Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan dropped the other shoe Monday in a letter calling on Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to outlaw two Muslim radical groups from the Temple Mount.
The Palestinian Authority called Edan’s proposal “racist.”
The right of Jews to ascend the Temple Mount, as stated in the Jordanian-Israeli Peace Treaty, has been under threat by increasingly violent Muslims who are paid to harass and attack Jews at the holy site.
Daily violence and the unprecedented action of Jerusalem policy facing off against Muslims who barricaded themselves inside the Al Aqsa mosque last year threatened to erupt into an all-out war until Jordanian King Abdullah and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met in Amman and took measures to cool things down.
Access to Jews was allowed, but the government made it clear that Cabinet ministers may not visit the Temple Mount.
The unwritten agreement held ground for several months until radical Muslim re-asserted their presence with men and women paid by the Islamic Movement to visit the holy site with the sole purpose of chasing and attacking Jews.
A visiting Christian was attacked last week, and Palestinian Authority and Arab world media have escalated incitement with constant reports that police escort settlers to “storm” the Temple Mount.
Erdan decided enough is enough and wrote to Ya’alon letter, which he said is supported by the police and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), to outlaw the “Morabiton” and “Morabitat” radical Muslims groups.
He wrote:
These organizations follow Jewish visits to the Temple Mount and yell, incite and block them. Their aim is to use violence and intimidation to stop Jews from trying to visit the Temple Mount, and I will do everything I can to stop these dangerous organizations that violate the status quo.
The damage, partly irreversible, caused by the Israel’s government’s turning a blind eye to Muslim violence while limiting Jewish visitors is reflected in statements made by the Al Aqsa NGO, whose official told Reshet Bet (Voice of Israel) radio Monday:
We have seen an increase in visits to the Temple Mount by fanatics and criminal Jews who cause provocations.
Israel violates the status quo (by allowing Jews to visit]. Israel is not allowed to maintain security on the Temple Mount.
It is occupied territory under international law. Israel has occupied it since 1967.
Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount is within the “consensus” of almost all Israeli Jews, so much so that even the interviewer for the leftist and pluralistic Reshet Bet charged the Muslim official with lying. He also continuous questioned the Al Aqsa official about Muslims who attack Jews, but the only response was a repetition that the Temple Mount is not a part of Israel.