Jews arrested for praying on Temple Mount

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (Worthy News)– About a dozen Jewish men were removed by police while touring the Temple Mount after praying and singing Monday, according to The Jewish Daily Forward.

Jerusalem Police detained the men after they reportedly prayed, danced and sang “Hatikva” while displaying the Israeli flag on the Temple Mount.

Ironically, Jews generally aren’t permitted to pray on the Temple Mount — considered to be Judaism’s holiest site — to avoid any confrontations with Muslim worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.

The Temple Mount is overseen by the Wakf: the Muslim administration charged with managing the site. Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, the director of Islamic endowment, asked police to close the compound following the incident, according to the Ma’an News Agency.

The Temple Mount was recently closed to non-Muslim visitors during the Sukkot holiday over concerns that Muslims would become violently disagreeable, a temperament that seems to be their default “setting”.