A group of ultra-nationalist Israelis on Friday claimed to have prayed at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, despite the site being off-limits to Israeli Jews, the Maariv daily reported.
Police have long upheld a complete ban on Jewish prayers at the disputed compound in order to avoid provoking Muslim sensitivities.
The compound houses the third-holiest site in Islam, but also marks Judaism’s most sacred spot, where the second Jewish Temple stood until it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Lately, police have authorised several group visits while attempting to ensure that visitors do not pray inside the compound, which is known to Israelis as the Temple Mount.
But ultra-nationalist sources told Maariv that police had turned a blind eye on Wednesday, allowing around 70 worshippers to enter the compound and pray openly close to the site where the Temple’s Holy of Holies once stood.
“We entered as a group and when we reached the place that is close to the Holy of Holies, we prayed for about 15 minutes and the police did nothing to stop us,” one source told Maariv.
“A second group that came after us behaved similarly.”
Police sources confirmed that the two groups had entered the compound, but denied they had held a prayer service — a Biblical command during the Jewish festival of Sukkot, which ends next week.
Jewish rabbinical authorities have forbidden worshippers to try to enter the compound, for fear that through their lack of ritual purification, they would desecrate the Holy of Holies.
However, groups of extremists have ignored the edict and have even tried to transport a huge stone to the site, in the hope it would form the cornerstone of their long-hoped for Third Temple.
Meanwhile, more than 30 000 Muslim worshippers participated in prayers at the mosque on what was the third Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, police sources said. – AFP