Egyptian official attacked by Muslims at holy site

JERUSALEM — Muslim extremists attacked the Egyptian foreign minister as he tried to pray at a key Jerusalem holy site Monday, jostling him, shouting abuse and overshadowing his efforts to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Ahmed Maher, 68, appeared badly shaken as bodyguards and Israeli police whisked him out of the compound, while protesters hurled shoes — a great insult in Islamic culture — and shouted at him. The guards supported Maher by his shoulders as he grimaced in pain and clutched his chest.

Witnesses heard him gasping, "I’m going to choke, I’m going to choke," as he left the compound in a bedlam of shoving and shouting through a gate above the Western Wall, a Jewish holy site.

Seven suspects were arrested.

The attack on Maher was a rare assault on an official from a Muslim country at the site known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, revered as the place where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. Jews honor the site as the Temple Mount, which housed the biblical Jewish Temples.

Witnesses said the protesters, several dozen in number, were members of a small extremist group called "Islamic Liberation Movement." They shouted at Maher, "You’re not welcome here!" and charged that Egypt was helping Israel oppress the Palestinians. "You are collaborating with the killers of Muslims," one shouted.

Earlier in the day, Maher met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who indicated that Israel would respond positively to a cease-fire by Palestinian militants, a senior Israeli official said. In the past Israel has said a truce was not enough and that militant groups must be dismantled, as called for in the U.S.-backed peace plan.

Meanwhile, the refusal by some members of an elite Israeli commando unit to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip put further pressure from within the military against Sharon’s hard-line policies with the Palestinians.

At the same time, the move whipped up debate over whether a soldier can refuse to obey orders as a protest against an occupation that Israelis increasingly feel is destroying their country.

The refusal came from 13 reservists from the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, lionized in Israel for daring operations such as the 1976 Entebbe hostage rescue.

In a letter to Sharon, they said they could not "continue to stand silent" regarding Israeli military activities in the territories, which they say deprive "millions of Palestinians of human rights."