Letter from Israeli Ambassador Prosor to UN on Palestinian Violence at the Temple Mount

"Once again, radical Islamic operatives have used the occasion of a Jewish holiday to stage provocations and instigate violence on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. These groups have a long track-record of attacking Jews on their holiest days, at their holiest place.

On Sunday, as Jews around the world prepared to celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, a group of militant Islamist agitators deliberately disrupted visits by tourists and Israelis to the Temple Mount complex, the holiest site in Judaism, and instigated a violent clash with Israeli police. The operatives prepared for this violent confrontation by stockpiling rocks, planks, wooden sheets and fireworks. They also prepared lethal weapons such as Molotov firebombs and explosive devices in advance of the calculated provocation...

The violence against Jews has not been limited to those who seek to visit the Temple Mount. Alexander Lebelovitch, age 64, was returning home from a Rosh Hashana dinner Sunday night when Palestinians attacked his car with a barrage of stones, causing him to lose control of his vehicle and crash into a roadside ditch. Mr. Lebelovitch, a father of three, died from his injuries Monday morning. While stone-throwing has been all but ignored by the UN and the Security Council, this attack proves, once again, that stones can kill...

We would expect Palestinians and the Arab world to condemn such profanation of holy sites, but their silence on this matter is deafening. Instead, the Palestinian Representative to the UN further inflames the situation by spreading misinformation and deception. In his letter to the President of the Security Council on 14 September, Representative Mansour accused Israelis of breaking into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and damaging part of the mosque. These allegations are completely and utterly false. He distorts reality in order to deceive the international community, to further incite the Palestinian public against Israelis, and to change the status quo...

The situation is too volatile for your usual call for both sides to show restraint. In order to prevent further violence and possible escalation, you must identify those responsible by name. I call on you to publicly condemn the Islamic groups responsible for this campaign of violence, and to affirm your support for maintaining the status quo."