Yehuda Glick on a prior visit to the Temple Mount
Yehuda Glick on a prior visit to the Temple MountOffice of MK Glick

On Sunday morning, former Knesset member Yehuda Glick visited the Temple Mount and was detained by police after broadcasting the sound of the shofar (a ram's horn, blown daily in the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment) via his cell phone.

Documentation from the scene shows Glick broadcasting the shofar blast via what appears to be a YouTube application, and a police officer approaching him just minutes later, and detaining him.

Tom Nissani, head of the "Beyadeinu - For the Temple Mount" organization, responded: "Temple Mount police have commenced arresting Jewish citizens for listening to recordings on their phones. If an alien were visiting us from outer space and watching what happens here, he would be convinced that we live in a discriminatory country where people are persecuted for listening to views or noises that police find disturbing - and perhaps that is truly the case. This is an absolute disgrace."

Last Wednesday, journalist Emily Amrousi visited the Temple Mount and found herself alone at the site, without anyone accompanying her - not a police officer, nor an official from the Jordanian Waqf. This appears to have been an oversight on the part of the police posted at the site, as religious Jews are generally not permitted to visit the Temple Mount without an "escort." In all likelihood, Amrousi was mistaken for a tourist.

"I wore pants," Amrousi related following the incident, "so I didn't fit the classical stereotype of religious Jew. The police officer asked me where I was going, and I told him that my friend was already on the Mount and waiting for me there, so he said, okay, go.

"I might be the very first Jewess who has succeeded in visiting the Mount without police or Waqf escort," she added. "The only thing the Waqf told me was that my sleeves were too short. But I continued with my visit, alone, unrestricted. I guess I just looked like a tourist." Amrousi added that she was particular only to step in areas where those rabbis who permit visiting the Mount allow Jews to enter.

As Amrousi left the Mount, she encountered her friend Naama, with whom she had planned to visit the holy site. "Naama told me that it's not that Jews aren't allowed to visit there alone, but rather, Jews who look religious," she described. "So Naama, with her headscarf, wouldn't have been allowed to visit alone - police would have attached her to a group."