Several clips recently posted on social media sites showing Muslims playing ball games on the Temple Mount have prompted an Israeli organization to demand the prosecution of the offenders and the transfer of control of the holy site from the Muslim Waqf to a Jewish authority.
The shocking videos featuring Muslims desecrating the holy site with football games, which landed at times right near the Dome of the Rock, and parkour pranks, “evoke deep horror in the heart of every Jew,” the Temple Mount Organizations Administration stated Wednesday.
“This is a terrible desecration of the sanctity of the place, especially when it is performed in the Dome of the Rock plaza, the site of the Jewish Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount,” the organization said.
Following the publication of the videos, they appealed to the police and demanded the arrest of the offenders and their prosecution in accordance with the law.
Assaf Fried, spokesman for the organization, stated that “the despicable behavior of the Muslims on the Temple Mount proves that beyond the mosque next to it, the Temple Mount is not sacred to Arabs, except the sanctity of robbing it from the Jews.”
“It is obligatory to immediately remove the Waqf from the Temple Mount, and hand over the responsibility for the holy place to a Jewish body, for which the sanctity of the Temple Mount is important,” he said.
The Temple Mount Organizations Administration noted that according to High Court rulings, football games are banned on the Temple Mount.
The organization said that these clips also prove the importance of the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. While Jews are on the Temple Mount, the police invest efforts to prevent football games there, so as not to hurt the feelings of the Jews. Now it has become apparent that when Jews are not there, the Muslims do not maintain the sanctity of the place, and film videos that “injure every Jewish heart,” it said.
“And if this is the equation, then it is another reason to open the Temple Mount to Jews around the clock, all days of the week,” they said.
Jewish visits to the Temple Mount are currently limited in time and in numbers.