Israel to Allow Knesset Members to Ascend Temple Mount in One-Day ‘Trial’
by JNS.org
JNS.org – In a one-day “trial” next week, members of Israel’s Knesset legislature will be allowed to ascend Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the Israel Police announced on Thursday.
“The decision was made in light of the improvement in the security situation at the compound,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said on Wednesday.
The announcement came after two Knesset members attempted to enter the Temple Mount complex and were turned away by Israeli security forces.
“I’m here to protest the fact that the prime minister won’t enable police to allow us to enter the Temple Mount,” MK Yehuda Glick (Likud) told reporters at the holy site on Wednesday, after he was denied entry.
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Glick, a promoter of Jewish access to the Temple Mount, was shot and seriously wounded by a Palestinian terrorist in October 2014 as a result of his activism.
Jewish prayer is banned and Jewish visitation is limited at the Temple Mount, in accordance with the Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian status quo agreement at the sensitive holy site, which was reached after the 1967 Six-Day War.