Pro-Islamic State gathering on Temple Mount filmed by Israeli TV
Channel 10 shows footage of event attended by thousands on a recent Friday in Jerusalem’s Old City
Israel’s Channel 10 on Wednesday night broadcast what it said was footage from a recent “Islamic State gathering” on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The report, which is to be broadcast in full next week, said the gathering underlined that Islamic State intends to focus on Israel in the future.
Formally, the gathering, attended by thousands, was organized by the Tahrir party, which the report described as being the “Palestine branch” of Islamic State.
Speakers were filmed anticipating the liberation of Jerusalem and decrying Jewish pollution of the city. Several black IS flags were seen in the footage.
The footage was filmed on a recent Friday, the report said.
The reporter, Zvi Yehezkeli, said a photograph of a Palestinian youngster holding an IS flag that proliferated on social media over the past week was taken next to where he was standing.
Yehezkeli said he had expected to be stopped by Israeli Police when he tried to enter the Mount area at a time designated for Muslim prayers, and that it was frightening to be in the plaza while the IS gathering was taking place.
He claimed that the Islamic State, “now knocking on Jordan’s door, has marked ‘Palestine’ as the next target on its list.”
The group has made large gains in Syria and Iraq, where it has been targeted by US airstrikes.
On Wednesday, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson wrote on twitter that Steven Sotloff, an American journalist beheaded by IS in a video released a day earlier, held Israeli citizenship. The Foreign Ministry declined to confirm the information.
Sotloff, a Jewish native of Miami and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, came to Israel in 2008 to pursue an undergraduate degree at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
