The Rabbi of the Holy Sites and the Kotel, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, said Friday that the Muslim destruction of the Temple Mount is not as bad as it used to be. "The destruction and digging have been reduced in the past two years," he told Arutz Sheva's Yigal Shok.
Regarding the electrical cable ditch that was dug by heavy machinery several months ago, the Rabbi said: "There was indeed an authorized dig like that, but when we discover finds from the First Temple period there, the diggers were asked to change the ditch's route and they complied.
Attorney Baruch Ben-Yosef, a Temple Mount activist, dismissed Rabinovich's claims. "It is time for the Jews to cease living their lives in a world of make believe," he said. "The destruction exists, it is ongoing and it will continue as long as Muslims set foot on the Mount." He called for a public campaign by leading rabbis against the Muslim presence on the Temple Mount.