Enraged Arabs call strike after mosque shooting

Press, 13 April 1982, Page 9

Enraged Arabs call strike after mosque shooting

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem

The Supreme Muslim Council* has called a sevenday general strike in the Israeli-occupied territories from today, after a.JewishAmerican gunman killed two Arabs near one of Islam’s holiest shrines at the weekend.

The gunman, described by the police as obviously disturbed, also wounded 30 people when he fired wildly into Easter Sunday crowd’s on Temple Mount, a site holy to Muslims and Jews. Israeli security forces overpowered him after half an hour.

Arabs responded by rampaging through East Jerusalem stoning tourist buses and Israeli vehicles, injuring 28 people.

In. East Jerusalem the Supreme Muslim Council called the seven-day strike after blaming the Israeli Government for the attack on Temple Mount. The gunman, wearing Israeli Army fatigues, opened fire as thousands of

people crowded the area for Easter and the Jewish Passover.

He broke into the Omar Mosque firing his Ml 6 semiautomatic rifle indiscriminately and continued to snipe at the crowd until captured by Israeli security forces. The police used tear-gas to disperse Arab youths who stormed into the area wielding knives and iron bars. The police refused to release the man’s identity, describing him simply as American-born. Radio stations said he was 30 and had migrated to Israel six years ago. Israel's Interior Minister (Mr Yosef Burg) referred to what he called the Government's feeling of outrage at the attack and ordered an immediate investigation.

In Beirut the Palestine Liberation Organisation described the . incident as a premeditated attack by Israeli soldiers on mosques in Jerusalem and called for Arabs to fight a holy war to liberate Israeli-occupied

Arab lands.

Temple Mount, a tiny hill-, top, is revered by Muslims as the third holiest place on earth after Mecca and Medina, and thousands of Palestinian Arab worshippers regularly go there to pray at the a’l-Aqsa mosque, a low silver-domed structure, and at the golden-dome Mosque of Omar, also known as the Dome of the Rock. The holiest site for Jews, the Western Wall or more familiarly the Wailing Wall, is part of the huge retaining wall for the Temple Mount, and thousands of Jewish Pilgrims have prayed there for Passover during the last week. The wall is the last remnant of the second Jewish temple built in 538-515 BC and extensively rebuilt by King Herod around the time of Christ.

The Romans detroyed that Jewish temple in 70 AD, and it is a dream of some ultrareligious Israelis — and the nightmare of Muslims — to rebuild the temple on its original site.