Arab rioters succeeded in violently shutting down the Temple Mount this Jerusalem Day to everyone except Muslims.
One police officer has been injured so far by a rock hurled by a rioter as security personnel battle Palestinian Authority Arabs on the Temple Mount in the first hours of the morning on Wednesday.
Masked Arab youths have been hurling stones and firebombs (Molotov cocktails) since the start of the morning, once again effectively preventing Jews and anyone other than Muslims from reaching the site. Their handy weapons are stored in piled caches in and around the Al Aqsa mosque, one of two Muslim houses of worship located on the Temple Mount.
The Arab rioters are taken to calling themselves “Almoravids”, which were an early version of Muslim knights.
While only 250 Israelis managed to ascend to the Mount prior to the attack, four times that many — 1,000 foreign tourists — succeeded in reaching the site before police closed it down to everyone except Muslim ‘worshipers.’
Jews are routinely arrested on the site simply for moving their lips, in what might be construed as a prayer. The Waqf Islamic Religious Authority, which rules the site, forbids Jewish religious activity on the Temple Mount. It is part of the Western Wall complex and believed to be the location of the “holy of holies” in the ancient Jewish Holy Temple of Jerusalem, Judaism’s most sacred site.
Once safely shut down, police moved forward to take control the Temple Mount plaza area, according to Walla! The rioters have since retreated and are currently within the mosque, according to a local source, who said they are continuing to hurl rocks and firebombs at security personnel.
Police officers are using riot control methods in an attempt to disperse the mob.
Today marks the 47th anniversary of the liberation of the 3,000-year-old Jewish capital of Israel, the Old City of Jerusalem, from Jordanian occupation in the 1967 Six Day War. Jerusalem Day celebrates the unification of the holy city and its restoration as the healed capital of the Jewish State.
Arabs carrying Hamas flags on the Temple Mount chanting “With blood we will free Palestine.”