VARIOUS: ISRAEL TIGHTENS SECURITY AROUND JERUSALEM'S MOST SENSITIVE HOLY SITE AS MILLENNIUM APPROACHES

Record ID: 399023

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAEL TIGHTENS SECURITY AROUND JERUSALEM'S MOST SENSITIVE HOLY SITE AS MILLENNIUM APPROACHES
  • Date: 22nd December 1999
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (DECEMBER 19, 1999) (REUTERS) 1. GV OVERVIEW JERUSALEM'S OLD CITY WITH AL-AQSA MOSQUE 0.07 2. MV PEOPLE ENTERING AT ENTRANCE TO MOSQUE 0.15 3. MV TWO WOMEN PRAYING AT ENTRANCE TO AL-AQSA MOSQUE/ISRAELI POLICEMAN AT ENTRANCE 0.20 4. SCU WOMEN PRAYING (2 SHOTS) 0.37 5. MV ISRAELI BORDER POLICEMEN AT ENTRANCE 0.40 6.
  • Embargoed: 6th January 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM/BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA465BAGDKX5DUFZS8YY1R2W3KH
  • Story Text: Israel is tightening security around Jerusalem's most
    sensitive holy site to try to prevent violence by apocalyptic
    Christians as the turn of the millennium approaches.

    So far this year Israel has expelled some 60 Christian
    cultists, concerned that a minority of them with messianic
    delusions might try to trigger violence.

    In Jerusalem police recently detained a man who had
    approached the Golden Gate entrance to the Temple Mount
    complex and threatened to hurl himself from the Old City wall.

    Another tourist who told them Jesus had appeared to him
    and commanded him to fly in the skies above Jerusalem was also
    stopped.

    As the end of the year draws near, the number of tourists
    visiting Jerusalem daily has risen to almost 50,000, and
    Israeli police fear the acts of a militant individual or group.

    In many cases authorities abroad who monitor the
    activities of fringe Christian groups alert the Israeli police
    to potential Christian zealots, but the police have to be on
    constant alert.

    "We know that in order to cause damage you do not need so
    many, you can cause it by even one," said David Tsur, chief of
    staff of the police special operations unit, at a briefing on
    millennial readiness.

    Police preparation includes upgrading computer networks and
    intelligence dissemination, as well as monitoring particularly
    volatile sites with cameras, airplanes and helicopters.

    Yosef Barel, Jerusalem's chief psychiatrist, expects only a
    tiny minority to be dangerous, but he doesn't rule out the
    possibility of a messianic group trying to destroy "Moslem
    holy places to make room for the resurrection of Jesus."
    Israel and the Palestinian Authority expect a record three
    to four million pilgrims and tourists to visit the Holy Land
    this year to mark the start of Christianity's third
    millennium.


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