Israel won’t capitulate to violence, but wants to ‘lower the flames,’ minister says

Israel will not capitulate to violence and incitement, and will not allow police officers to be murdered at the Temple Mount, an Israeli government minister said Friday evening, defending government policy after three Palestinians were killed in protests against Israel’s deployment of metal detectors at the contested site following a terror attack on July 14.

Likud minister Tzachi Hanegbi said the government had decided overnight Thursday-Friday not to remove the metal detectors because it was obligated to protect Muslims who pray at the Mount, and those who protect them. Most ministers supported the decision; two were opposed, a Channel 2 TV report said.

Hanegbi said ongoing efforts were being made to “lower the flames” of confrontation, and that the results were already being felt. He said Israel was in contact with unspecified governments and others over the issue. He cited the relative “surprising calm” in the West Bank.

The TV station said the police had braced for a “nightmare scenario” in which hundreds of thousands of Muslims attempted to converge on the Temple Mount, and to trample through the metal detectors. That scenario had been prevented, including by preventing buses of Israeli Arabs from reaching Jerusalem.

Only 150 Muslims went through the metal detectors to pray at the Temple Mount in the course of Friday, Channel 2 said.

In an extremely rare measure, the main Route 1 artery from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was closed intermittently Friday, as were other roads, the TV report said.

“The discussion was on how to come out of this confrontation as winners — not as in a victory for ego, but victory of security over terrorism, for responsibility over incitement, for careful consideration over efforts to drag us into a religious war,” said Hanegbi. Israel’s policy, he said, “is not to capitulate to incitement and violence.”

The Israeli government’s policy, he said, was that “we won’t harm the rights of Muslims and all the faithful to pray at the the Temple Mount. Quite the reverse. In order to ensure the security of those praying, and those who protect them, we won’t capitulate to those who want to draw us into bloodshed.”

Hanegbi charged that complaints about the metal detectors were a pretext. “There are metal detectors at the Vatican,” he noted, saying he walked through them recently when he met with the pope. “Nobody gets upset about it.” For years, too, he added, there have been metal detectors at the Western Wall.

What is really at stake is that “there are those that don’t like the fact that Israel is sovereign in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount,” the minister said. He cited Hamas and the outlawed Northern Branch of the Israeli Islamic Movement. But “we won’t let the Temple Mount be used as place where they murder police officers,” Hanegbi said, referring to the July 14 killings.

Following the deadly attack last Friday, Israel initially closed the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, as it searched for more weapons.

The Temple Mount is the holiest place to Jews as the site of the biblical temples, and the third holiest in Islam as the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinian officials have denounced the increased security at the site as a change in the delicate status quo that governs the site. Israel has denied this, saying the new measures were necessitated by last Friday’s attack, in which three Arab-Israelis emerged armed from the compound and shot dead two Israeli police officers stationed just outside.

On Thursday, Israel Police released video footage showing the weapons being smuggled onto the Temple Mount.