The Temple Mount was closed to Jews and non-Muslims on Sunday, after posters attributed to Likud candidate and activist Moshe Feiglin called for the destruction of the mosques on the site.
Feiglin and his spokespeople denied any involvement in the creation of posters placed throughout Jerusalem calling for a “cleansing” of the “enemies of Israel” from the Temple Mount. Feiglin was among those prevented from going up on the Temple Mount during his monthly ascension to the holy spot.
Also on Sunday, Israel Army Radio reported that the ‘Ir Amim’ organization, which promotes Arab rights in Jerusalem, wrote to Prime Minister Netanyahu asking him to prevent Moshe Feiglin and other Likud party members from ascending the Temple Mount.
“There was some provocation going on,” Feiglin told The Jewish Press. “Someone published a flyer in my name calling for the destruction of the mosques (on the Temple Mount) and before I managed to do anything about it, the entire world media was there basically, including al-Jazeera and many European and Israeli media, and the police got scared so they closed the mountain.”
“I think the situation where Israel is walking on egg shells in everything that has any connection to the Temple Mount just shows that the Temple Mount is not really in our hands, and because of that, we are losing the rest of the country,” Feiglin said. “The Temple Mount is the core, the key, it is the heart of the body of the land of Israel. That’s why it’s so important to keep our connection to the place and full Israeli sovereignty over the place.”
Feiglin, who earned 25 percent of votes in the Likud party primaries on January 31 against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, goes up onto the Temple Mount every month on the 19th of the Jewish month. He urged police to investigate the making of the posters.