WHAT IS HAPPENING IN JERSUALEM AND WHY??

 The conflict between the two warring communities has gone on for decades.

Why is there a conflict between Israel and Palestine?

The Israel Palestinian conflict has rumbled on for decades, having begun over a dispute between land and borders.

The area of land in question, formerly known as Palestine, was initially inhabited by a Jewish minority and an Arab majority.

  Between the 1920s and 40s, Jews began arriving in vast numbers as they fled persecution and later sought out a homeland after the Holocaust.

As British rulers left in 1948, the Jewish leaders living there declared the creation of the state of Israel.

Yet, many Arabs already living in the area objected to this, and war between the two parties followed.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes in the process in what they call 'The Catastrophe.'

By the time the fighting ended in a ceasefire the following year, Israel controlled most of the territory.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS:  

May 7, 2021: Clashes erupted on Friday as Muslims packed the Al-Aqsa mosque to pray during the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Violence had been building in the Holy City and occupied West Bank for the previous week.

Palestinians hurled stones, bottles, and fireworks at Israeli police who fired rubber bullets and stun grenades. The site is sacred to Jews as the location of two biblical-era temples.

More than 220 people, mostly Palestinians, were wounded.

May 8, 2021: Prayers at the mosque compound are held peacefully but violence flares elsewhere in east Jerusalem.

Some 121 Palestinians are wounded overnight, many hit by rubber bullets and stun grenades, the Palestinian Red Crescent says.

Israeli police say 17 of its officers are wounded.

Scuffles between Palestinians and Israeli police in east Jerusalem continue overnight.

May 9, 2021, The justice ministry delays the Supreme Court hearing in light of "the circumstances."

In the evening, Israeli police again face off against mostly young Palestinians at several locations in east Jerusalem.

May 10, 2021: Some 331 Palestinians are wounded, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, in renewed clashes between Palestinians and police at the mosque ahead of a planned march to commemorate Israel's capture of Jerusalem in 1967.

What’s happening in 2021?

May 2021 saw some of the worst violence in Jerusalem for years, as simmering tensions between Isreal and Palestine boiled over.

Hundreds of people on both sides were wounded as some citizens, including children, lost their lives.

Much of the recent unrest stems from the long-running legal effort by Jewish settler groups to evict several Palestinian families from their homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

A lower court ruling earlier this year backing the settlers' decades-old claim infuriated Palestinians.

A Supreme Court hearing on a Palestinian appeal had been set May 10 and risked inflaming tensions further.