Chairman Avi Dichter of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committe said, Monday, that Israel will not lend a hand to a trend in which Muslim calls for "defense" of the Al-Aqsa mosque at the southern end of the Temple Mount is spreading to include all of the Temple Mount.
Dichter said, "The thought that the Temple Mount will be treated as was the case in Saudi Arabia, where the two cities holy to Islam, Mecca and Medina, were declared cities where only a Muslim is allowed to enter - is a perverse thought and we won't let it be realized. We will honor the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and stand up for our rights on the Temple Mount."