Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi urged police at the Temple Mount on Tuesday to expel visiting Jewish tourists as their group passed the delegation of Arab Knesset members touring the holy site.
During his visit, Tibi ordered police to “Throw them out. Thrown them out,” as a number of obviously observant Jewish men wearing yarmulkas and other Jewish tourists neared the delegation and was about to pass by.
The incident can be seen in the below video, courtesy of the Hebrew-language NRG news site, with Tibi’s orders to police appearing above the frame in Hebrew language at 00.19 in the footage.
You can skip past the commercial in the beginning:
It is not clear what decision was finally made by the police and other security personnel at the scene; what is patently clear is that considerable frantic discussion was devoted to the order while police quickly ushered the Jewish group past the delegation.
More than half of the currently serving Israeli Arab parliamentarians ascended to the Temple Mount to protest a visit to the ancient site on Sunday by Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel for Tisha B’Av, a day which marks the destruction of the two ancient Jewish Holy Temples in Jerusalem, among other national Jewish tragedies.
Israeli Arab Knesset members maintain that Ariel’s visit was a “provocation.”
The Arab lawmakers were accompanied on their tour by an Arab mob chanting “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!” The phrase, which means “God is Great” in Arabic, is used in context by jihadists as the ancient Islamic holy war cry. It is also used by Arab terrorists prior to an attack, and by Arab rioters at the Temple Mount as they hurl rocks and other weapons at Jews and Israeli police.
Among the Knesset members who participated in the visit were List chairman MK Ayman Odeh and MKs Masoud Ganaim, Jamal Zahalka, Ahmed Tibi, Hanin Zoabi, Abd al-Hakim Hajj Yahya, Osama Sa’adi and Yousef Jabareen. According to the Hebrew-language NRG news site, the Arab lawmakers also met with members of the Waqf Islamic Authority along with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammed Hussein.
The delegation told the media they were protesting “police brutality” at the Mount – this, following Sunday’s vicious attack on Israeli and Waqf security personnel by rioting Arab “worshipers” from inside the Al Aqsa mosque.
“There is nothing more natural than the fact that the mosque belongs to Muslims, the synagogue belongs to the Jews and the church belongs to Christians,” said MK Ayman Odeh following the visit. “It is a trivial thing and very natural,” Rotter.net reported.
“Minister Uri Ariel is a government minister, not a settler, and when he arrives for a provocative visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque, it’s a statement,” Odeh continued.
“When he ascends to the Mount and the government does not condemn it, it means the government wants to raise the political issue of the religious conflict in Jerusalem between Muslims and Jews.”