Police order Temple Mount closed ahead of demo by Jewish activists
By Associated Press April 7, 2005
AP
With a warning from the Shin Bet security service of an attack by Jewish extremists, Israeli police on Wednesday ordered the closing of the Temple Mount to Jews and Christians ahead of a planned demonstration there, Israeli media reported.
Israel TV said the decision to close the site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary on Sunday came after the Shin Bet received concrete information about a planned attack there. Israeli security officials said the attack and the demonstration were separate cases.
Israel Radio said the closure order applied to Jews and Christians but not to Muslims.
There was no immediate police comment on the report.
An Israeli rabbi said Tuesday he expects thousands of Jews to take part in the Sunday demonstration at the site, and expressed the hope that it will put an end to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
Rabbi David Elboim said he is confident at least 10,000 Jews would heed his call to gather at the site when the Jewish month of Nissan begins on Sunday.
Police have banned the demonstration.
The hilltop is the most hotly contested in the region where the Al Aqsa Mosque, marking the site where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, is built atop the ruins of the biblical Jewish Temples.
The current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict erupted just after Sharon visited the site in a demonstration of Israeli sovereignty when he was opposition leader in late 2000.
Violence at the site could spark reactions all over the Muslim world. The Jewish extremists hope to divert forces from Gaza to Jerusalem with a huge demonstration in the summer, scuttling the pullout.
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