By Steve Weizman
The Palestinians have been infuriated by a far-right Jewish campaign for prayer rights at Al-Aqsa that threatens an ultra-sensitive, decades-old status quo.
The violence prompted Kerry to hold a flurry of meetings with the two sides in neighboring Jordan on Thursday, after which he announced unspecified confidence-building measures.
Men of all ages were allowed entry for the main weekly Muslim prayers at Al-Aqsa for the first time in “months”, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.
“It’s been four months that I haven’t been able to pray at Al-Aqsa on Friday, even during the holy month of Ramadan,” Amir, 18, from east Jerusalem’s volatile Silwan neighborhood told AFP.
Police said 40,000 worshipers attended the prayers, which passed off without incident.
Rosenfeld linked the decision to lift age restrictions to Kerry’s talks in Jordan with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah II.
“Firm commitments” were made to maintain the status quo, Kerry said at a news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
‘Quiet and effective’
Israel and Jordan, which has custodial rights at the compound, also agreed to take steps to “de-escalate the situation” in Jerusalem and to “restore confidence”.
“It is clear to me that they are serious about working on the effort to create de-escalation and to take steps to instil confidence that the status quo will be upheld.”
Kerry met separately in Amman with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who he said also committed to help calm emotions.
“President Abbas and I… discussed constructive steps, real steps — not rhetoric but real steps that people can take — in order to de-escalate the situation and create a climate where we can move forward in a positive and constructive way,” Kerry said.
“President Abbas strongly restated his firm commitment to nonviolence, and he made it clear that he will do everything possible to restore calm and to prevent the incitement of violence and to try to change the climate.”
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is also due in the Palestinian territories and Israel from Saturday for talks with leaders on both sides, a spokesman in Berlin said Friday.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said his government has no plans to change the status quo at the compound which allows Jews to visit but not pray.
Expansion of settlements
But his reassurances have failed to calm Palestinian anger that has also been fueled by his government’s vigorous expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
A preacher at Al-Aqsa on Friday denounced “Israeli aggression” in his sermon piped over loudspeakers.
Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said on Wednesday he would order the installation of metal detectors at the entrances to the compound along with facial-recognition technology.
Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Islamic Waqf which runs the compound, rejected the idea.
An Israeli human rights group on Friday accused the police and paramilitary border police of “serious irregularities” in dispersing Palestinian protests in east Jerusalem.
An 11-year-old Palestinian boy was wounded in the Issawiya neighborhood on Thursday when a so-called sponge round hit him between the eyes during clashes, medics said.
“Regulations stipulate that foam-tipped bullets must only be aimed at the lower body,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said.
“Yet the testimonies we have received… indicate that police forces operating in east Jerusalem have fired at, and hit the faces of, residents and journalists,” it added.
