Ultra-Orthodox MK speaks out against visiting Temple Mount, supports peace talks with PA

MK Moshe Gafni says promoting Jewish visitation causes great damage.

By JEREMY SHARON
Updated: OCTOBER 19, 2015 15:54
Moshe Gafni (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Moshe Gafni
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Senior United Torah Judaism MK and chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee Moshe Gafni expressed criticism of right wing elements promoting Jewish visitation to the Temple Mount, which he said had caused “great damage,” and said that his party supported renewed political negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
“I am in favor of a political process,” Gafni told haredi radio station Radio Kol Hai on Monday. “We are against all these activities that have to prove Israeli sovereignty at the Temple Mount or in the Land of Israel more broadly, these activities have caused great damage.”
The MK said that “there will not be peace here, but we can reduce the damage done by this issue,” in reference to the increase in Jewish visitation to the Temple Mount in recent years, and said he would support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he would re-engage in negotiations with the PA.
“Our position always was and is, to advance the political process, to do it very carefully, not like the left demands, not to come and say ‘we are returning territory’… but to do it carefully and not in a way that we return everything without knowing whats going to happen.”