Tel Aviv – An Israeli minister was accused on Tuesday of adding fuel to the fire over a disputed Jerusalem holy site after she said she wished to see the Israeli flag raised over it.
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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. One of the most prominent measures, the installation of cameras throughout the Temple Mount, which was suggested by Jordan’s King Abdullah, was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Wall Street Journal is the latest media outlet to incorrectly report that the Western Wall is Judaism’s holiest site.
The grand mufti of Jerusalem said in an interview with an Israeli television station that there has never been a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
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.
The compound is known to Jews as the Temple Mount. Their comments quickly drew a rebuke from Netanyahu’s office and clarifications from both that they were expressing personal opinions.
Glick, who also is a senior member of Likud though he does not serve in parliament, pressed his case in a recent meeting with Netanyahu and in discussions with Israeli lawmakers this week. Glick predicted that there will have been 14,000 Jewish visits to the site by the end of 2015. Israeli law and Jewish law, as interpreted by Israel’s chief rabbinate, prohibit Jews from praying there. Earlier this month, a rabbi with the Sephardic Shas party’s Council of Torah Sages said that Jews visiting the Temple Mount “sparked” the recent tensions. The compound in its current form was built in the seventh century by Islam’s second caliph, Omar, on the site of the Second Jewish Temple that was destroyed by the Romans around 70 AD. In Hebrew, it is referred to as Har HaBayit – the Temple Mount. The Israeli police escorts, who had until then maintained a stern demeanor, laughed along with the visitors.
Once he passed the doorway, Gilad Hadari, an activist from the West Bank settlement of Alon Moreh, covered his face and whispered a Jewish prayer.
A Muslim man prays on the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday.
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“We should raise the flag, this is Israel’s capital and it is the holiest place to the Jewish people”, she said. We actually promise just the opposite each and every day.
