LIVE BLOG: Violence in Jerusalem

We'll be wrapping up our live blog today, after a round-up of events overnight and so far this morning:

• Israeli authorities announced their intention to bury the bodies of the two Jerusalem synagogue attackers outside the city.
• The homes of three further Palestinian suspects in Jerusalem attacks are to be demolished in the coming days. Authorities also told 70 Palestinian families to evacuate their homes in Jericho.
• There are ongoing clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem. A curfew was imposed in the West Bank town of Huwwara last night after clashes there saw Molotov cocktails hurled.

Ashkelon will stop employing Arabs in city parks, the city's mayor announced on Facebook on Wednesday.

The Mayor, Itamar Shimoni, also said that in areas where construction on bomb shelters is being undertaken by Arab workers, the work is to be stopped indefinitely.

He said he had also ordered the placing of armed security guards for preschools and kindegartens that are next to construction sites with Arab employees.

Jerusalem's municipal planning committee has authorised 78 new homes to be built in neighbourhoods of occupied East Jerusalem.

50 new housing units are to be built in Har Homa and 28 in Ramot, a municipal spokeswoman said.

Palestinian Authority officials criticised the move

"These decisions are a continuation of the Israeli government's policy to cause more tension, push towards further escalation and waste any chance to create an atmosphere for calm," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said.

Barak Ravid, writing for Haaretz, has criticised the distribution of photos from the scene of the killings in the Jerusalem synaogue:

"It’s highly doubtful that such pornographic public diplomacy will win Israel any more supporters abroad. It’s more likely that they will merely inflame Israeli public opinion against the Palestinians, increase the hostility against Arabs and serve as weapons in the hands of those inciting toward revenge."

In what Haaretz has termed an "unprecedented" move, the Jerusalem District court has said it won't be releasing the bodies of the Abu Jamal cousins to their family, supposedly in order to deter future would-be terrorists.

The decision came in response to a request by the family of the men and is thought to be the first instance of its kind in Israeli legal history.

“We can’t commit to a certain date [for returning the bodies],” Chief Inspector Yigal Elmaliah told the court.

“There are two aspects, the investigative aspect, which the court has seen, and another aspect that I’m not sure I’m authorized to report. For this reason we are arguing that this isn’t the forum to discuss it. The State of Israel is trying to cope with the recent wave of attacks. One possibility being considered is not to return the bodies to the families, but [for the state] to bury them. The issue is being examined at the highest levels.”

A new song in Hebrew is being shared on Palestinian social media.

The song, accompanied by an animated video, warns "Zionist run away, run away Zionist. You are about to be killed by a car."

Shehab news agency, which regularly post videos of Hamas militants speaking against Israel, posted the video according to the Jerusalem Post.

"Zionist, you and not another
Look right, look left, be careful
A car emerges from all sides
Picks you up to your grave
An angry car is coming toward you
Run for your life
You chose [this] so bear responsibility
Run away because you are about to die"

The song is the latest in a long line of Hamas hits in Hebrew.

Speaking on the phone from Jerusalem David Ha'ivri, a prominent US-born Israeli settler told Middle East Eye that the Israeli government were partly to blame for the attack:

On the government’s response:

I think that the government of Israel is not being harsh enough on those who are actually responsible for the incitement and terrorism, as a result the general public is suffering.

I’d like to see the government of Israel executing terrorists. Those who are inciting and carrying out direct violence, should be arrested, prosecuted, and deported.

Israeli politicians like our Prime Minister are trying to be popular by blaming Abbas for every bit of violence. If Abbas is directly responsible I expect him to be arrested and brought to justice, if he is not then I’m not satisfied as a citizen by the rhetoric of blaming him.

Ha’ivri, a controversial figure in Israel and a fierce opponent of attempts to put a freeze on settlement building, was arrested for celebrating the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in a television interview. He criticized calls by some Israeli politicians for volunteer civilian armed groups to protect Jerusalem neighborhoods from attacks.

The government ministers are unable to provide law and order then they should resign. It’s not their job to dump the responsibility on the public. I don’t think we need to from civilians patrols. We have a police force and an army, civilians should be watching television and surfing the internet not patrolling the streets.

It makes me feel terrible to see how our civilian population can be so vulnerable; that evil people can walk into a house of worship and carry out such a violent and horrific act.

On dividing Jerusalem:

I’m very sad that the government of Israel feels that they have the right to apply different policies in different parts of the city. Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel. There should be one law in all the city. I’m not happy about separation. It causes confusion. The only time in history that Jews and Arabs have lived together in the city is under Israel’s authority. The key to Jews and Arabs living peacefully is Israel asserting its authorities and rooting out the terrorists who wish to hurt the civilian population.

Al-Jazeera + have a useful explainer on the Jerusalem conflict and the policies that keep the city on edge.

According to B'tselem: 14,000 Palestinians have lost their resisdence in Jerusalem since 1967.

35% of East Jerusalem has been zoned for the contruction of illegal settlements.

Since 1967 Israel has demolished 2,000 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem for being built without permits.

A day after two Palestinian men killed five Israelis at an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem, Israeli authorities made reprisals, demolishing the home of a Palestinian involved in an earlier attack at a tram stop.

"The home of the terrorist, who killed an Israeli baby and a young woman on October 22 in a tram station in Jerusalem was destroyed in Silwan," the Israeli military said in a statement.

Shaludi's family maintains he had lost control of the car and accidentally veered into the crowd. They walked through the rubble of their blasted apartment soon after it was destroyed. Three other families living in the same building had to evacuate the premises. The entire neighborhood was cordoned off by police, reports al Jazeera.

The demolitions, which punish the families of Palestinian men who are often already deceased or in custody, are controversial. According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, between October 2001 and January 2005, 664 houses belonging to suspected militants in the Palestinian territories were destroyed, leaving 4,182 people homeless.

Israeli media outlet, NRG, is reporting that the houses of three Palestinian families whose relatives are linked to recent attacks on Israeli citizens are to be demolised.

• Moataz Hejazi, 32-year-old killed by Israeli police after trying to assassinate hardline Jewish activist Yehuda Glick last month.
• Mouhammed Gabis, a Palestinian bulldozer operator who attacked a bus in August.
• Ibrahim Alackari who ploughed a van into pedestrians on a main street in Jerusalem in early November.

An editorial from the Israeli news website, Ynet, raises some interesting questions, criticizing the Israeli authorities for scapegoating Abbas and for not coming down hard enough on right-wing Jewish groups.

The piece also calls Netanyahu out for blaming the synagogue attack on incitement instead of on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A third intifada?

From one isolated incident to another isolated incident, we've got ourselves an intifada on our hands, which is threatening to be as fatal as the two previous ones. Fatal both for us and for them: There are no winners in this affair – only victims.

On Palestinians celebrating the Synagogue attack:

We cannot accept the cries of joy in Gaza and in some of the West Bank cities. Those rejoicing in such a massacre lose their moral right to cry about the occupation. The Palestinians have had many joys in 100 years of conflict, and each one of them further deepened their tragedy.

On right-wing extremist Jewish groups:

Surveillance of extreme Jewish people and groups must also be expanded. According to past experience, when the government restrains itself, out of choice or due to constraints, the Jewish terrorists jump into the fire. Only a week ago they torched a mosque in a small village east of Ramallah. The price tag for the synagogue massacre could be much higher.

On Netanyahu blaming Abbas:

Israel's ministers would be wise to leave Abbas alone. Claiming that the two villains from Jabel Mukaber went out to murder because they heard Abbas give an inciting speech is like claiming that the "price tag" criminals went out to desecrate a mosque because they heard Netanyahu give an inciting speech. The Palestinian terrorists disregard Abbas just like the Jewish inflamers disregard Netanyahu.

On whether "incitement" is to blame:

Netanyahu reiterated that "the incitement is the root of the conflict." The incitement, indeed, inflames the hatred, but it is an outcome of the conflict, not the reason for its existence. Only a naïve person would believe that ending the incitement would end the conflict: There is a land here which both sides are finding it difficult to share, historic, religious, ethnic and national animosity. This bleeding conflict deserves some respect: Ending it with incitement belittles it.

Is this a holy war?

The fourth, and perhaps main point, is that the shift from a national conflict to a religious war has been in the air for quite a while. IDF, Shin Bet and police officials have been warning about it repeatedly. Leave God alone, they said, both our god and their god. Don't get religion involved. A thousand firefighters are incapable of putting out a fire with God at its center.

Seventy-eight new settler homes have been approved for east Jerusalem, a municipality official told AFP. 

The mother of Abd al-Rahman al-Shaludi, who killed two Israelis after driving into civilians in Jerusalem last month, spoke following the demolition of her home by Israeli forces.

"The Israeli occupation wants to break up our family and displace us. They think that by demolishing the houses of martyrs they will deter the people of Jerusalem and Palestine, but violence begets violence," she told Ma'an news agency.

"I don't know what to do and where we will live in the coming days," she said, while sitting on a couch in an apartment next to her demolished home.

The family has temporarily moved to her husband's brother's home.