Jerusalem police closed the Temple Mount to Jews Tuesday morning, preventing rabbis from the Judea and Samaria Rabbinic Council from ascending Mt. Moriah, Judaism’s holiest site.

Police on site told the Jews who arrived that an ancient Muslim holiday had been found to be taking place and therefore Jews would not be allowed to enter the site. The police could not name the holiday.

“It seems that the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, will be the first thing to be handed to [US President George W.] Bush on a silver platter," the Movement to Prepare the Holy Temple said in response. "The Jewish nation must oppose in every way the abandonment of the Temple Mount and Jerusalem to foreigners. We must be faithful and act with self-sacrifice against the initiatives of our enemies, both without and within.”