Temple Mount closed following Palestinan rioting, later reopened

Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Temple Mount was closed to visitors following rioting by Palestinians at the site, who clashed with Israeli security forces.

One Palestinian man was wounded in the Wednesday morning rioting by a sponge-tipped bullet fired by Israeli forces. The rioters, who threw rocks and firecrackers at security forces, were pushed by the forces into the Al-Aksa Mosque on the site, from where they had launched their attack using stockpiles of makeshift weapons stored there.

A Palestinian manager of the mosque told Reuters that Israel Police officers entered the mosque itself, something the Israel Police deny.

Arab-Israeli lawmaker Hanin Zoabi, who has been suspended from the Knesset for six months over statements she made, among other things encouraging Palestinian “popular resistance,” challenged police after being refused entry to the site that is holy to both Muslims and Jews.

“Someone did this to you, decades ago. Remember that? Somebody did rule over you and screwed you over decades ago. You did not learn the lesson,” she reportedly yelled at police.

Zoabi, and several other Arab-Israeli lawmakers who had been prevented from entering the Temple Mount, were allowed to continue to the site later on Wednesday when it was reopened to worshipers and to the public.

Rioting also occurred Wednesday in eastern Jerusalem. Several hours after the rioting, a Palestinian affiliated with Hamas from eastern Jerusalem slammed his car into crowds of people waiting at a light rail stop and a bus stop in Jerusalem in what is considered a terrorist attack. The driver then exited his car and began hitting those around him with a crowbar until police shot and killed him.

Jordan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Israel   “to protest against the unprecedented and escalated Israeli aggressions at the Al Haram Al Sharif compound in occupied Jerusalem, and its repeated violations in the holy city,” according to the Petra news agency, the official state news agency.