The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. (Mimmi Nietula, Maan Images)

1. What sparked the current unrest in Jerusalem?

2. Why is Jerusalem such a sensitive issue at the moment?

3. Has Jerusalem been a flashpoint in the past?

4. Why is East Jerusalem part of the Occupied Territories and what is its status under international law?

5. What is Jerusalem's importance to Palestinians?

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1. What sparked the current unrest in Jerusalem?

Accounts are disputed. Palestinians assert that on Sunday, September 27 a group of Jewish extremists was escorted by Israeli police into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in contravention of agreements putting the area under Muslim control. Israeli authorities initially confirmed this, but then later claimed the group to be tourists.

As word spread that extremists had entered the compound, clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli police in the Al-Aqsa compound and in East Jerusalem neighborhoods. Thus far dozens of Palestinians have been injured and a far smaller number of Israeli police officers. No one has been killed. More than 50 Palestinians have been detained. Some 2,000 Israeli police officers from other parts of the country have descended on Jerusalem, ostensibly to keep calm, though Palestinians see their presence as provocative.

Extremist Jewish groups - like the Temple Mount Faithful whose stated goal is the "liberation of the Temple Mount from Arab (Islamic)" control and building the Third Temple in place of the Islamic holy sites in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound - regularly try to gain access to the area and generally are a destabilizing force in the region. Muslim worshippers and authorities are deeply concerned that a lone individual or small group could desecrate, damage, or destroy Al-Aqsa or perpetrate violence against Muslim worshippers akin to the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinians as they prayed in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron by Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein.

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2. Why is Jerusalem such a sensitive issue at the moment?

The current tension comes in the context of illegal Israeli settlement expansion in occupied East Jerusalem and the recent expulsion of two Palestinian families from their long-time homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the city. Additionally, the failure of the Obama administration to oblige Israel to accept a meaningful settlement freeze and heavy Israeli and American pressure on the Palestinian Authority to delay further action on the Goldstone report on war crimes in Gaza has created a climate of ill will that makes such confrontations more likely.

Religious sensibilities are strong on both sides and minor provocations can quickly escalate. Conflict is particularly likely on Fridays when Israeli authorities deny most Palestinian Muslims the right to access their holy sites for worship. Only Palestinian Muslim men aged 50 and over and carrying Israeli ID cards and women are currently allowed to worship at Al-Aqsa. In the past Muslim women under 45 years of age have also been barred. Without a special permit, Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza Strip are not allowed to pray in Jerusalem. These permits are exceedingly difficult to secure. These restrictions on religious freedom are not applied to Jewish citizens of Israel.

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3. Has Jerusalem been a flashpoint in the past?

Absolutely. In early October 1990 22 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli Border Police. Following warnings from the nearby Palestinian village of Silwan that the Temple Mount Faithful had arrived to lay the cornerstone for the Third Temple, Palestinians began throwing stones. Rather than use crowd control techniques, Israeli police opened fire with live ammunition.

In 1996 during his first term as prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu approved the opening of a new exit from the Hasmonean tunnel (an underground tunnel exposing the full length of the Western Wall). Seen by Islamic authorities as a threat to the foundation of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the opening stoked violence and undermined negotiations. Israeli forces killed 58 Palestinians (including 15 children and 11 security officers). Sixteen Israeli soldiers died of wounds from live fire.
Netanyahu and Irving Moskowitz, a Florida-based bingo and gambling magnate who is an eager backer of the Israeli settlement enterprise, also cooperated during Netanyahu's first term in office to bring extremist settlers into the Ras Al-Amoud neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem - much as occurred earlier this year in Sheikh Jarrah.

And in September 2000, Ariel Sharon, then the leader of the Likud opposition, made a deliberate show of force when he visited the Mosque compound with 1,000 armed Israeli police. The next day Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians as they demonstrated in protest. Many believe Sharon's action precipitated the second intifada - and his own successful climb to the position of prime minister.

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4. Why is East Jerusalem part of the Occupied Territories and what is its status under international law?

Jerusalem, under the UN partition resolution of 1947 was to be a "Corpus Separatum" administered separately from the two envisioned states - Arab and Jewish. That has not been the case. From the end of the conflict between Israel and the Arab states in 1949 until 1967, the city of Jerusalem had been divided - the western half controlled by Israel, and the eastern half under Jordanian rule.

In the June, 1967 war, Israel seized the eastern part of Jerusalem, along with the rest of the West Bank. The Old City of Jerusalem, bounded by a wall, and holding the most important religious sites to Jews, Muslims and Christians, was in the eastern half of the city.

After the 1967 war, Israel extended its law to East Jerusalem - in effect, annexing it - and also progressively expanded the municipal boundaries of the city, incorporating the lands of 28 villages in the West Bank. Israel is widely recognized as the occupying power there. UN Security Council resolution 242, responding to the occupation, refers to "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." Israel's changes to the juridical status of Jerusalem have been deemed violations of international law by the United Nations Security Council (UN Security Council resolution 478 of 1980), as have its civilian settlements, both in Jerusalem and other parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War states, "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." Settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem is therefore illegal.

Israel has routinely dismissed the application of international law to the Palestinian territories and is particularly adamant regarding East Jerusalem, frequently insisting that Jerusalem is its eternal and united capital. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as their capital and the return of Palestinian refugees to West Jerusalem.

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5. What is Jerusalem's importance to Palestinians?

It is the historic center of Palestinian cultural and economic life, and is revered by Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike. It is the third holiest place in Islam, as well as the holiest place for Palestinian Christians. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Its combination of religious, political, and economic significance for both Palestinians and Israelis makes it a central issue to be resolved in negotiations.

Israel's de facto control over the city results in considerable strife. Palestinians have pushed back against Israel's effort, documented by former Deputy Mayor Meron Benvenisti, to keep the city's population 72 percent Jewish. Maintaining a presence in East Jerusalem, however, has not been easy due to Israel's discriminatory policies targeting Palestinian Jerusalemites, including home demolitions, evictions, denial of residency rights, and refusal to issue building permits. Palestinians also contend with religious affronts, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center's decision to build a "Museum of Tolerance" on top of the Ma'man Allah Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem.