Temple Mount closed to all non-Muslims following "incitement" by former Likud leadership contender.
By MELANIE LIDMANLikud activist Moshe Feiglin at the Kotel 390(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Police prevented former Likud leadership contender Moshe Feiglin from entering the Temple Mount Sunday morning, after accusing him and right-wing activists of attempting to disrupt order.A flyer aimed at members of the Likud Central Committee urged thousands of supporters to join Feiglin at the Temple Mount on Sunday morning.“Purify the site from the enemies of Israel who stole the land, and build the Third Temple on the ruins of the mosques,” the flyer read.Jerusalem Police Chief Nisso Shaham closed the Temple Mount to all non-Muslim visitors Sunday morning as a result of the announcement.Feiglin and three other Likud activists attempted to enter the site around 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, and tried to argue with the guards that their plan to go up to the Temple Mount was for purely personal reasons. They went to pray at the Western Wall after police prevented them from entering the Temple Mount.Feiglin said the announcement was fake and created without his permission.It was posted on the website of Har Habayit Shelanu, an activist group dedicated to Jewish sovereignty at the Temple Mount.“Instead of closing the Temple Mount, the police need to investigate who made this announcement,” said Amnon Shomron, the media adviser to Feiglin. “The bottom line is that police need to arrest people who incite, and this was incitement.”Shomron added that the flyer included mistakes in Feiglin’s job title in the Likud party and other inaccuracies. Feiglin has a tradition of going up to the Temple Mount on every 19th of the Hebrew month, along with five-to-ten supporters, but had no plans to bring thousands of people with him, said Shomron.Police took the accusations of incitement seriously and closed the site to all non-Muslim worshippers.
Police will examine the security situation later on Sunday to determine if the site will reopen Monday.“The areas of the Temple Mount and the Kotel Plaza are used as a place of prayer and religious rituals and the police will not allow any political use or incitement from any representative of any religion, and will utilize every ability of the law to stop this,” said Jerusalem Police Spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby.In response to the flyer, a few hundred Muslim worshippers gathered near the Al Aqsa Mosque and demonstrated against Feiglin’s attempt to go up to the Temple Mount, according to Ben Ruby. They yelled “Allu Akbar” loud enough that it was audible from the Western Wall plaza below, but there was no violence.Last night, Left-wing groups Keshev and Ir Amim sent a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu demanding he “immediately stop this craziness” and bar Feiglin from visiting the Temple Mount.“The participation of Likud members in this dangerous provocation falls on you and the results are your full responsibility,” the organizations wrote in the letter.
