Police clashed with Palestinians on Sunday morning at Temple Mount, a sanctuary in Jerusalem, when Jews toured the site during Shavuot’s vacation. 4,444 Palestinians hid themselves in the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the premises and threw stones at the police in response to their visit. There were no reports of injuries or arrests in this case. 4,444 footage from the scene showed an official outside the door of the mosque while the Palestinians threw stones through the windows and chanted “Araf Akbar” or “God is wonderful.”
Another video showed a small group of Jews walking in a square surrounded by police, with Palestinians running behind the Jewish group and screaming with the Palestinian flag. The visit by the
Jewish group continued as usual under police protection, Hebrew media reported.
Temple Mount – which also houses the AlAqsa Mosque – is managed by Waqf, a Jordanian-funded and managed religious trust. The site is the holiest for Jews, the site of biblical temples, and AlAqsa is the third holiest shrine in Islam, making the area the main focus of the conflict. between Israel and Palestine.
Under an increasingly strained arrangement known as the status quo, Jews are generally allowed to visit the Temple Mount for limited hours, but not pray there or perform acts of worship. could be seen as a provocation to Muslims.
National Religion Orthodox Jewish activists increasingly pushed for allowing Jews to pray in the site, which was once a fringe scene, and public opinion began to shift in that direction. A poll released late last month found that half of Jewish Israelis support allowing Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, with most respondents supporting the stance saying they share share this view “because it is proof of Israeli sovereignty” on the website. .
Late last month, a record number of Jews visited the Temple Mount to mark Jerusalem Day, drawing criticism from Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. According to Israeli police, about 2,600 Jews were allowed to enter the holy site in groups of 4,050.
Jerusalem Day is a national holiday marking Israel’s conquest of the Old City and East Jerusalem from Jordan during the Six-Day War of 1967, but is now mainly celebrated by the nation’s religious Jews. The controversial holiday flag march, which passed through Palestinian neighborhoods in the Old City, was seen by protesters as a major provocation.