Either Arab Knesset Member Basel Ghattas is not really in the Knesset or Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s edict that legislators may not visit the Temple Mount applies only to Jews.
Ghattas has not resigned, so it can be presumed that his visit to the Temple Mount Wednesday morning means that Prime Minister Netanyahu said one thing but meant another.
Not only did Ghattas visit the Temple Mount, but he also rejected Netanyahu’s telling him what he can do at “Al Aqsa” and falsely accused Jews of praying there.
He stated on Facebook:
Visiting al-Aqsa is an elementary and fundamental right.
But guess what religion Ghattas belongs to.
Muslim? Wrong.
He talks like a Muslim, which helps him get elected, but he actually is a full-fledged Christian from Nazareth. Muslims don’t want “infidels” like Jews and Christians on the Temple Mount site, unless they are Christian MKs who take up the Islamic anti-Zionist cause.
Ghattas proudly stated today:
The occupation does not give Netanyahu and his government sovereignty over al-Aqsa or the occupied territories.
But that is not all he had to say. He accused Jews of praying on the Temple Mount. He wrote:
I…saw with my own eyes groups of religious Jews praying and singing ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ while police forces watched from the sidelines. This is a change of the status quo.
“Am Yisrael Chai” – The People of Israel Live – is a song and not a prayer. It does not exist in any traditional prayer book.
The High Court rejected an appeal several weeks ago that Jews violated the prohibition against praying on the Temple Mount by reciting the phrase, which actually is a song.
The court threw out the complaint.
Below is a video of IDF paratroopers singing Am Yisrael Chai. No, Mr. Ghattas, they are not praying.