There are few more sensitive sites in the world than the compound housing the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, site of Islam's third-holiest shrine, but venerated also by Jews as the location of their biblical temple, the compound is more than a mere flashpoint. It stands as a microcosm of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and carries all the symbolic weight that that implies. Situated on land occupied by Israel in 1967, the Jewish state maintains security control but Jordan is religious custodian. For Palestinians, al-Aqsa is not only of religious significance but has become a national symbol that can unite both secular and religious. Few have forgotten that the trigger for the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in 2000, was a political misjudgment by then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in visiting the site.
That makes it all the more striking that the latest acute tensions can be at least partly traced to another miscalculation over the Jerusalem shrine by an Israeli administration.
The latest violence began on Friday, when Israeli security forces shot three Palestinian demonstrators dead. On the same day, a Palestinian stabbed three Israelis in the occupied West Bank after pledging on Facebook to heed "al-Aqsa's call". That was apparently a reference to the Israeli decision to install metal detectors at the entrance to the al-Aqsa compound, known to Israelis as the Temple Mount. Israel said the metal detectors were a response to the killing of two Israeli policement at the entrance to the site by three Israeli Arabs who had smuggled weapons into the compound. But the move incensed Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world, where it was seen as a humiliation and a violation of the delicate access arrangements at the site. Many Palestinians have refused to go through the metal detectors and pray on the street instead. Some have mounted violent protests. Fears that the crisis could spill over into a broader confrontation have hardened since Sunday, when two Jordanians were killed at the Israeli embassy in Amman after a workman of Palestinian descent tried to attack an Israeli security guard with a screwdriver.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu delighted far-right elements in his ruling coalition by ordering the installation of the detectors. But in recent days it has been reported that he did so in spite of warnings from security officials that it could unleash a fresh wave of violence. Netanyahu must realise a way must be found to remove the detectors, but he also knows any compromise will be met by right-wing accusations that he is caving in to the Palestinians.
Yet that compromise is the only way of restoring calm. Outsiders with leverage, notably the United States, must help strike a deal that ends the bloodshed.