3 indicted for Temple Mount plot against MK, activist

Three Arab East Jerusalem residents were indicted in the Jerusalem District Court Friday afternoon for plotting to attack a right-wing parliamentarian and a Jewish activist as they visited the Temple Mount on October 30.

Majd al-Maher Karki, 21, Muhammad bin Izmi Bakri, 20, and 18-year-old Mahmoud bin Amjad Jabbar planned to hide out overnight in the al-Aqsa Mosque on October 29, then attack MK Moshe Feiglin and Yehudah Glick the next morning as they toured the site with other Jewish visitors.

They then intended to seek refuge in the mosque, and escape by blending in with other worshipers, according to the indictment.

Their plan was disrupted when Karki was arrested.

The three men are also accused of participating in other riots on the Temple Mount, and preparing to attack Jewish visitors with Molotov cocktails during the Sukkot holiday, NRG reported.

Glick was shot four times in the chest on October 29 in an attempted assassination attempt in Jerusalem, and never made it to the Mount the next day. He was released from the hospital on November 24.

The Temple Mount has been a source of increased tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, which have led to a number of violent clashes, Palestinian acts of terrorism and the attempted assassination of a Temple Mount activist in just under a month.

Since the attempted assassination of Glick, who agitated for Jewish prayer on the site, at least three right-wing politicians — Likud MKs Feiglin and Tzipi Hotovely, and Shuli Moalem-Refaeli of the Jewish Home party — have visited the site, claiming it as their democratic right and denouncing the double standard for Jewish and Muslim worshipers.

Under the terms of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, the Temple Mount remains under Jordanian custodianship through the Waqf authorities, who maintain administrative charge of the holy site.

The current arrangement on the Temple Mount allows Jewish visitors but bars them from praying at the site, the holiest for Jews and third sacred for Muslims.

Israel Police Chief Yohanan Danino last week criticized members of Knesset who went to the Temple Mount, saying that parliamentarians who seek a change to the status quo at the site should not be allowed there.

“I think that certain MKs, whose agenda it is to change the status quo, should be forbidden from going to the Temple Mount. I will not let these MKs access the site,” Danino said at a conference in Ashkelon.

The police chief was reiterating comments he made earlier in the week to that same effect, remarks which prompted critical responses from politicians, including Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein.

Danino said Edelstein did not understand the role of a police commander.

The Knesset speaker said he “expects the police commander to be out in the field and invest his energy ensuring the security of the citizens of Israel.” Edelstein added that he would continue protecting the rights of elected officials.

Edelstein and Danino went head to head Thursday as well, with the Knesset speaker turning to Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch to complain about similar remarks Danino made Wednesday and on Tuesday.

“These [statements] are grave and inappropriate coming from a police commissioner about elected public officials. It’s unacceptable that a public servant — as senior as the position may be — would question the freedom of movement of Knesset members,” Edelstein wrote in the letter, according to the Israeli news site NRG.

Danino’s comments came after weeks of riots and terror attacks in Jerusalem and elsewhere, touched off in part by Palestinian fears — denied by Israel — that Israeli lawmakers would seek to change the status quo on the compound, called the Haram al-Sharif or al-Aqsa by Muslims.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on several occasions that Israel had no intention of changing the status quo at the site.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.