Netanyahu reminds politicians of ban on Temple Mount visits

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday reiterated his blanket ban on elected officials visiting the flashpoint Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem.

The move comes ahead of the Passover holiday, when many religiously observant Jewish politicians seek to visit the holy site in homage to the pilgrimages taken by Jews in biblical times.

Ministers and lawmakers, Jewish and Arab, were all told that the site, holy to both Jews and Muslims, would continue to be off-limits to politicians in a bid to prevent the stoking of further violence, the Haaretz daily reported.

Netanyahu has also asked Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and the security services to distance firebrand Muslim preacher Raed Salah from the Temple Mount.

“This man should be in prison already,” the prime minister said, according to the report. “We’re seeing attempts by Raed Salah to heat up the Temple Mount area ahead of Passover. This man is a one-man detonator.”

Netanyahu first ordered Jewish and Muslim lawmakers off the site late last year, after the outbreak in October of a wave of Palestinian violence and terror attacks centered around claims that Israel was attempting to take control of the Temple Mount.

Meanwhile Sunday, a Shin Bet official told the cabinet that new statistics show a significant drop in attacks on Israelis over the past weeks, but stressed that counter-terror efforts would persist.

The last few months have seen a “significant decline” in the number of attacks, including in the number of “significant” attacks, the security service reported.

The Shin Bet said figures showed three significant attacks in April, as compared to 20 in March and 78 in October, at the start of the uptick in attacks.

In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Shin Bet attributed the decline to Israeli efforts to foil attacks, along with “effective deterrent action” and “determined activity to counter Palestinian incitement.”

The agency, which presented the numbers to the cabinet’s weekly meeting Sunday morning, said Israel’s counter-terror activity has left the Palestinian public feeling that the “escalation is pointless.”

In a stark departure from the line maintained by Netanyahu – that incitement and Islamist radicalism are the prime drivers of violence – the Shin Bet said that most of the attackers were motivated by “personal issues,” notably “a dire personal or financial situation.”

Only some of the attacks were carried out due to “nationalistic motives,” the ministers heard in the briefing.