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.”

“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.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount