Netanyahu lifts ban on lawmaker visits to Temple Mount

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lifts the ban barring Knesset members from visiting the Temple Mount holy site nearly 18 months after imposing the restriction.

Netanyahu banned lawmakers from visiting the Temple Mount since November 2015 as part of an attempt to reduce tensions amid an uptick in terror attacks against Israelis that included car-ramming and stabbing attacks.

In late March, Netanyahu indicated he would consider lifting the ban after three months — a period that would avoid a series of sensitive dates including the Trump visit, Ramadan and Israel’s celebrations of capturing Judaism’s holiest site in the 1967 Six Day War.

That announcement came after an MK from his party, Yehudah Glick, appealed to the Supreme Court over the ban.

The new regulations will go into effect later this month for a one-week trial period.