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Is a Third Intifada Starting?

An explosion in Jerusalem may be inevitable, says an Israeli columnist

by
Liel Leibovitz
October 06, 2009
A Palestinian youth throwing stones at Israeli forces in an east Jerusalem refugee camp yesterday.(Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)
A Palestinian youth throwing stones at Israeli forces in an east Jerusalem refugee camp yesterday.(Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)

Earlier this week, Palestinian protesters in east Jerusalem hurled rocks at a group of Jewish worshipers praying at the sacred site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque. This might have been just another violent clash in a city well-accustomed to confrontation, a brief incident quickly forgotten. But a combination of external factors, including the stalemate in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and internal political tensions within Palestinian society are threatening to turn the clashes into a large-scale conflagration. With the riots now in their third day, some experts are predicting we may be witnessing the birth of a third intifada. We spoke with Nachum Barnea, one of Israel’s leading political columnists, about the nascent conflict and its possible outcomes.

Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.