Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski (email address: "mayor@jerusalem.muni.il") has condemned the recent decision to reopen the Temple Mount to Jewish and Christian visitors - and, in a startling statement, likened the idea of Jewish prayer there at these times to one who urinates in public.



Speaking with the weekly Kol Ha'ir newspaper on Friday, Lupolianski - Jerusalem's first elected hareidi (non-Zionist religious) mayor - said as follows, as reported in The Jerusalem Post:

"There are many things that are allowed, but someone smart does not do them. To differentiate, someone must relieve himself, that is human, but if he does so next to the Mashbir [department store], you will say he is a hooligan, right?... There are things that it is clear that are right to do, but not at every place, at every hour, in every situation."



A spokesman for the mayor, asked about his comments, did not deny that Lupolianski had made the urination comparison.



Mayor Lupolianski, who was elected less than seven weeks ago, told Kol Ha'ir that the Temple Mount belongs to the Jewish people, "but with the sensitivities that exist in the Muslim world, it is not right to change the situation."



The government recently decided to allow groups of non-Moslems to ascend to the Temple Mount. It had been closed to such groups since the beginning of the Oslo War in September 2000, for fear that Moslems would be incensed and that violence would result.



Lupolianski's party colleague MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) explained to Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson today that he also objects to the government decision: "The Temple Mount is the holiest place on earth for Jews, and by allowing entry to anyone who wants, the government is detracting from its holiness and abusing it. From a halakhic [Jewish legal] point of view, it is forbidden - and even those who claim to know the permitted places are risking an 'issur karet' [a grave Biblical prohibition]." Asked about Lupolianski's comparison, he said he would not comment on statements made by members of his own party. MK Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, another UTJ Knesset Member contacted by Arutz-7, also refused to comment.