Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site – the center of the ancient temple stood there. Yet, access to the site is highly restricted to Jews. Praying and carrying out religious rituals are forbidden and blanket closures are periodically enacted. This is done in sensitivity to a Muslim religious complex built on the ruins of Temple Mount.

Likud MK Moshe Feiglin has called for an end to this prejudicial nonsense. In a letter to Israel Police Commissioner Yochanan Danino, Feiglin challenged objected to Muslim preferential treatment and their decision to hand contro over to the Waqf trust.

He cited a statement from 1968 by Israeli cabinet minister Yaakov Shapira, in which he explicitly says that: “We [the government – ed.] never announced that the Temple Mount belonged exclusively to the Arabs. We did not announce that it was forbidden for Jews to pray there, [and] we did not announce that it was forbidden for Jews to erect a synagogue there.”

In response, Brigadier General Paul Gordon, legal counsel to Israel’s police force, claimed that the policy of Muslim control over the Temple Mount was a government decision taken immediately after the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967. Faiglin demanded to see the policy decision.

“Since I am not aware of any such government decision since 1967 to grant control over the Mount to the Waqf, I request that you supply me with a copy [of the decision,” he retorted. In fact, the exact opposite is true, Faiglin claimed.