Stone-throwing Arab rioters forced police to escort Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin off the Temple Mount Thursday morning. Several Muslims were bruised in the melee.
Feiglin and his entourage ascended the Temple Mount without any confrontation. He commented to those accompanying him that the Third Temple will be built, God willing, a prayer that is included in the liturgy that Jews recite every day and which has been expressed for 2,000 years.
But when Feiglin says it, especially on the Temple Mount, the Arabs call it incitement.
Arabs screamed “Allah Akbar” as they confronted dozens of policemen who protected Feiglin, who eventually was forced to retreat as the mob got out of hand and police decided their freedom to riot was more important than the freedom of a Jew to visit the site.
Feiglin commented after he was hustled away, “Today’s incidents show more than ever…that violence pays off. Israeli weakness encourages violence.”
Different versions of the incident appeared in the media, each with its own agenda. The Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency told its readers, “Worshipers shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ at the group before Israeli forces raided the compound and began assaulting them with clubs. In response, young Palestinians began throwing stones at the Knesset members, forcing them to leave the compound.”
The terms “raid, “stormed,” and “invade” are used in every Arab report on Jews ascending to the holy site. Ma’an blamed Israel for the riot, stating that “Israeli forces, however, regularly escort Jewish visitors to the site, often leading to tension with Palestinians.”
Arutz Sheva reported that.” Hundreds of rioters threw stones at Feiglin,” although the number seems to be gross exaggeration since only two Arabs were arrested. In the YouTube of Feiglin’s visits, stone throwers were not caught on film.
The Jerusalem Post wrote that the Arabs “gathered” to protest Feiglin’s visit and that “authorities ordered Feiglin to leave the compound and worked to disperse the rioters.”
The Times of Israel wrote, “Hundreds of Arab youths assembled Thursday morning atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount to protest the visit of Likud MK Moshe Feiglin to the site.”
They did not “assemble” and did not “gather” and if they were “worshippers,” as Ma’an called them, why weren’t they inside their mosque praying to Allah to curse Feiglin?
Stay tuned.
MK Feiglin will be back, and so will the rioters.
In the video below, the commotion begins around 2:50 minutes and then escalates at $4:00 and 6:00, where the police begin to retreat.