the site to the Palestinians, the Israeli government gave Sharon permission to visit the area. When alerted of his intentions, senior Palestinian figures, such as [[Yasser Arafat]], [[Saeb Erekat]], and [[Faisal Husseini]], all asked Sharon to call off his visit.<ref name="klein_jerusalemproblem_p98">{{cite book |author=Menachem Klein |title=The Jerusalem Problem: The Struggle for Permanent Status |publisher=[[University Press of Florida]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8130-2673-2 |page=98}}</ref>

Ten days earlier the Palestinians had observed their annual memorial day for the [[Sabra and Shatila massacre]], where thousands of [[Islam in Lebanon|Lebanese]] and [[Islam in Palestine|Palestinian Muslims]] were massacred by [[Lebanese Forces (militia)|Lebanese Forces]] supported by the Israeli military.<ref name="klein_jerusalemproblem_p98" /> The Israeli [[Kahan Commission]] had concluded that [[Ariel Sharon]], who was the Israeli Defense Minister during the Sabra and Shatila massacre, was found to bear personal responsibility<ref>{{cite book|last=Schiff|first=Ze'ev|author-link=Ze'ev Schiff|author2=Ehud Ya'ari|title=Israel's Lebanon War|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|year=1984|page=[https://archive.org/details/israelslebanonwa0000schi/page/284 284]|isbn=978-0-671-47991-6|url=https://archive.org/details/israelslebanonwa0000schi/page/284}}</ref> "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" and "not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed." Sharon's negligence in protecting the civilian population of Beirut, which had come under Israeli control, amounted to a ''non-fulfillment of a duty with which the Defence Minister was charged'', and it was recommended that Sharon be dismissed as Defence Minister. Sharon initially refused to resign, but after the death of an Israeli after a peace march, Sharon did resign as Defense minister, but remained in the Israeli cabinet.

The Palestinians condemned Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount as a provocation and an incursion, as were his armed bodyguards that arrived on the scene with him. Critics claim that Sharon knew that the visit could trigger violence, and that the purpose of his visit was political. According to one observer, Sharon, in walking on the Temple Mount, was "skating on the thinnest ice in the Arab-Israeli conflict."{{sfn|Shindler|2013|p=283}}

According to ''The New York Times'', many in the Arab world, including Egyptians, Palestinians, Lebanese and Jordanians, point to Sharon's visit as the beginning of the Second Intifada and derailment of the peace process.<ref>{{cite news |last=MacFarquhar |first=Neil |author-link=Neil MacFarquhar |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-arab.html |title=Few Kind Words for Sharon in the Arab World |date=5 January 2006 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-date=16 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216143022/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-arab.html |url-status=live }}</ref> According to Juliana Ochs, Sharon's visit 'symbolically instigated' the second intifada.<ref>{{cite book |author=Juliana Ochs |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mBSe-JgwPqoC&pg=PA6 |title=Security and Suspicion: An Ethnography of Everyday Life in Israel |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |year=2011 |series=The Ethnography of Political Violence |isbn=978-0-8122-4291-1 |page=6 |access-date=12 December 2015 |archive-date=2 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102113652/https://books.google.com/books?id=mBSe-JgwPqoC&pg=PA6 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Marwan Barghouti]] said that although Sharon's provocative actions were a rallying point for Palestinians, the Second Intifada would have erupted even had he not visited the Temple Mount.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goldberg |first=Jeffrey |title=Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror |location=New York |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |date=2008 |page=258}}</ref>