Knesset Members Allowed To Visit Temple Mount Next Week
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Knesset members will be allowed to visit the Temple Mount one day next week following months of unrest at the holy site.
The trial visit was coordinated between the Israel Police and the Prime Minister’s Office, The Times of Israel reported.
The visit was announced Wednesday, hours after lawmakers Yehuda Glick of the Likud party and Shuli Mualem-Refaeli of Jewish Home attempted to enter the site. Days earlier, Glick had held office hours outside a Temple Mount entrance to protest the ongoing ban on visits by Knesset members. Arab-Israeli lawmakers also have protested, and flouted, the ban.
In November 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered lawmakers to stay off the Temple Mount amid a wave of Palestinian terrorism linked to claims that Israel was trying to change the status quo. Israel denied the claims. After Glick filed a petition against the ban, Netanyahu in early July decided to allow lawmakers to visit the site on a trial basis, but suspended it after a terror attack on the Mount later that month.
Glick is a longtime activist for Jewish prayer rights at the Temple Mount. Prior to becoming a Knesset member, he led many groups of Jewish visitors to the site. In 2014, a Palestinian terrorist shot and nearly killed Glick for his Temple Mount activism.
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