A decades-old status quo agreement allows non-Muslims to visit, but not to pray on the elevated platform, which is home to Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine as well as the ruins of the biblical Jewish temple. Instead, it has only emboldened them.
Advertisement
Israel and Jordan have agreed to place surveillance cameras on the Temple Mount in order to assure Palestinians that Israel is not changing the status quo. Last year, activists say there were about 10,000.
On Saturday, Netanyahu said Muslims will continue to pray on the site while non-Muslims will visit there.
Sansur is one the leading clerics behind the ideology of the Islamic Movement, which has been accused of spearheading a campaign of incitement by claiming that Jews are targeting the Al Aqsa Mosque, the WND said.
Raphael Morris, head of Returning to the Mount, said that “the situation for Jews on the Temple Mount worsens with each passing moment; the ruthless restrictions on Jews for every matter on the Temple Mount constitute a precedent for discrimination against Jews in general and Judaism in particular”. Their numbers have grown, however, and their cause has gained support among mainstream religious Jews and Israel’s government.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuked an Israeli cabinet member who asserted she dreams of seeing the Israeli flag fly over the sensitive holy site in Jerusalem at the heart of recent violence. Glick is a member of the Likud party slate, but is not a Knesset member.
For Temple Mount activists, it is a numbers game. Glick predicted that there will have been 14,000 Jewish visits to the site by the end of 2015. Israel has adamantly denied the accusations.
He also disputed widespread reports by the global media that the Waqfs, or the custodians of the Temple Mount, were caught disposing of Jewish temple artefacts found on the site. The Temple Mount is Judaism’s most sacred site.
Earlier this year, Hussein laid a wreath at the grave of Haj Amin al-Husseini, a former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and an indicted war criminal and Nazi collaborator who incited deadly riots against Jews in pre-state Israel by spreading false rumors that they threatened al-Aqsa Mosque.
The groups mostly focus on boosting visitors and pushing for prayer rights, but they all maintain their goal of a messianic age when a Jewish Temple will be built – by most estimations where the Dome of the Rock stands today – and an altar added for the ritual slaughter of animals as prescribed by the Bible.
“It is my dream to see the Israeli flag flying” over Al-Aqsa, she was quoted by Israeli media as saying ahead of the broadcast on parliament’s cable TV channel. “You have nothing to do with this place”.
Advertisement
“He is insane”, one police officer said. We actually promise just the opposite each and every day. “There is no Temple here”.
