Extra police units were mobilized in Jerusalem and the Old City ahead of Friday prayers, an Israeli police spokesman said, as the city braced for further protests over US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Violent protests and international condemnation have already followed Trump’s move Wednesday, when he also committed to moving the US embassy to the holy city.
Both Palestinians and Israelis claim Jerusalem as their capital.
Some Palestinian factions called for three “days of rage” to protest the decision, which culminates Friday. At least 49 people were injured Thursday during protests over Trump’s decision, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
No age restrictions have been imposed on Muslims wanting to worship inside the al-Aqsa mosque compound, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld tweeted Friday. Younger worshippers have been barred from the holy site in the past when Israeli security forces anticipated demonstrations.
“Police (are) prepared to respond to protests if necessary,” Rosenfeld added.
Thirteen Palestinians were arrested overnight Thursday into Friday morning in Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, a non-governmental organization that provides legal aid to Palestinians arrested by Israeli authorities.
Protests in Indonesia, Malaysia
Trump’s move has roiled Muslims around the world and was expected to loom large as they headed to prayers on Friday, Islam’s holy day.
The governments of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia are among those to speak out against Trump’s decision. A number of Western allies have also been critical.
Police in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, said an estimated 5,000 protesters gathered outside the US embassy after Friday prayers. They dispersed peacefully by 3 p.m. local time.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak tweeted: “On this noble day, let us pray together for our brothers in Jerusalem. May Allah unite our hearts and destroy the plans of our enemies.”
It’s unclear what enemies he was referring to — Trump and Najib met at the White House in September and appeared to establish a good rapport.
The Indonesian capital of Jakarta also saw protesters gather near the US embassy. Demonstrators held a banner that said “Trump is enemy of humanity.”
A protest march was also due to set off from Istanbul’s Fatih Mosque after Friday prayers.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement the country’s citizens should take part in Friday protests, according to Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
“It is vital that that the Muslim world and all other freedom-seeking nations across the globe thwart this evil plot,” the statement said.
The UN Security Council will discuss Trump’s move on Friday.
New intifada?
Israeli security officers fired what appeared to be rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon at demonstrators across Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah, as well as other towns, as unrest broke out Thursday.
Protesters in Ramallah were seen setting tires alight and throwing rocks at armed Israeli officers.
Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas that controls Gaza, called for a new “intifada,” or uprising, on Thursday. He also described the US-Israeli alliance as “satanic.”
The first two intifadas were periods of Palestinian uprisings against Israeli rule. The second began in September 2000 and was particularly violent, with rocket attacks and suicide bombings targeting civilians and military operations by Israeli security forces that killed thousands of Palestinians.
Nearly 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis died between 2000 and 2005 during the second intifada.
Outside the US embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman, around 200 people gathered Thursday to protest the move. One woman held a poster of Trump with a snake for a tongue and a message reading: “America is the plague and the plague is America.”
‘Recognition of reality’
The Trump administration cast the step as a “recognition of reality” that Jerusalem has long been the seat of the Israeli government. For Trump, the embassy move also fulfilled an election campaign promise.
But the decision was met with skepticism by some of Trump’s international peers, who are concerned it could be the final nail in the coffin of the two-state solution and could provide recruiting fodder to radicals.
“These procedures do also help in the extremist organizations to wage a religious war that would harm the entire region, which is going through critical moments and would lead us into wars that will never end, which we have warned about and always urged to fight against,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a televised address following the US announcement.
Jibril Rajoub, who has been floated as a possible successor to Abbas, told CNN that US Vice President Mike Pence — who used the phrase an “eternal undivided Jerusalem” in a campaign advertisement last year — is not welcome in the Palestinian territories. Pence is scheduled to visit later this month.
The United Nations partition plan drawn up in 1947 envisioned Jerusalem as an “international city.”
During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel took control the eastern part of Jerusalem from Jordan and later annexed it. Israel still holds the land, which much of the world now considers occupied territory. Palestinians say that any eventual two-state solution should include the return of East Jerusalem, which would serve as the new country’s capital.