Police closed the Temple Mount to Jews and other visitors all day Sunday, citing “incitement” on posters in the name of the Likud’s Jewish Leadership movement leader Moshe Feiglin, whose spokesmen deny they are involved.
The Temple Mount remained open for Arabs Sunday.
The posters were posted throughout the city and called for the “cleansing of the Temple Mount of the enemies of Israel.” Feiglin, who last week won 25 percent of the Likud party’s support in a challenge to the leadership of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, routinely ascends to the Temple Mount around the 19th day of every Jewish month, which this month is Sunday evening.
“The Temple Mount and the Western Wall Plaza are holy prayer sites, and the police will not allow them to be used for politics or for incitement,” Jerusalem police officials stated Sunday. However, mosques on the Temple Mount frequently are used by Muslim clerics to call for the removal of all Jews from the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall.
Spokesmen for Feiglin vehemently denied allegations they are involved in the posters and called on the police to investigate who is behind the incitement.
Feiglin last week accused backers of Prime Minister Netanyahu of “dirty tricks” during the voting for the chairman of the party. Many polling sites, especially in Feiglin strongholds in Judea and Samaria, did not open on time.