Jerusalem police Wednesday morning began to allow small groups of Jews to ascend the Temple Mount, where Jews previously had been barred for fear of provoking Arab riots.
There were no reports of violence after the groups, limited to less than 10 Jews, were permitted to visit the holy site. Police took the usual precautions to make sure that the Jews did not bring with them prayer books and did not pray out loud on the Temple Mount.
Yehuda Glick, chairman of the Organization for Human Rights on the Temple Mount, noted that police warnings to the High Court that visits by Jews would inflame riots were unfounded.
Before the police bowed to court pressure and opened the gates to Jews, the Palestinian Information Center reported that Arab “citizens and guards of the Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday repelled a group of fanatic Jews who tried to storm the holy site and slaughter cattle as a sacrifice on the occasion of the Jewish Passover.”
The Passover holiday recalls the offering of a sacrificial lamb before the Exodus of Jews from Egypt. Jewish law prohibits religious sacrifices outside the Holy Temple, which was destroyed twice, the last time nearly 2,000 years ago.