Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Congressmen Questioned By Police After Taking Olive Branch From Temple Mount

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two U.S. congressmen were questioned by police after they removed an olive branch from the Temple Mount compound.

Reps. Scott Tipton of Colorado and David McKinley of West Virginia, both Republicans, visited the site holy to Muslims and Jews on Thursday morning. They are part of a weeklong fact-finding mission hosted by Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a pro-Israel evangelical group, and Jaffe Strategies, which runs a pro-Israel lobby group.

The Islamic Waqf guard that was accompanying the congressmen complained to the Israel Police escort about the action. It is forbidden to remove objects from the site.

Police officers stopped the congressmen and asked if they had taken an object from the Temple Mount. They were not detained, according to the police.

The congressmen later had a scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which they said they would bring up their experience at the site.

Also Wednesday, Netanyahu met with a delegation of Republican senators led by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Netanyahu briefed the group on Iran’s attempts to establish a military presence in Syria and Israel’s determination to stop it, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.