Israeli minister stirs new tensions over Jerusalem holy site

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has moved to bring cabinet members into line after a deputy minister said she “dreamed” of seeing the Israeli flag flying over the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Of course, Jews have no intention of praying in the al-Aqsa mosque precisely because it is a mosque and not a synagogue.

Returning to the Mount, a group that advocates for Jewish sovereignty over the holy site and the rebuilding of the ancient temple there, has launched the campaign to pay Jewish worshipers, Channel 2 reported Tuesday, according to the Times of Israel. “Jews have no right to pray on the Temple Mount and they can build their temple in Yemen from my point of view”.

Netanyahu’s office reacted swiftly with a statement late Monday recalling his promise to maintain the status quo which allows Muslims to pray at the site, and Jews to visit but not pray there.

25 photo captions published by the influential news agency misidentified the “Al-Aqsa mosque compound”, also known as the Temple Mount or Noble Sanctuary, as “Islam’s holiest site”.

“My personal opinions are not government policy”. Glick predicted that there will have been 14,000 Jewish visits to the site by the end of 2015.

The site has been the focal point of violence wracking Israel and the Palestinian territories – including dozens of Palestinian stabbing attacks on Israelis – in the past month, amid claims by Palestinian leaders that Israel plans to change the status quo on the Temple Mount.

He vehemently denied that there has ever been a Jewish shrine atop the Temple Mount, despite rich archaeological and textual evidence to the contrary, including from Muslim sources.

He also disputed widespread reports by the global media that the Waqfs, or the custodians of the Temple Mount, were caught disposing of Jewish temple artefacts found on the site.

A Muslim with a white beard shouted at the passing group: “Get out of here!” One veteran visitor said the man always shouts the same thing.

Once he passed the doorway, Gilad Hadari, an activist from the West Bank settlement of Alon Moreh, covered his face and whispered a Jewish prayer.

Netanyahu has agreed with US Secretary of State John Kerry and Jordan, the official guardian of the holy site in East Jerusalem, to place 24-hour surveillance cameras throughout the Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount compound.

During a heated radio talk show debate with Jewish U.S. journalist Aaron Klein, who broadcasts from Tel Aviv, Sheikh Ibrahim Sansur stressed that the Jews are prohibited from going to the holiest site even if they have to pray.

“Have a few respect. That just as we don’t go to the Western Wall, don’t go to our places”, Daana said.