Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected calls from right-wing lawmakers and ministers to lift restrictions on Jews praying on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, insisting there would be no change in its status quo.
The site – which includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, both also revered by Muslims – is the historic site of the two ancient Jewish temples. Jews and Christians are allowed to visit under longstanding arrangements for its administration but not to pray.
Demands for greater access have been blamed by Israelis and Palestinians for a recent increase in violent confrontations in Jerusalem, including Wednesday’s lethal attack by a Palestinian driver who drove his car into two groups of Israelis after violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque earlier in the day.
Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said: “At last night’s security consultation, the prime minister made it clear that there will be no change in the status quo on the Temple Mount and that whoever expresses a different opinion is presenting a personal view and not the policy of the government.”
Regev said Netanyahu had made the comment at a meeting with security officials late on Wednesday. His comments were echoed on Thursday morning by Foreign Mnister Avigdor Lieberman, who denounced Knesset members and ministers visiting the site for their “idiocy”, which he said was being driven by “cheap headline seeking”.
“If you have paid attention, neither I nor members of my party have gone up to the Temple Mount. We have not issued calls for Israel to exercise sovereignty there,” Lieberman told Israeli public radio. “What needs to happen now is for calm to be restored [in Jerusalem].”
