-Caveat Lector- Palestinians demonstrate after Ramadan prayers, but few clashes seen By MARK LAVIE The Associated Press 12/1/00 7:25 AM JERUSALEM (AP) -- Palestinians demonstrated in front of a disputed holy site in Jerusalem's Old City after the first Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but Israeli police did not intervene and fears of another flare-up of violence faded. Israel had eased restrictions banning young Palestinians from praying at Al Aqsa mosque so that Muslims with Israeli identity cards -- those with Israeli citizenship and Palestinians who live in Jerusalem -- could come to the site for Ramadan prayers. But Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza were banned. After thousands attended services at Al Aqsa, Palestinians marched in the plaza in front of the mosque, shouting slogans. Some threw rocks toward police gathered just outside a gate leading to the compound, but police did not respond. Muslim officials and Palestinian security officers kept the demonstrators away from the Israeli forces. Elsewhere, though, there was more conflict. Outside the Old City, police rode horses into a crowd of several hundred more Palestinian demonstrators, knocking people over. Protesters threw rocks in response. About 300 Palestinians, shouting "we want to pray at Al Aqsa," pushed through an Israeli army checkpoint south of Jerusalem. Soldiers closed off a nearby intersection with jeeps and pushed the Palestinians back. The Al-Aqsa mosque compound, built over the site of the biblical Jewish Temples in the Old City, is a spot holy to both Muslims and Jews. Two months of Palestinian rioting began there after hard-line Israeli politician Ariel Sharon visited on Sept. 28 to emphasize Israel's claim to the site. A day later, Israeli police stormed the compound to break up a demonstration, killing six Palestinians and setting off the riots in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. After two months and more than 280 dead, Palestinian rioting has subsided somewhat, but a flare-up around the holy site could have reignited the conflict and scuttled the re-election hopes of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is banking on achieving a peace accord with the Palestinians. Age restrictions on praying at the Al Aqsa site had been in place for several weeks to prevent disturbances. Barak apparently removed them due to pressure from Muslim leaders to let their people pray at the site -- Islam's third-holiest place -- during Ramadan, as well as Barak's desire to ease sanctions. Police said about 100,000 worshippers prayed at Al Aqsa on Friday, but witnesses said the crowd was much smaller. Palestinian official Adnan Husseini said only 15,000 people attended. In another gesture, Israel allowed the Gaza Strip's airport to reopen, and a Jordanian plane landed Friday morning. The airport had been closed for a month in Gaza, one of the areas hardest-hit by the Israeli-Palestinian clashes. Barak, weakened by the Palestinian unrest, faces early elections in coming months, and a peace deal is seen as his best hope to hold onto power. On Thursday, he said he was prepared to recognize a Palestinian state with contiguous areas in the West Bank, while putting off the touchiest issues for later negotiations. Those issues include the future of Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their rightful capital, and a solution for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who used to live on what is now Israeli land. But the Palestinians quickly shot Barak's trial balloon down, saying he was offering them less than they were already due to receive under interim peace accords that have not been fully implemented. "The ideas which Mr. Barak claims could be a new initiative are not new at all," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian minister for information. "His main interest was and is to save himself, not to save the peace process." Barak's plan was considerably less than he reportedly offered at a failed July summit with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, organized by President Clinton. The summit offer angered other Israeli leaders, and several of Barak's coalition partners quit in protest and went over to the opposition. That development in turn led to this week's decision to call elections: Barak reluctantly agreed to the early vote, expected to take place in May, though he was due to serve until 2003. Two Palestinians were killed Thursday, pushing the death toll still higher. Also Thursday, Palestinian security officials said a relative of Hamas bombmaker Ibrahim Bani Odeh, killed a week ago in an explosion in his car, has confessed to helping Israeli agents carry out the assassination. Israel has denied involvement. Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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