Jerusalem on edge in row over contested shrine

This combustible city at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been edging toward a new conflagration, with politicians on both sides stoking religious fervor over an ancient Jerusalem shrine sacred to Muslims and Jews. After months of escalating violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday made his clearest attempt yet to cool tempers, saying he won’t allow changes to a long-standing ban on Jewish worship at the Muslim-run site, despite such demands from ultranationalists in his coalition. Netanyahu’s reassurances to Muslims came just days after the religious feud over the Old City shrine, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, threatened to spin out of control. Israel closed the compound for a day last week, a rare move, after a Palestinian shot and wounded a prominent activist who has campaigned for more Jewish access to the site.

It is very easy to ignite a religious fire, but much harder to extinguish it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu rejects any withdrawal from east Jerusalem — the area sought by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state. Instead, the Israeli leader is promoting construction for Jews in east Jerusalem, including an announcement last week that plans for more than 1,000 new settlement apartments there would move forward.