Anatomy of A Tragedy

By JON D. HULL JERUSALEM

Arabs and Israelis have been battling each other for so many years that it no longer seems to matter much who throws the first punch on any given day. To the aggressor, violence is always a form of retaliation or self-defense. Consider what happened last week on the Temple Mount.

The Israeli police version. At 10:30 a.m., as more than 15,000 Jews gathered at the Western Wall for prayers celebrating the Sukkoth festival, they were ambushed by a mob of 3,000 Palestinians positioned on the Temple Mount above, hurling rocks at the rate of nearly 300 a minute. Simultaneously, Palestinians attacked and burned a police post on the Temple grounds and stoned a nearby yeshiva. When police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, the Palestinians locked the doors to the Temple Mount.

Fearing for the lives of those police trapped inside, the security forces, who initially numbered only 45, smashed through the gates and charged the rioters. Vastly outnumbered and exposed to a deadly hail of stones, the police resorted to live ammunition. Said police commissioner Yaacov Terner: "Their lives were in real danger. They had no other way but to respond the way they did." As further proof that the riot was premeditated, Israelis note that Palestinian leader Faisal Husseini -- later jailed for incitement -- was in the crowd.

The Palestinian version. That morning, Faisal Husseini and a few thousand other Palestinians had gathered on the Temple Mount to defend the Islamic shrine from a group of ultra-nationalist Jews, called the Temple Mount Faithful, that planned to lay a cornerstone on the site to prepare for a third Jewish temple. Despite an Israeli court order banning the group from the site, Muslims were unnerved. As rumors spread that the Jewish radicals were approaching, Palestinians began shouting slogans. When police replied with tear gas, Palestinians retaliated with stones. The police then charged onto the Temple Mount, went berserk and gunned down Palestinians at close range. (Arab doctors later announced that one victim was shot 14 times). "They were shooting people from ten meters away," said Ala Abu Bakr, 17, who was shot in the arm and the back. Abu Bakr crawled into al-Aqsa mosque, where he and other Palestinians lay for nearly two hours before being rescued.

When the police finally gained control of the Temple Mount at 1 p.m., 19 / Palestinians lay dead or dying from bullet wounds, and another 140 were wounded. Said Abu Darwish, who witnessed the clashes, "I saw the soldiers deliberately aiming at the chests and heads of the Palestinians." At least six Israeli policemen and more than two dozen Jewish worshipers were also hurt.

"It was terrifying," said David Metzger, a tourist from New York who was praying at the Wall. "Stones were coming out of the sky and everybody panicked. I could have easily been killed."

Religion offers one obvious explanation for the bloody clash. Muslims call the Temple Mount al-Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary. It is home to both the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque and is Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. To Jews, it is the sacred spot where Solomon's Temple and later the Second Temple once stood. The adjacent Western Wall, a retaining wall from the Second Temple, is the holiest site in Judaism.

That accounts for the explosive emotions, but not the tragic consequences. Here's why it happened:

Palestinian activists have been eager to help Saddam Hussein link his annexation of Kuwait with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by escalating the uprising in the occupied territories. Although Palestinians could not have anticipated how deadly the Israeli reaction would be, and it remains unclear just who attacked first, evidence strongly suggests that they were looking for a fight. The Temple Mount Faithful, which never entered the site, offered the perfect pretext to mobilize the masses, while the Jewish holiday provided a headline-grabbing backdrop for a demonstration.

They could not have done it without the Israeli police. Despite warnings by the Shin Bet, the nation's domestic security service, and the unusual presence of thousands of Palestinians on the Temple Mount on a Jewish holiday, the police inexplicably failed to deploy adequate reinforcements. (Police Minister Ronni Milo lamely explained that his forces mistakenly believed the riot would start at 3 a.m. that morning.) Said Yossi Sarid, a left-wing Knesset member: "There is no doubt that had the police prepared for this, this riot would have been prevented."

The claim that deadly force was used as a last resort -- and used 19 times -- is also unconvincing. While rocks can kill, Israel has had nearly three years of experience handling stone throwers. Certainly, there is no excuse for being caught off guard at a place so rich in religious symbolism for both sides. Nor can Israel claim that the police had no other options. When massive rioting spread throughout the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and among Israeli-Arab towns later in the week, better-prepared soldiers exercised far more restraint despite the salvos of stones.

With reporting by Jamil Hamad/Jerusalem