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world news Diabierna 23 Juli 2021
Hong Kong police arrest 5 trade union members for sedition

(AP) — Hong Kong po- curity department, said have the area” where the sheep
lice on Thursday arrested seditious intent. live, and try to kill them, Li
five trade union members said.
over children’s books they The books feature stories
described as seditious, that revolve around a village “Of course, when we pros-
and a court denied bail of sheep that has to deal with ecute the case, we are not the
for four editors and jour- wolves from a different vil- one to prove that these mate-
nalists held on charges of lage. The sheep take action rials have actually caused the
endangering national se- like going on strike or escap- inciting to others,” said Li.
curity, as part of a widen- ing by boat, according to the
ing crackdown on dissent synopses published on the as- “And the children, maybe
in the city. sociation’s website. because of the information
inside ... can turn their mind
The five who were arrested Li said that the stories ref- and develop a moral standard with a sweeping national se- tion of justice, and (incites)
are members of the General erenced the 12 Hong Kong against the society.” curity law that critics say re- violence to others,” Li said.
Association of Hong Kong activists who were arrested stricts freedoms promised He added that the books tar-
Speech Therapists, according at sea while trying to flee the The 2019 rallies calling for to the former British colony geted children between the
to local media reports. city, after most of them were more civil rights and uni- that are not found on main- ages of 4 and 7.
charged in connection with versal suffrage shook Hong land China.
The association published massive anti-government Kong for months, often de- Police said that also froze
three children’s books that protests in 2019. There was scending into violence be- The publishing of such books 160,000 Hong Kong dollars
Li Kwai-wah, a senior super- also a story about wolves who tween police and protesters. “brings hatred against the ($20,600) in assets linked to
intendent of the national se- are “cruel and try to occupy Beijing responded last year government and administra- the union.
Politics foil replacing hazardous bridge to Jerusalem site

(AP) — A rickety bridge ed to hold a hearing on the the status quo of the Temple
allowing access to Jeru- matter this week. Mount. If you breach the sta-
salem’s most sensitive tus quo, it’s a pandora’s box,”
holy site is at risk of col- The petitioners’ attorneys said Yitzhak Reiter, chair of
lapse, according to ex- have also called on the com- the Israel studies department
perts. But the flashpoint mission probing the Mount at Ashkelon Academic Col-
shrine’s delicate position Meron disaster to investigate lege, and an expert on dis-
at ground-zero of the Is- the “dangerous and dilapidat- puted holy sites.
raeli-Palestinian conflict ed temporary bridge situated
has prevented its repair illegally above the women’s Israel and Jordan reportedly
for more than a decade. section.” reached an agreement to re-
following an earthquake and beams were “in a state of ex- place the bridge in 2011, but
The tenuous state of the Mu- heavy snowfall. treme dryness” and severely The original permit issued by that deal fell through. At the
ghrabi Bridge has raised fears cracked. He approved use of City Hall approved the tem- time, Israel accused Jordan of
of another disaster months Engineers have warned for the bridge until no later than porary bridge for the use of reneging.
after a stampede at a religious more than a decade that it is September and urged au- police until the ramp could
festival in northern Israel left increasingly unsafe. But re- thorities “to act immediately be repaired. It never was. Relations between the two
45 people dead. ligious sensitivities and dip- to replace the bridge in order neighbors further soured in
lomatic deadlock have trans- to make safe its use.” A 2006 Prime Minister’s the past decade and “since
Days after the stampede last lated into years of inaction. Office memo said “it’s un- then, nothing has been done
May, a municipal engineer His inspection came less derstood that the tempo- because the Jordanians still
hired by the Western Wall The Temple Mount is the than a week after the deadly rary wooden bridge cannot oppose it,” Reiter said. Is-
Heritage Foundation in- holiest place in Judaism, stampede earlier this year continue to serve the com- rael’s new government has
spected the Mughrabi Bridge. the site where two ancient at Mount Meron, where munity for a long time” and moved to repair ties with Jor-
Citing its poor condition, he Temples stood. Today, the 100,000 worshippers had called upon the Western Wall dan, an important Arab ally,
urged its immediate replace- compound is home to the gathered for an annual pil- Heritage Foundation to final- but it is unclear whether they
ment and authorized its use Al-Aqsa Mosque and iconic grimage despite coronavirus ize plans for a permanent re- will be able to make progress
only until September. gold-topped Dome of the restrictions and longstanding placement. on the bridge.
Rock, and is the third-holiest warnings the complex could
With a Supreme Court law- site in Islam after Mecca and not handle large crowds. But diplomatic pressure by In the meantime, Jewish vis-
suit pushing for the structure Medina in Saudi Arabia. neighboring Jordan, which its to the compound have
to be repaired, the govern- A government commission serves as custodian of the Is- grown from around 5,800
ment could soon be forced The competing claims to the is now investigating the April lamic trust managing the Al- per year in 2010 to more than
into taking action on a prob- site have sparked repeated 30 incident, the deadliest ci- Aqsa Mosque compound, has 37,000 in 2019, according to
lem that it has long evaded bouts of violence over the vilian accident in Israeli his- made it difficult to act. police figures cited by He-
due to its broad diplomatic years and helped fuel an 11- tory. brew newspaper Makor Ris-
sensitivities with Jordan, the day war between Israel and Day-to-day affairs at the site hon. Israeli police declined
Palestinians and the broader Hamas militants in the Gaza The Mughrabi Bridge hangs are governed by a set of un- requests to confirm those
Muslim world. Strip in May. over the women’s prayer derstandings referred to as figures.
section of the Western Wall the “status quo,” and any per-
The bridge is the sole access Days before the Gaza war plaza, the holiest place where ceived change to these pre- On Sunday alone, over 1,500
point for non-Muslims to erupted, the Western Wall Jews can pray. carious rules has the potential Jews visited to mark the Jew-
reach the contested hilltop Heritage Foundation, the to ignite outrage across the ish holy day of Tisha B’Av.
compound revered by Jews government-backed organi- In June, a group of women Muslim world. The higher-than-usual num-
as the Temple Mount and by zation that manages the Jew- who pray at the wall pe- ber, along with some of the
Muslims as the Noble Sanc- ish prayer plaza at the base of titioned Israel’s Supreme The Palestinians and Mus- visitors violating a ban on
tuary. the mount, had an engineer Court to demand answers lims worldwide fear that any Jewish prayer, added to Mus-
inspect the bridge. from the various authorities, shifts — even one meant to lim concerns that Israel is try-
Foot traffic has grown con- saying the bridge’s continued protect public safety — could ing to disrupt the status quo.
siderably since its construc- In a letter obtained by The existence was “a violation of lead to an Israeli takeover or
tion in 2004 after an earthen Associated Press, engineer the provisions of the law and partition of the site. The bridge’s replacement has
ramp leading to one of the Ofer Cohen said the hastily also creates a real risk to the become a cause célèbre for
compound’s gates collapsed constructed bridge’s wooden public.” The court is expect- “For Jordan, it’s connected to opposition lawmakers.