Temple Mount Reopens

The Fellowship  |  July 17, 2017

For the first time since the terror attack on Friday that left two Israeli policemen dead and a third wounded, the Temple Mount has reopened for Jewish visitors. However, writes The Times of Israel’s Sue Surkes, Muslim officials are protesting the necessary security measures that Israel has installed at the holy site that has become a powder keg:

For the first time in years, Jews went up onto the Temple Mount on Monday without the accompaniment of Muslim religious authority officials, as police allowed non-Muslim visitors back onto the powder-keg holy site for the first time since a Friday terror attack in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Many members of the Waqf — the Islamic trust that administers the site — have objected to the metal detectors Israel installed at entrances to the holy site and have refused to ascend to the compound, urging other Muslims to stay away as well in protest.

Waqf officials normally keep a close eye on non-Muslim visitors to the site, where a delicate status quo allowing only Muslim prayer is in place.

The Temple Mount was closed Friday after three Arab Israeli terrorists opened fire at a group of police officers, killing two of them, using guns that had apparently been stashed earlier on the site.

On Sunday, the site was opened to Muslims only, and on Monday, it was opened to non-Muslim visitors as well.

Israel Radio reported that 10 people were injured and three were arrested for throwing stones in overnight scuffles with security forces close to the Old City’s Lion’s Gate, near one of the Temple Mount’s nine entrances…