Jordanian security forces dispersed activists at the
Israeli embassy in Amman on Sunday that were protesting against attempts
by Likud activists to access the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Al Jazeera
reported Sunday.
Activists raised Jordanian and Palestinian
flags, and demanded that Jordan close the Israeli mission over what
protesters say is an attempt to "Judaize" the Temple Mount, also the
site of the Aksa mosque and Dome of the Rock.
Earlier Sunday,
police in Jerusalem prevented former Likud leadership contender Moshe
Feiglin from entering the Temple Mount, accusing Feiglin and Likud
activists of attempting to disrupt the order. Feiglin sent a message to
Likud activists on Saturday night, urging them to join him by going up
to the Temple Mount on Sunday morning.
“Purify the site from the
enemies of Israel who stole the land and build the Third Temple on the
ruins of the mosques,” the announcement read.
Jerusalem Police
Chief Nisso Shaham closed the Temple Mount to all non-Muslim visitors
Sunday morning as a result of the announcement. Feiglin and three other
Likud activists attempted to enter the site around 8 a.m on Sunday
morning, and tried to argue with the guards that their plan to go up to
the Temple Mount was for purely personal reasons on every 19th of the
Hebrew month. They went to pray at the Western Wall after police
prevented them from entering the Temple Mount.
“The areas of the
Temple Mount and the Kotel Plaza are used as a place of prayer and
religious rituals and the police will not allow any political use or
incitement from every representative of every religion, and will utilize
every ability of the law to stop this,” said Jerusalem police spokesman
Shmuel Ben Ruby.
In response, a few hundred Muslim worshipers
gathered near the Al Aqsa Mosque and demonstrated against Feiglin’s
attempt to go up to the Temple Mount. They yelled “Allahu Akbar” loud
enough that it was audible from the Western Wall plaza below but there
was no violence, said Ben Ruby.
Feiglin claimed that the
announcement was fake and that his name was unknowingly used on the
flyer. He demanded police investigate to determine who made the flyer.
However,
in Feiglin’s weekly newsletter published last Thursday, he invited
Likud activists to join him to go up to the Temple Mount. The flyer was
posted on the website of “Har Habayit Shelanu” an activist group
dedicated to Jewish sovereignty at the Temple Mount.