January 2, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Likud Party activist Moshe Feiglin offered a plan to pay Palestinian families to emigrate from the West Bank.

The plan offered Tuesday evening during a conference in Jerusalem, which discussed ways to make a one-state solution work, came at the end of a day in which Feiglin was detained by Israel Police for praying on the Temple Mount.

Feiglin said at the conference that Israel could use the money it uses for security and defense to pay Palestinians to immigrate to the West. He added that, according to recent poll data, a majority of Palestinians living in the West Bank would be willing to leave.

He set the amount per Palestinian family at $500,000.

Feiglin reportedly has been asked by the party to avoid being interviewed during the run-up to the Jan. 22 elections.

Several Likud lawmakers at the conference reportedly expressed support for annexing the West Bank.

Feiglin, who was placed in a realistic spot on the joint Likud-Beiteinu Party list for the upcoming election, reportedly bowed down on the Temple Mount Tuesday morning and was removed from the site by an undercover policeman. He was questioned by police and later released with no restrictions, Ynet reported. Channel 10 reported later in the day that police plan to prosecute Feiglin for praying without permission at the site.

Feiglin, head of the Likud’s Jewish Leadership faction, visits the Temple Mount once a month on the 19th of the Hebrew month and brings guests with him.

Jews generally are not permitted to pray or bring any ritual objects to the Temple Mount, which is considered Judaism’s holiest site, in order to avoid confrontation with Muslim worshipers at the Al-Aksa Mosque.

At the beginning of December, Feiglin reportedly led a prayer service on the Temple Mount, without incident. A video of the prayer service was broadcast on Israel’s Channel 10.

Feiglin was arrested in October for praying on the Temple Mount “in violation of the customs of the site,” according to Israel Police, a charge he denied. He also refused to agree to a restraining order against his visiting the site.

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