Visiting the Temple Mount
Visiting the Temple MountIsrael news photo: Flash 90

A 20-year-old visitor from London, England who said he was told by three separate Waqf monitors to take off his kippah because it was offensive to them should have immediately filed a complaint with police, Israel Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told Arutz Sheva in an interview Thursday.

"The police are not familiar with any incident that took place,” Rosenfeld said. “As of Thursday, no official complaint has been made. But if there was such an incident, an official complaint can be made without any hesitation, and the police will look further into that matter.”

By Israeli civil law, neither the Waqf Islamic Authority, nor anyone else has the right to tell a Jew to remove his kippah or tzitzit (ritual fringed garment) anywhere on the Temple Mount. This ruling includes the courtyard around the grounds of the mosque built upon the site, as well as the area within the building of the mosque itself.

The British visitor, however, who was in Israel as part of a student mission, said he chose to leave the scene rather than to take off his kippah -- despite there being no need to do so.

A Jerusalem source raised the possibility that the three Arabs who harassed the student just posed as Waqf officials but had no actual status.

The group had already entered the site and had been checked by both Israeli guards and Muslim monitors, according to the student.