On Tuesday, the United States and Israel signaled they were trying to move beyond the crisis that erupted when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 apartments in disputed East Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit last week. Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone Tuesday night, Israeli officials said.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not disclose the substance of the talk.
While there were no reports of new clashes in Jerusalem, sporadic violence broke out yesterday in the West Bank. The most serious occurred in the northern city of Nablus, where dozens of Palestinian youths hurled rocks at Israeli security forces, some using slingshots and even a shovel to increase their range.
Israeli troops responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Medics said two Palestinians were wounded.
The recent protests have been fueled by the plans for more Jewish housing in East Jerusalem and unsubstantiated rumors that Jewish extremists are planning to seize Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third-holiest shrine.
East Jerusalem, which saw the heaviest clashes in months after similar rumors surfaced earlier this week, was quiet yesterday.
The Israelis said the decision to end the lockdown was based on intelligence reports.
Israel also rescinded its closure of the West Bank that had prevented virtually all Palestinians there from crossing into Israel. Thousands of Palestinians enter Israel each day for work, medical care, or other services.
The hilltop where Al-Aqsa stands is also Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount, where the biblical Jewish temples stood. The conflicting claims make the future of the holy city the most charged issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and immediately annexed the area. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as their capital.
The United States, which has been working for more than a year to get both sides negotiating again, has harshly criticized the latest Israeli construction plan. Israel maintains that its annexation of East Jerusalem after capturing it in 1967 entitles it to build there, but the Palestinians do not recognize Israeli sovereignty there.
