Hardline Likud-Beytenu MK Moshe Feiglin was denied entry Monday to a mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Feiglin insisted on entering the mosque by virtue of his standing as an MK, even though the site is closed to non-Muslim tourists. Muslim faithful began to amass at the scene of the argument and the police removed MK Feiglin from the area.
The entire Temple Mount was subsequently closed to visitors as a result of the incident with Feiglin.
For Jews the Temple Mount is the holiest place on Earth, from where the world was created, the site of the Binding of Isaac and the location of the First and Second Temples.
For Muslims too, al-Haram al-Sharif (noble sanctuary), is a central place of worship and pilgrimage, where there stands a monumental shrine – the Dome of the Rock – and the al-Aqsa Mosque, a site of great importance in Islam.
Feiglin's visit comes at a sensitive time in the West Bank, with following increased tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in recent weeks over the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and the circumstances of the death of Palestinian prisoner Arafat Jaradat who died in a Megiddo prison in February.