'Jordan forces break up protest at Israeli embassy'

Activists in Amman gather over Likud activists that tried to access Temple Mount in Jerusalem, call for embassy's closure.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, MELANIE LIDMAN
Dome of the Rock 260 (photo credit: REUTERS/Muammar Awad)
Dome of the Rock 260
(photo credit: REUTERS/Muammar Awad)
Jordanian security forces dispersed activists at the Israeli embassy in Amman on Sunday that were protesting against attempts by Likud activists to access the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Al Jazeera reported Sunday.
Activists raised Jordanian and Palestinian flags, and demanded that Jordan close the Israeli mission over what protesters say is an attempt to "Judaize" the Temple Mount, also the site of the Aksa mosque and Dome of the Rock.
Earlier Sunday, police in Jerusalem prevented former Likud leadership contender Moshe Feiglin from entering the Temple Mount, accusing Feiglin and Likud activists of attempting to disrupt the order. Feiglin sent a message to Likud activists on Saturday night, urging them to join him by going up to 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 announcement 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 on every 19th of the Hebrew month. They went to pray at the Western Wall after police prevented them from entering the Temple Mount.
 “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 every representative of every religion, and will utilize every ability of the law to stop this,” said Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby.  
In response, a few hundred Muslim worshipers gathered near the Al Aqsa Mosque and demonstrated against Feiglin’s attempt to go up to the Temple Mount. They yelled “Allahu Akbar” loud enough that it was audible from the Western Wall plaza below but there was no violence, said Ben Ruby.
Feiglin claimed that the announcement was fake and that his name was unknowingly used on the flyer. He demanded police investigate to determine who made the flyer.
However, in Feiglin’s weekly newsletter published last Thursday, he invited Likud activists to join him to go up to the Temple Mount. The flyer was posted on the website of “Har Habayit Shelanu” an activist group dedicated to Jewish sovereignty at the Temple Mount.