Jewish visitors on Temple Mount
Jewish visitors on Temple MountZac Wajsgras/Flas h90

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Monday joined Jordan in condemning Israel for permitting Jews to enter the Temple Mount, Haaretz reports.

The ministry's statement came a day after police arrested a number of Jews for violating visitation rules at the site on Sunday, when Jews observed the Tisha B'Av fast marking the destruction of the ancient First and Second Temples.

Some 400 Jews visited the site on Sunday, a fact which angered Egypt as well as Jordan's King Abdullah, who told the Jordanian daily Al-Dustour,"Jordan will fight Israeli aggression, which is manifested by the incursion of extremist Israelis into the mosque compound."

The condemnations are ironic, as it is widely known - and equally widely ignored - that the status quo on the Temple Mount has been harmed over the years to the detriment not of the Muslims, but of the Jews.

Jews are not permitted to utter words of prayer on the Mount, and their visits are restricted to small groups, at specific hours, on specific days. Muslims, on the other hand, are permitted to pray at the compound. Just recently it was reported that Israel allowed 40,000 Muslims to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque despite the ongoing terrorism wave.

Knesset Members have not been allowed to visit the Mount in recent months, by order of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Some MKs requested to visit on Sunday's day of national mourning, but Netanyahu did not accede.