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Laura Bush jeered in Jerusalem
Protesters heckled Laura Bush during her visit to religious sites in Jerusalem, part of a Mideast tour meant to defuse growing anti-American sentiment in the region.
As she approached the Dome of the Rock in the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) on Sunday, Muslim worshippers shouted, "How dare you come in here, and why are you hassling Muslims?"
As she entered the Noble Sanctuary, one man said, "None of you belongs in here."
Israeli police formed a human chain around Bush, pressing together to push away protesters.
Anti-American sentiment is running high in the Middle East over a variety of factors, including a recent magazine report - since retracted - about US soldiers desecrating the Quran.
"We in principle don't reject anyone's visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque (compound), but we see in the visit of Mrs Bush an attempt to whitewash the face of the United States, after the crimes that the American interrogators had committed when they desecrated the Quran," the Hamas movement said in a statement on its website.
US denial
US officials have said they found nothing to substantiate the Newsweek report of interrogators desecrating the Quran at the detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But some remain convinced that the desecration happened and that the US government forced Newsweek to back down.
Adnan Husseini, director of the Islamic Trust that administers the Haram al-Sharif, said Bush tried to downplay the heckling, saying it could have happened anywhere.
Husseini said he told her he hoped President Bush would exert pressure to achieve peace in the Holy Land, for without it, "there will be no peace or stability in the area."
Earlier, Laura Bush visited the nearby Western Wall of the Haram al-Sharif, a site regarded as holy by Jews, tucking a note with a personal request to God into one of its cracks, following Jewish custom.
There, too, her visit touched off protests, with about 40 demonstrators demanding the release of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, shouting, "Free Pollard now".
Pollard is serving a life sentence in a US prison.
Top priority
The next stop was the West Bank town of Jericho, where she met eight prominent Palestinian women, including Cabinet ministers and legislators.
The women said they told Bush the top priority was to pressure Israel to lift travel restrictions and roadblocks that disrupt life in the Palestinian areas.
The network of roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has meant that ordinary Palestinians are subjected to long daily waits and humiliation at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.
The women, including legislator Hanan Ashrawi, said they also told Bush the US had to take a more active role in trying to end Israeli occupation and creating a Palestinian state.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2D8040D2-329E-4910-97D7-D12C1F59C2CD.htm
As she entered the Noble Sanctuary, one man said, "None of you belongs in here."
Israeli police formed a human chain around Bush, pressing together to push away protesters.
Anti-American sentiment is running high in the Middle East over a variety of factors, including a recent magazine report - since retracted - about US soldiers desecrating the Quran.
"We in principle don't reject anyone's visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque (compound), but we see in the visit of Mrs Bush an attempt to whitewash the face of the United States, after the crimes that the American interrogators had committed when they desecrated the Quran," the Hamas movement said in a statement on its website.
US denial
US officials have said they found nothing to substantiate the Newsweek report of interrogators desecrating the Quran at the detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But some remain convinced that the desecration happened and that the US government forced Newsweek to back down.
Adnan Husseini, director of the Islamic Trust that administers the Haram al-Sharif, said Bush tried to downplay the heckling, saying it could have happened anywhere.
Husseini said he told her he hoped President Bush would exert pressure to achieve peace in the Holy Land, for without it, "there will be no peace or stability in the area."
Earlier, Laura Bush visited the nearby Western Wall of the Haram al-Sharif, a site regarded as holy by Jews, tucking a note with a personal request to God into one of its cracks, following Jewish custom.
There, too, her visit touched off protests, with about 40 demonstrators demanding the release of convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, shouting, "Free Pollard now".
Pollard is serving a life sentence in a US prison.
Top priority
The next stop was the West Bank town of Jericho, where she met eight prominent Palestinian women, including Cabinet ministers and legislators.
The women said they told Bush the top priority was to pressure Israel to lift travel restrictions and roadblocks that disrupt life in the Palestinian areas.
The network of roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has meant that ordinary Palestinians are subjected to long daily waits and humiliation at the hands of Israeli occupation forces.
The women, including legislator Hanan Ashrawi, said they also told Bush the US had to take a more active role in trying to end Israeli occupation and creating a Palestinian state.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2D8040D2-329E-4910-97D7-D12C1F59C2CD.htm
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She then went to the Dome of the Rock, a mosque on a hilltop compound known to Muslims as "Haram as-Sharif". Before she entered the mosque, one heckler yelled, "How dare you come in here?" and "Why do you hassle our Muslims?"
According to The AP, Mrs. Bush removed her shoes as she entered the mosque and walked barefoot on the red carpet.
A group of women studying inside the mosque were annoyed at the intrusion and waved their fingers at the U.S. entourage.
At the "Western Wall," dozens of protesters stood nearby, shouting, "Free Pollard now." Jonathan Pollard is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for spying for Israel.
Mrs. Bush's next stop Sunday is the West Bank town of Jericho, where she will participate in a round-table discussion with prominent Palestinian women.
http://www.albawaba.com/en/news/183911
Wearing a black headscarf and accompanied by the wife of Israeli President Moshe Katsav, Laura Bush spent a few moments of silence in the women's section at Judaism's holiest shrine, the Western Wall, which is last remnant of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Police held back several dozen demonstrators shouting slogans calling for the release of Jonathan Pollard, a Jewish American who was jailed for life in 1987 on charges of spying for Israel.
The First Lady then went up to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third most sacred spot in Islam, which overlooks the Western Wall.
A handful of protestors shouting "Death to America" were held back by police as Bush entered the golden-topped Dome of the Rock.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1118064.cms
IN JERUSALEM
THE US First Lady, Laura Bush, on a tour of the Middle East to boost America's image, yesterday listened to something her husband has shown little interest in: the Palestinian side of the story.
Touching the Achilles heel of President George Bush's stated desire to spread democracy throughout the region, Palestinian women leaders told Mrs Bush during a meeting in the West Bank town of Jericho that their foremost problem is the Israeli military occupation, which they said is paralysing all aspects of life in the West Bank.
Terry Boulata, a school principal, spoke with Mrs Bush and showed her a map illustrating how Israel's security wall, built inside the occupied territory, is annexing Palestinian land to Israel and breaking Palestinian territory into enclaves.
"I spoke to her about the wall and how it is undermining the possibility of the viable Palestinian state which her husband has been promoting. It is destroying the chances of a two-state peace solution," Ms Boulata said.
Mrs Bush said: "I want to tell the people I met earlier that the US will do what it can in this process.
"It will also require the work of the people here, of the Palestinians and the Israelis to come to the table."
Mrs Bush's trip - which came as the Israeli president, Ariel Sharon, visited Washington - is part of her bid to take on a more prominent role in shaping the US administration's image.
Earlier Mrs Bush visited Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall, accompanied by Israel's first lady, Gila Katsav. She then visited the sacred Muslim site, the Dome of the Rock, where she was jostled and heckled by protesters.
• A pro-Palestinian British activist who was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier died because of malpractice by his British doctors, a defence lawyer claimed yesterday in the trial of the soldier accused of the shooting.
The soldier, who is not identified under army regulations, is accused of shooting Tom Hurndall, 22, in 2003. Defence lawyer Yariv Ronen said that the soldier should be acquitted of a manslaughter charge because Mr Turndall died "because the doctors, together with the family, made a very clear decision to end his life".
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=561192005