Police minister files complaint against Arab MK over Temple Mount visit

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan files a complaint with the Knesset Ethics Committee against an Arab Knesset member for visiting Jerusalem’s Temple Mount complex, despite a prohibition on lawmakers visiting the holy site.

In his letter to the committee, Erdan accused Tibi of endangering public security by visiting the site “in an open and demonstrative manner” at a “sensitive and turbulent time.”

“There is no doubt that Tibi’s ascension to the Mount, of which he was aware the Ethics Committee established was prohibited, endanger public safety and security and could have incited and provoked others to carry out violent acts in response,” Erdan wrote, according to Channel 2.

“Tibi’s action should be treated with particular severity in light of the fact they were committed during at the height of the tensions and a few days after a reminder was sent by the Knesset speaker on the existence of the ban,” he added.

Erdan also called for the Knesset Ethics Committee to impose sanctions on Tibi “that fit the severity of his actions.”

Joint (Arab) List MK Ahmed Tibi’s July visit to the Temple Mount came during a period of high tensions surrounding the complex, after three Arab Israel terrorists shot dead two policemen using weapons they smuggled weapons into the site.

— Alexander Fulbright