Attack at the Dome of the Rock

By William E. Smith

A pro-Israeli gunman shatters the Easter peace in Jerusalem

Jerusalem's Temple Mount, sacred to both Jews and Muslims, is potentially the most explosive point of contact between the two peoples. Since the Israelis captured it from the Arabs in June 1967, the low hill inside Jerusalem's historic walled city has remained largely free of violence. But on Easter Sunday, as thousands of Christian pilgrims flocked into the Old City, a lone gunman, dressed in an olive-green Israeli military uniform, turned the uneasy calm into a day of bloodshed at the Temple Mount and throughout the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The incident occurred not only on a holy day, but on a weekend of extreme tension in the Middle East. A force of some 40,000 Israeli soldiers was already massed in northern Israel, poised for a possible attack on Palestine Liberation Organization strongholds in southern and central Lebanon. Such an invasion has been expected for weeks by both Arabs and Israelis. On Saturday, Lebanese President Elias Sarkis had talked with the American and Soviet Ambassadors to Lebanon in an effort to head off the assault. On Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet met for six hours. It discussed several security matters, including the unrest engendered by the shootings on the Temple Mount. It may also have reached a decision, after weeks of debate, on whether to launch the thrust into Lebanon.

The event that broke the Easter calm began at 9:10 a.m., when a man later identified by Israeli authorities as Allen Goodman, 37, an American immigrant who appeared to be an Israeli army reservist, approached the Band Ghanim gate to the Temple Mount. He was carrying a sleeping bag, a handbag and an M-16 automatic rifle. Arab guards, alarmed at the sight of the weapon, shouted Mam 'nua! (Forbidden!). Goodman opened fire, wounding one guard and hitting another with the butt of his rifle.

He then ran toward the Dome of the Rock, one of the two main mosques on the Temple Mount. The rock, at the center of the shrine, is the traditional site where Abraham is said to have offered Isaac as a sacrifice. It is also the place from which, according to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven on a horse. As an Arab guard attempted to block his entry to the mosque, Goodman shot and killed him, then fired wildly into a group of tourists who had raised their hands as a sign of surrender. A rain of shattered glass fell on the mosque's priceless Afghan and Iranian carpets. Moments later, when police arrived, they found Goodman hiding in a room beneath the rock. He immediately surrendered, telling police: "I had to do it. They are killing my friends and relatives. I am taking revenge." Whatever his motive, his mental state or his political affiliations may have been, his assault on the Muslim holy place killed two people and wounded nine, and unleashed fury and passions throughout Jerusalem and the West Bank that resulted in injuries to as many as 100 more.

Fearing widespread trouble, Israeli soldiers immediately closed the seven entrances to the Old City. As word of the shooting spread, hundreds of Arabs gathered in angry clusters at the courtyard of the Dome of the Rock. At one point, 100 Arab youths, approaching a group of soldiers, chanted Barra, barra! (Out, out!). Reports TIME's Robert Slater: "Suddenly stones were being hurled at the soldiers. One of them fired a tear-gas canister at the crowd, which then fled toward the Dome of the Rock. Meanwhile, soldiers were moving toward the protesters in a pincer movement. I found myself caught between the soldiers and the protesters, protected only by the white marble pillars. I turned toward a gate but the soldiers stopped me, guns at the ready. One shouted: 'Stay here! Don't move! It's hot!' "

On the West Bank, the Palestinian population learned of the shootings on an Arabic-language news broadcast at 11:30 a.m., some 90 minutes after Goodman had been taken into custody. Almost immediately, storekeepers began to close down their shops in Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron and other major communities. Demonstrations broke out in several West Bank towns, a resumption of the general disorder that had afflicted the area sporadically for several weeks.

Israeli officials were not immediately certain whether Goodman, an American-born Jew and a recent immigrant to Israel, represented anybody but himself. For the 15 years of Israeli rule over East Jerusalem, the precise status of the Temple Mount has been a matter of concern to ultranationalist Israeli groups. Within the past five years, the cause has been taken up by a generation of zealous young Israelis, the same factions that have helped build Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. Last month, for example, a 22-year-old Israeli who lived in one of the illegal settlements in the northern Sinai, had vowed: "The next battle we fight will be over the Temple Mount. We shall fight for the establishment of a synagogue on top of the Temple Mount and for obtaining permission to pray there."

--By William E. Smith.

-- Reported by David Hatevy/Jerusalem

With reporting by David Halevy

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