Temple Mount Closed After ‘Assassination’ Try on Activist Yehuda Glick
Temple Feud: Israelis demonstrate after shooting of Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick. Image by getty images
Israel closed the Temple Mount to Muslim worshippers and to both Jewish and non-Jewish visitors in the wake of the attempted assassination of an Israeli activist.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called the closure of the holy site on early Thursday, hours after Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick was shot at close range outside of the Begin Center in Jerusalem, a “declaration of war.”
PICTURE: Palestinians praying outside of Al-Aqsa as mosque closed today pic.twitter.com/ouomuACkDK
— Aaron Magid (@AaronMagid) October 30, 2014
“This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation,” Abbas said, according to his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina.
Glick was shot three times Wednesday night in the chest and stomach by an unidentified assailant on a motorcycle who fled the scene. He remains in serious condition at Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where he underwent surgery following the attack.
Yehuda Glick explains his Temple Mount advocacy in his own words.
Glick heads the Temple Mount Faithful organization, which advocates building a Third Temple on the holy site. Before the shooting, he spoke at a conference at the center dealing with Jewish rights at the Temple Mount.
Knesset lawmaker Moshe Feiglin of the Jewish Leadership faction of the Likud Party, who also spoke at the Wednesday night conference, attempted on Thursday morning to enter the Temple Mount, but was prevented by police from doing so. Following the shooting, Feiglin had called for a Jewish march on the Temple Mount. Other activists joined Feiglin at the entrance to the Temple Mount on Thursday morning, where they performed morning prayers.
“The assassin achieved his aim. There are no Jews on Temple Mount,” Feiglin said at the site.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
