CLERGY representing the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths in Jerusalem called for tolerance today outside the synagogue where four worshippers and a police officer were killed in an attack by two Palestinian cousins a day earlier.

Rabbi Michael Melchior called for an end to spiralling violence in the city, saying: “This is not the way.”

He spoke alongside Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theofilis III, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal and Sheikh Samir Assi, imam of the al-Jazaar mosque in Acre.

But there were few signs that Israel’s government would halt its aggressive colonisation of East Jerusalem, which has sparked a rise in ethnic killings of Israelis and Palestinians since last month.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an increase in house demolitions in response to Tuesday’s murders.

He had ordered security forces to “hit back hard” against Palestinians involved in “violence against Israelis,” he said.