A Tour of the Temple Mount (OneJerusalem.org)

Ministerial Visits to Temple Mount
by Hillel Fendel
Tammuz 1, 5769
Israelnationalnews.com

Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch (Israel Our Home) visited the Temple Mount this morning (Tuesday), accompanied by Israel Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen and senior police officers. The visit lasted two hours.

Though Muslim Waqf officials were informed of the visit in advance, and even accompanied Aharonovitch, Arab spokesmen were quick to condemn the visit as “provocative” and “inflammatory.” Arab MK Taleb A-Sana said, “This visit was contemptible and provocative. He is a persona non grata at the Al-Aqsa mosque. His purpose was only to goad the Moslems and show them who’s boss.”

Israel liberated the area – Judaism’s holiest site in the world, home to both Holy Temples – in the Six Day War in 1967. However, then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan immediately granted the Muslim religious authority day-to-day control of the site, under the official auspices of the Israel Police. Though then-Chief IDF Rabbi Shlomo Goren recommended that the mosque be blown up, his idea was turned down – and not even a synagogue has been built on the site in the ensuing four-plus decades.

The Palestinian Authority cited the visit by then-Minister Ariel Sharon in late 2000 to the Temple Mount as the excuse for beginning the Oslo War, in which nearly 1,100 Israelis were murdered through the first half of 2003.

Aharonovitch explained that he came to find out about police activity on the Mount and to discuss current intelligence reports.

Article continues with MK Begin visit to Beit El, click here