Reuters, Jerusalem :
For months, the streets of mainly Arab East Jerusalem, in the shadow of the Old City but where tourists seldom venture, have been ablaze, with daily clashes between armed Israeli police and Palestinians throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.
The roots of the unrest are many: from the killing in July of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish extremists-apparently in revenge for the killing of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinians-to increased settlement building in East Jerusalem, the war in Gaza and a push by ultra-nationalist Jews to be allowed to pray at one of Islam’s holiest sites.
The seething anger was brought to the fore again on Wednesday, when a Palestinian man rammed his vehicle into pedestrians and Israeli border police on a road straddling East and West Jerusalem, killing one person and wounding a dozen. The attacker was shot dead by police.
The result is the greatest period of unrest the city has experienced since the second Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, began in 2000, a five-year period of conflict that left around 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis dead.
While the upheaval has largely been confined to half a dozen neighborhoods in the hills and valleys to the south and east of the Old City, Palestinians say anger in their community now probably exceeds that of 14 years ago. And there are clear signs of the unrest spreading.
For months, the streets of mainly Arab East Jerusalem, in the shadow of the Old City but where tourists seldom venture, have been ablaze, with daily clashes between armed Israeli police and Palestinians throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.
The roots of the unrest are many: from the killing in July of a Palestinian teenager by Jewish extremists-apparently in revenge for the killing of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinians-to increased settlement building in East Jerusalem, the war in Gaza and a push by ultra-nationalist Jews to be allowed to pray at one of Islam’s holiest sites.
The seething anger was brought to the fore again on Wednesday, when a Palestinian man rammed his vehicle into pedestrians and Israeli border police on a road straddling East and West Jerusalem, killing one person and wounding a dozen. The attacker was shot dead by police.
The result is the greatest period of unrest the city has experienced since the second Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, began in 2000, a five-year period of conflict that left around 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis dead.
While the upheaval has largely been confined to half a dozen neighborhoods in the hills and valleys to the south and east of the Old City, Palestinians say anger in their community now probably exceeds that of 14 years ago. And there are clear signs of the unrest spreading.
