A Wakf official told a Jewish student from the UK who was visiting the Temple
Mount on Wednesday morning, to remove his kippa, saying that he was not allowed
to wear it because he was “in a holy place.”
The 20-year-old from London,
who studies at the University of Leeds in northern England and is in the country
on a student mission, declined to remove the kippa and left the site
instead.
Rabbi Chaim Richman of The Temple Institute said that the
incident demonstrated “the opening of a new front of anti- Semitism at the hands
of the Islamic Wakf committed to eradicating all Jewish connection to the
site.”
The Jordanian Wakf that administers the site restricts non-Muslims
from entering outside specific visiting hours, and no form of non-Muslim worship
is permitted, including personal prayer. Religious clothing such as kippot and
tzitzit, however, has always been permitted.
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