Western Wall Tunnel riots
Western Wall Tunnel riots is the name given to three days of fighting between the State of Israel and the Palestinians, which took place on September 23 to September 27, 1996, from the eve of Yom Kippur to the eve of Sukkot. The riots began after the opening of an exit tunnel from the Western Wall tunnels for the passage of tourists, following the decision of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Yasser Arafat's call on the Palestinian public to respond violently to the move. During this incident seventeen IDF soldiers and about a hundred Palestinians were killed, and hundreds of others were injured.
Backround
Until 1996, the Western Wall tunnels lead to a dead-end, all visitors reached a certain point and then turned back to their entry point. This created congestion and foot-traffic difficulties in the narrow passages, and as a result it was decided to open an exit opening in the northern part of the tunnels, to allow the crowd to flow out in an orderly fashion.
In the Struthion Pool, located at the end of the Western Wall tunnels, is a single stone wall that separates the tunnels from the Via Dolorosa store (this stone wall can still be seen in the corner of the pool, at the top of a staircase), the owner of the store, a Christian Arab, agreed to sell his store to the Ministry of Religions in charge of the Western Wall tunnels, but ultimately decided not to after receiving threats on his life, due to cooperation with Israel. Following this, it was decided to carve an artificial exit tunnel, several meters long, in the bedrock of a hill located north of the Temple Mount, and to open an exit into Via Dolorosa, and not through anyone's property. The quarrying machines entered the Struthion Pool in parts, through the Sisters of Zion Convent, and were assembled inside.
At the start of quarrying, an announcemt was made objecting this move by the Waqf which is incharge of security at the Temple Mount, which is a religiously significant site to the Abrahamic religions, where Mulsim religious sites were also built and presently stand on. The Waqf announced they would not allow this due to the tunnel leading into the middle of the Muslim Quarter which is near the Temple Mount. Fearing riots, Israel agreed to retroactively approve the construction of an illegal mosque in Solomon's Stables on the Temple Mount, in exchange for opening of the tunnels. This agreement was not coordinated with the Palestinian National Authority, which both Israel and the Waqf (Jordan-controlled) opposed the involvement in the Temple Mount. The confidential agreement in which Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was involved was also not official and written down, a fact that was later used by the Waqf to renounce it.
On the evening of Yom Kippur, September 23, 1996, the new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surprisingly announced the opening of the tunnel. This move led to a fierce protest by the Waqf, who now claimed that the tunnel passing under the Temple Mount would be a move that goes against the holiness of Islam, even though the exit tunnel passes under a school and not under the Temple Mount. Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestinian National Authority at the time, responded by calling on the Palestinian people to respond to this act with violence. The Muslim street was set on fire, and thousands of Palestinians went to Judea and Samaria, and centrting on Hebron and Jerusalem, causing violent riots.
The course of the riots
On September 25, demonstrations escalated into riots and shootings broke out between IDF soldiers and Palestinian police. Riots broke out in the cities of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, and shootings took place at Rachel's Tomb, Ramallah, Kfar Darom, Gush Katif Junction And at the Erez checkpoint.
On September 26, 11 Israeli soldiers and 69 Palestinians were killed. An emergency was declared in the territories, the IDF brought tanks to the area of palestinian cities and drew many forces to the centers of the conflict. The most severe battles took place around Kfar Darom, at the Gush Katif junction and in Nablus, in the Joseph's Tomb compound. During the battle at Joseph's Tomb, hundreds of armed Palestinians attacked the small IDF force which was present there. During the Israeli attempt to mobilize reinforcements, six soldiers and officers from the Carob Battalion were killed. Soldiers who were nearby were waiting for an order to come in and rescue the wounded and retrieve the bodies, but the prime minister waited for a gesture from Jibril Rajoub who promised to rescue the wounded, but this did not materialize and the rescue force was not activated.
On September 27, with the ending of Friday prayers in the mosques, crowds of hundreds of Palestinians attacked the Nahal Elisha outpost, near Jericho. During the battle, two Nahal soldiers serving in the area were wounded, and four Palestinian policemen were killed. The main axis to Gush Katif, the Gush Katif junction in the Orhan area, was blocked intermittently by thousands of Palestinian demonstrators in front of a Givati infantry brigade and a cadet platoon from Bahad 1. The small IDF force managed to control the axis. Three soldiers were wounded and one soldier was killed.
The riots ended that day by Arafat's order following a telephone conversation with Netanyahu. There are conflicting versions of the content of the conversation. A senior security source, who admits that he was not present during the conversation, claimed that the message that Netanyahu was advised to convey to Arafat was a reassuring message and in his opinion Netanyahu did. On the other hand, Danny Naveh, who recorded the details of the conversation, claimed that Netanyahu had threatened Arafat that he would order the reoccupation of the PA's territories if the riots did not stop.
During the last day of the riots, the deputy commander of the Gaza Division, Colonel Nabiya Marai, was killed.
The results of the riots
The riots claimed the lives of dozens of people on both sides, including 17 IDF soldiers, the most senior of whom is Col. Nabiya Marai, and close to a hundred Palestinians, and injured hundreds of Palestinians.
In response to the clash in the territories, the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel declared a general strike and the holding of assemblies and protest rallies. In the cities of Nazareth, Jaffa, Lod and Ramla, riots developed and dozens of people were injured during the clashes between the Israeli police and the Arab demonstrators.
US President Bill Clinton hastened to call on Netanyahu and Arafat to a summit in Washington, with the participation of King Hussein of Jordan. The summit brought an end to the violence and paved the way for the signing of the Hebron Agreement in January 1997. In the agreement, the Netanyahu government promised to withdraw from most of the city of Hebron, except for the Cave of the Patriarchs and nearby areas inhabited by Jewish settlers. The withdrawal took place the same month. After this relations with the Palestinians came to a deep standstill and only resumed at the Wye conference at the end of 1998.
On October 21, Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak ousted the Nablus brigade following the many shortcomings during the activities of the forces operating in the Nablus sector during the events.
The lessons learned from the riots contributed greatly to assessing the IDF's situation, the nature of the next conflict with the Palestinians and formulating ways to respond to it. In the following years, many preparations were made for a similar future confrontation with the Palestinians. These preparations contributed to a small number of casualties among IDF soldiers during the initial period of the second intifada.
In an unofficial agreement between the Israeli government headed by Netanyahu and the heads of the Muslim Waqf, retroactive approval was given for illegal work that began about two months earlier in the Solomon's Stables underground structure. The purpose of these works was to convert the ancient structure into a large-scale mosque named after Marwan I. This approval was given in exchange for the opening of the tunnel. The mosque, known as El Musala al-Marwani, opened in December 1996 and is active to this day.
Following the riots, the exit tunnel in the Western Wall tunnels was closed for a short period, but reopened, with security escorting visitors on their way back through the Muslim Quarter to the Western Wall Plaza. The opening of the tunnel serves as the main exit from the Western Wall tunnels complex, although it is closed from time to time due to security tensions, as it was during the second intifada.