Right-Wing Lawmaker Moshe Feiglin Told To Avoid Temple Mount in Jerusalem

No Go Area: Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin has been told by party leader Benjamin Netanyahu to stay away from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Image by getty images
Right-wing Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin was told not to ascend the Temple Mount on orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Feiglin, who visits the Temple Mount on the 19th of every Hebrew month, had planned to visit it on Monday, the 19th of the Hebrew month of Iyar.
He said in a post on his Facebook page Sunday night that Israel Police Commander Moshe Bareket had called him and informed him of Netanyahu’s orders.
“The Prime Minister has no legal authority to give such an instruction, since it violates three Basic Laws,” Feiglin wrote, citing Israel’s Basic Laws that allow freedom of movement, freedom of access to holy sites in Jerusalem, and immunity to Knesset members.
The order to prevent Feiglin from visiting the Temple Mount came after the Wakf, the Muslim religious administration charged with managing the Temple Mount site, warned the Prime Minister’s Office that a visit on Monday from Feiglin would touch off “World War Three,” the Jewish Press reported, citing a “source close to Feiglin.”
“When, just before Jerusalem Liberation Day, the prime minister orders an Israeli Knesset member that – contrary to Israeli law – he not to go up to the Temple Mount, it means that the prime minister has officially and openly revoked Israeli sovereignty on the Mount and given it to the Muslim Wakf,” Feiglin wrote on his Facebook page.
Feiglin was prevented by police from visiting the Temple Mount on the second day of Passover in March, after information that hundreds of Arabs planned to protest his visit. He had coordinated his visit in advance with security officials.
Earlier in March, Feiglin was prevented from entering the Dome of the Rock and then removed from the Temple Mount. He had asked to be allowed to enter the Dome of the Rock in his capacity as a Knesset member.
Feiglin was detained by Israel Police in January for praying on the Temple Mount. He also was arrested in October for praying at the site. In December he led a minyan at the site that was caught on video and widely distributed.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Fast Forward Brooklyn event with Itamar Ben-Gvir cancelled days before Israeli far-right minister’s US trip
-
Culture How Abraham Lincoln in a kippah wound up making a $250,000 deal on ‘Shark Tank’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.