Israel sealed off the West Bank on Friday as tensions mounted in Jerusalem over controversial plans to build new homes for Jewish settlers.(visit the link for the full news article)
Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the army to cut off the area until midnight on Saturday, citing a heightened risk of attacks.
Israel has sealed off the West Bank ahead of major holidays in the past, but only rarely on other occasions.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of trying "to ignite a religious war in the region."
More trouble is expected next week with a planned march by right-wing Israelis through the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.
Hopes of negotiations collapsed when Israel announced 1,600 new settler homes would be built in predominantly-Arab east Jerusalem.
At least 12 arrested and 15 injured as leftists and Palestinians clash with security forces.
An uneasy calm returned to Jerusalem on Friday evening after a day of turmoil that saw Palestinians and leftwing protestors clash with security forces across the city.
In East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrakh neighborhood police arrested eight leftwing activists demonstrating against Jewish construction there.
The detentions sparked fury among protesters, some of whom told Haaretz that the arrests were unlawful. Police has discriminated against the 100-odd leftists who took part in the march, at the same time allowing a rightwing counter-demonstration to continue unimpeded, they claimed.
Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi has lashed out over the treatment of American lawmakers brought to Israel by the J Street organization, warning that unconditional U.S. support for Israel is on the wane.
The apology offered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai recalls the joke about the servant who pinched the king's bottom. En route to the gallows, the servant apologized: He thought it was the queen's bottom.
One day last November, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was surprised to discover that his government was energetically building in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood, beyond the pre-1967 Green Line. This was right in the middle of a very delicate and tense period vis-a-vis the American administration. As it happened, a local planning and building committee had casually approved the construction in Gilo of 900 housing units. Netanyahu was subjected to a barrage of condemnations from around the world, the most resounding one from U.S. President Barack Obama.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday delivered a stinging rebuke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his government's announcement this week of new Jewish housing in East Jerusalem.
The State Department said Clinton spoke to Netanyahu by phone to express U.S. frustration with Tuesday's announcement that cast a pall over a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden. A State spokesman said the Israeli move has endangered indirect peace talks with the Palestinians that the Obama administration had announced just a day earlier.
Clinton called "to make clear that the United States considered the announcement to be a deeply negative signal about Israel's approach to the bilateral relationship and counter to the spirit of the vice president's trip," department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters.
The harsh criticism of America's closest Mideast ally and questions about its commitment to the U.S.-Israeli relationship followed equally blunt condemnation of the housing announcement from the White House and Biden himself.
It also comes ahead of a trip to the region by U.S. Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell and a meeting in Moscow next week of senior officials from the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers.
The Israeli announcement took the U.S. by surprise and enraged Palestinians and Arab states, jeopardizing indirect peace talks Mitchell is to mediate
"The secretary said she could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States' strong commitment to Israel's security and she made clear that the Israeli government needed to demonstrate not just through words but through specific actions that they are committed to this relationship and to the peace process," he said.
Crowley stressed that the United States strongly objected to both the content and timing of the announcement and said Clinton had "reinforced that this action had undermined trust and confidence in the peace process and in America's interests."
Several dozen Palestinian women scuffled with Israeli troops on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Saturday amid rising religious and political tensions in the disputed city.
The confrontation erupted at the Qalandiya crossing between the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The women chanted "Jerusalem is Arab, our eternal capital," briefly planted a Palestinian flag on one of the crossing's metal gates and tried to push through it. Israeli troops scuffled with the women and dispersed them with tear gas. At one point, a firebomb hit a military jeep and soldiers rushed to extinguish the fire.
As the women withdrew, Palestinian teens threw stones at soldiers who closed the crossing to traffic.
The Israeli military said four protesters were detained but no one was hurt.
Saturday's protest came at a time of growing friction in Jerusalem.
The Palestinians want to establish a capital in the eastern sector of the city, captured and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War. Israel's hard-line leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, refuses to consider partition, insisting he will never relinquish control over any part of Jerusalem.
Earlier this week, Israel announced plans to build 1,600 more homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, setting off a bitter diplomatic row with the United States, Israel's closest ally.
Jerusalem also has seen several protests in recent weeks against Israel's decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites. The move's practical implications are not clear, but the Palestinians see it as a provocation.
On Friday, Israel sealed the West Bank for at least two days, in an attempt to prevent more protests.
Even when a closure is not in effect, most West Bank Palestinians are barred by Israel from entering Jerusalem. The Qalandiya crossing is one of the main gateways for Palestinians who obtain special entry permits to the city.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political standing is "perilous" because of divisions within his coalition over efforts to pursue peace with the Palestinians, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
