Israeli lawmaker prays at flashpoint Jerusalem site

Israeli lawmaker Yehuda Glick, shot in 2014 over his campaign for Jewish prayer at an ultra-sensitive occupied Jerusalem holy site, visited there yesterday during a oneday break in a government ban.

No incidents occurred as MP Yehuda Glick, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, toured the Al Haram Al Sharif mosque compound.

Some Muslim worshippers yelled “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) as he left and he waved to them.

Jews are not allowed to publicly pray at the compound to avoid provoking tensions, but Glick admitted praying to himself as he walked the grounds in his bare feet.

He said he prayed for his wife, who he said was in a coma, as well as his family and Israel.

Asked afterwards whether such visits are provocations that risk more bloodshed, Glick told journalists “those who are responsible for terror are the terrorists and those who incite them, not the victims.”

At least one other Jewish lawmaker, Shuli Moalem-Refaeli of the far-right Jewish Home party, also visited yesterday morning, according to the Waqf, a Muslim religious organisation that administers the site.

Jewish lawmakers were allowed to visit in the morning while Muslim lawmakers were permitted to do so in the afternoon although they said they did not intend to do so.

Masud Ganaim, of the Joint List alliance, said allowing right-wing politicians into the compound had “the goal of provoking Arab and Muslim sentiment and inflaming the situation.”

Yesterday’s one-day lifting of the ban is intended as a test to see if calm can be maintained.