Image by Getty Images

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A ban on all Israeli lawmakers visiting the Temple Mount was lifted.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said in a letter to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein that all lawmakers, including government ministers, will be permitted to visit the Temple Mount once every three months.

The decision comes a week after Likud lawmaker Yehuda Glick, who in 2014 was shot and nearly killed by a Palestinian terrorist over his Temple Mount activism, asked Netanyahu to let Jewish lawmakers resume visiting the Mount. In his request, Glick pointed out that Muslim lawmakers had visited the site during Ramadan, Haaretz reported.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

In November 2015, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered lawmakers to stay off the Temple Mount amid a wave of Palestinian terrorism linked to claims that Israel was trying to change the status quo. Israel denied the claims. After Glick filed a petition against the ban, Netanyahu last July decided to allow lawmakers to visit the site on a trial basis.

However, on July 14, 2017, before the decision went into effect, three Arab Israelis shot dead two policemen on the Temple Mount. Israel responded by suspending the plan and installing walk-through metal detectors at the Muslim entrances to the site. Amid prayer sessions, riots and regional pressure, Israel eventually removed the metal detectors. But the ban on visits by lawmakers remained in place.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount