Temple Mount opens to Jewish visitors Tuesday, may close for remainder of Ramadan
Entry to Jewish visitors at flashpoint site may be prohibited in last 10 days of Islamic fasting month to reduce tensions, avoid skirmishes, according to Hebrew media reports
Jewish visitors will be allowed on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, but will likely be barred from the site for the remainder of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, according to Hebrew media reports, amid heightened tensions surrounding the flashpoint area following a week of intermittent skirmishes and violence between Israeli security forces and Palestinians, and a spate of terror attacks that claimed the lives of four people in recent days.
Jewish visitors will be able to visit the site between 7 a.m and 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, as many Jewish Israelis prepare to mark the seventh night of Passover, the last night of the Jewish holiday before it ends on Wednesday evening, Walla reported on Monday. Entry will likely then be prohibited to Jewish visitors until after April 20, when Ramadan ends, Haaretz reported on Monday evening citing political sources.
Reports have been swirling since Sunday that Israel was likely to maintain its long-held policy of barring Jews from visiting the Temple Mount during the last 10 days of Ramadan, despite the new hardline government, which includes top ministers who have long campaigned on allowing Jewish prayer at the holy site.
The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, is the holiest site for Jews and the third-holiest shrine in Islam.
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which this year once again coincides with the Jewish festival of Passover, is known to be a period of high tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinians. Tens of thousands of worshipers visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque throughout the month, regularly leading to a spike in tensions and violence with Israel.
The unnamed sources told Haaretz that denying entry to Jews in the coming 10 days will likely reduce tensions and lower the chances for confrontations and skirmishes at the site.
Hebrew media reports earlier Tuesday indicated that Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai favors halting such visits for the last days of Ramadan to offset sky-high tensions, while other security chiefs are inclined to allow them.
In a state address Monday night in which he blamed the previous government for the uptick in violence and terror attacks this past week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said consultations with security authorities were being held on a day-to-day basis about Jewish visits to the Temple Mount.
Jewish visitors were allowed to visit the flashpoint Temple Mount site on Sunday morning, hours after a number of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque overnight, stoking initial fears of clashes.
On Sunday, hundreds of Jewish visitors paid a visit to the site following dawn prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the compound, hours after a number of Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the mosque overnight, stoking initial fears of clashes.
Israel Police decided not to enter the building in the early hours of the morning, apparently to avoid scenes of violence and any potential spillover.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer told CNN that, in contrast to last week, when some Palestinians in the mosque were planning violence, necessitating police intervention, those in the mosque overnight Saturday-Sunday were not seeking confrontation.
According to an activist Temple Mount group, there were 842 Jewish visitors in total on Sunday, and 1,041 in total during the Passover holiday — marking a 43 percent increase in the rate of average Jewish visits.
Some Muslim worshippers at the site shouted at the Jewish visitors, but there were no reports of violence.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the Jewish visits to the Temple Mount on Sunday, warning of “catastrophic consequences” should Israel not cease what it says are violations of the status quo at the fragile holy site.
A Waqf official told Channel 12 that allowing non-Muslims at the site during the 10 days would be “a dangerous provocation that will lead to igniting the Middle East.”
Israel has vowed repeatedly to maintain the status quo at the site, whereby Jews are allowed to visit there — under numerous restrictions and only during limited hours — but not pray. However, Jews have increasingly been allowed to quietly pray there, while Palestinians have instigated violence at the site and unilaterally designated more parts of the site for prayer.
Israel captured the Temple Mount and Jerusalem’s Old City from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. However, it allowed the Jordanian Waqf to continue to maintain religious authority atop the mount. Under their 1994 peace treaty, Israel recognized Amman’s “special role… in Muslim holy shrines in Jerusalem.”
Last week, police entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday night for what they said was an operation to quell rioting, following which volleys of rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon and Gaza, leading to Israeli retaliatory airstrikes. On Friday afternoon, two sisters were murdered and their mother was critically injured in a West Bank shooting, later dying of her wounds on Monday morning. Later Friday evening, an Italian tourist was killed and several others were hurt in a car-ramming attack at Tel Aviv’s beach promenade.
According to police, dozens of masked youths had barricaded themselves inside the mosque last Tuesday-Wednesday overnight with fireworks, clubs and rocks following evening prayers, while locking the doors and placing barricades at the entrances.
Images of police striking Palestinians during the incident sparked widespread outrage in the Arab world, and terror groups used the images to call for attacks against Israel.
Israeli officials on Sunday expressed regret about the incident, with one official reportedly saying they had caused “terrible damage” to the country.
In a rare interview on Sunday, Shabtai himself seemed to admit that officers should not have beaten Palestinians during the incident.
The police chief also highlighted the fact that the first two weeks of Ramadan had passed by relatively peacefully and blamed extremists for stoking tensions.
On Saturday, a Channel 12 report said far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Shabtai had clashed over the ban on Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount during the final days of Ramadan.
Ben Gvir, as national security minister, oversees the police and has repeatedly butted heads with Shabtai since taking up the post some three months ago.
