Temple Mount metal detectors to stay up for now, PM says

Israel will not remove the metal detectors from the Temple Mount, but is constantly monitoring the situation and might do so at a later stage, Prime Minister Netanyahu says.

“We had a security consultation and no decision was taken. There will be additional security consultations,” he tells journalists accompanying him on his visit to Hungary.

Netanyahu says his security chiefs have varying opinions on what the next step should be, “and I listen to them all,” he adds.

“We want to solve this crisis in the most quiet manner possible and to bring back the calm,” the prime minister says. “We talk with the Arab world and we explain that there is absolutely no change to the status quo” on the holy site. The metal detectors, which were erected after Friday’s deadly shooting attack, “is a means to prevent fire arms from being brought to the Temple Mount,” he says.

Before traveling to Budapest, Netanyahu was in Paris. “When I visited the Eiffel Tower, I noticed that something had changed. You know what had changed? They installed metal detectors.”

— Raphael Ahren