Jerusalem police locked dozens of masked Arab rioters inside the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount Wednesday morning after they attacked Jewish visitors and police with firecrackers, bottles and large blocks.
Several arrests are expected, but the first person to be detained was a Jew who was suspected of “disrupting the public order” by praying on the Temple Mount.
The Arabs were well-prepared to violently attack police, and their “green light” was a visit by the Mughrabi (Rambam) Gate by Housing Minister Uri Ariel of the Jewish Home party. He vowed that the Third Temple will be built.
The rioters immediately attacked at the same time that Public Interior Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch was visiting the holy site. He bragged on Wednesday how the number of rock-throwing attacks has declined by one-third and that firebombing is almost non-existent. Aharonovitch praised police, as if they were responsible for the decline, which more likely can be attributed to the end, for the time being, of the war against terror in Gaza.
Four police officers were treated for wounds suffered on the Temple Mount. Faced with a massive barrage of blocks being thrown in their faces and firecrackers hurled at them, policemen managed to direct rioters inside the Al Qaeda Aqsa mosque before chaining it for several hours
Visits to the Temple Mount by Jews and foreigners were banned during the riots.
Rock-throwing continued in Jewish area in eastern Jerusalem, and police arrested a non-year-old Arab for hurling rocks at Jews. The boy was turned over to his parents, for whatever that is worth, but can you imagine what police would do to a nine-year-old boy and his parents if he were caught throwing rocks at Arabs? Don’t try, because you don’t want to start Rosh HaShanah that way.