PA condemns Israel for allowing over 1,000 Jews to enter Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, condemns Israel for allowing over a thousand Jews to visit the Temple Mount to mark the solemn fast day of Tisha B’Av, which mourns the destruction of the Temples that once stood at Judaism’s holiest site.

The flashpoint site houses the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site to Muslims. Some of the Jewish visitors have been filmed praying in violation of police instructions and of a vague, unwritten status quo that governs the site.

Abu Rudeineh calls the visits a “dangerous provocation” and holds Israel “responsible for these practices.” He calls on the US to “intervene immediately to stop these provocations against our holy religious sites.”

Palestinian official news agency WAFA, quoting the Jordanian Waqf, claims that 1,600 Jews have entered the site today.

The status quo is understood differently by the different parties. While Israel regards it as stating that Jews can visit the site but not pray there, Palestinian and Arab leaders view any uptick in visits as in itself a violation of the status quo.