PROTESTS: Michael Jansenwalks around East Jerusalem, where Muslims hold no-prayer protests as Israeli police look on
EAST JERUSALEM is under siege. As the call to prayer rises from dozens of minarets across Jerusalem, Israeli armed police block the streets leading to the Old City.
Across from the post office at the bottom of Salaheddin, the main thoroughfare of the Palestinian sector, men and women show identity cards to the police and walk across the empty road to Herod's Gate and the route to al-Aqsa mosque, the holy city's main Muslim place of worship.
At a second barrier near the gate, men aged 50 and below are refused entry but women, seen as less of a threat, are allowed to proceed. I walk along the wide street opposite the golden stone walls of the Old City. There is no traffic and the heavy iron doors of most shops are shut. Their owners fear violent protests after prayers. But vendors sell fat strawberries and thick-skinned oranges piled high on barrows and vegetables and shoes from boxes on the pavement.
At Damascus Gate Israeli police, some with horses, others with helmets, await developments. A stream of devout men and women with grim faces make for a mosque not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. On the steps I meet 'Anan and his wife.
He is too young to get into al-Aqsa. At the bottom of Nablus Road, opposite Damascus Gate, Israeli troops observe several ranks of men performing a peaceful pray-protest in the street. Like 'Anan, they are too young to go to al-Aqsa. Not wishing to disturb their devotions, I return to Salaheddin where another group of men sit on the ground, legs crossed beneath them, arms across their chests, as they mount a no-pray protest.
A Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance is at the ready in case of trouble. I am told 3,000 police are on duty. Later, Riad, who attends the service in al-Aqsa, says no more than 1,000 are there. A tiny congregation in a house of worship which normally holds many thousands.
Friday's Jerusalem and West Bank battles with the Israelis take place outside the Old City, at Ras al-Amud, on the route to Bethany, in Bethlehem and Hebron in the south, Ramallah just north of Jerusalem, and Nablus, Tulkarem and Jenin in the north.
At the village of Bil'in, near the old dividing line between the West Bank and Israel, Palestinian, Israeli and foreign peace activists gather for their regular post-prayer demonstration at the mostly closed gate in the wall which cuts the village off from 60 per cent of its land.
Some wear grey- and white-striped suits like the uniforms of Jewish inmates of Nazi death camps. Israeli troops drench them with tear gas, fire percussion grenades and throw sound bombs.
There are anti-Israel protests in Istanbul, Amman, Cairo and other Egyptian cities, Baghdad, Doha, Manama, Jakarta and elsewhere. There is no rest for the angry this Friday.