‘Palestinians’ Threaten Violence Over Jewish ‘Provocations’ On Temple Mount

The Palestinians are whipping themselves into a frenzy over supposed attempts by the Zionists to take over the Temple Mount, to “storm” Al-Aqsa, and even to engage in the Jewish ritual killing of a Passover lamb on the Mount itself. There is no truth to any of these charges. A report on the latest example of Palestinian hysteria is here: “Palestinians warn against Jewish ‘provocations’ on Temple Mount,” by Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post, April 13, 2022:

Leaders of several Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip have called on Palestinians to converge on al-Aqsa Mosque compound (Temple Mount) on Friday to protect it against “provocations by Zionist criminals.”

The call came after an emergency meeting of faction leaders on Wednesday evening in the office of Hamas’s Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza City. The meeting was held amid claims by Palestinians that “extremist Jews” were planning to conduct ritual sacrifices on Temple Mount during the Passover holiday.

These “extremist Jews,” who belong to a group –The Returning of the Mount – which apparently has at most a hundred members, has just received some publicity by offering a cash reward to any Jew who can sacrifice a lamb at the Temple Mount on April 15, the first day of Passover. The Israeli government has already announced that this will never happen; the Israeli police stationed on Temple Mount will make sure to monitor even more vigilantly every one of the Jewish visitors, and certainly will not permit a lamb, or a goat — both have been mentioned — to be brought up to Temple Mount. But the Palestinian leaders haven’t told their own people about that Israeli promise; they want to whip their own people into hysteria over a non-existent threat.

The factions and the Joint Operations Room [of the terror groups] will remain on high and constant alert to follow up on developments and do what is necessary to protect our people and our holy sites,” a spokesperson for the groups said in a statement.

Go right ahead. Nothing will happen. Israeli police have a long history of regulating the behavior of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. They make sure that no one recites any Jewish prayers, nor even silently mouths such prayers, on the Mount. If any Jewish visitor violates that rule he, or she, will promptly be removed from the Temple Mount by Israeli police.

The faction leaders also called on the terror groups to be ready to “defend” al-Aqsa Mosque. They urged Arabs and Muslims, especially those who signed peace treaties with Israel, to “reconsider their positions and end their alliance with the enemy.”…

What will they be defending Al-Aqsa against? The Israeli police have no plans to enter. On the very rare occasions – once every few years – when they have entered the mosque for a few minutes, it has only been in hot pursuit of Palestinians who had been flinging rocks and bottles, both at them, and at Jewish worshippers praying at the Western Wall far below. As soon as they have collared the guilty, they leave the mosque.

A Jewish group called The Returning to the Mount announced earlier this week that it would be offering a cash reward to anyone who succeeds in sacrificing a lamb at the Temple Mount.

But Israeli government officials clarified on Wednesday that no such rituals would be permitted.

There will be no ritual sacrifice of a lamb on Temple Mount by Jews. Other Jews — the Israeli police — will make sure of that. End of story. The Palestinians are worrying over nothing.

Two members of the Returning to the Mount movement were detained on Wednesday night after it was discovered that they intended to try and sacrifice a lamb on the Temple Mount on Friday.

The chairman of the Returning to the Mount movement, Rafael Morris, recently received a restraining order from police forbidding him from entering the Old City and the Temple Mount. Morris has said that he will head to the site on Friday despite the restraining order.

He’ll never arrive at Temple Mount, or even enter the Old City. The Israelis will not permit it.

“The police boast of granting freedom of worship to all religions, but the reality is shameful,” said the Returning to the Mount movement on Wednesday. “All the efforts of the police will not work. We will arrive on the eve of Passover in order to offer a Passover sacrifice.”…

They will never do it. The Palestinians know perfectly well that the Israeli government would never let such a thing to happen. But instead of recognizing that, instead of issuing a statement that “we have full confidence that the Israeli government will prevent any ritual sacrifice of a lamb on Haram al-Sharif,” the Palestinian factions have all agreed to express their alarm and horror at the prospect. Then, when it doesn’t take place, they can issue this statement: “The resolute forces of the ‘resistance’ gathered at Al-Aqsa on Friday made the Zionists back down from their plan to stage a ritual sacrifice. Once again our steadfastness has caused the Zionists to retreat.”

The PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the Israeli government of working with “extremist settlement organizations to ignite the situation and plunge the region into a vicious cycle of violence.”

I don’t see how the Israeli government’s announcement that it would not permit the planned animal sacrifice, and its prohibiting the head of the Returning to the Mount groupuscule, Raphael Morris, not only from visiting the Mount, but even from entering the Old City, can possibly be interpreted as “working with” such a group. But as we all know, the Palestinians have their own peculiar logic.

“At a time when the Israeli war machine continues its criminal escalation against the Palestinians and commits more field executions, arrests and sabotage in Palestinian cities and towns, we are witnessing an escalation by extremist organizations, movements and associations, and their public calls for violating Christian and Islamic sanctities,” the ministry said in a statement. “These calls are launched and promoted under the watchful eye of the occupying state and its security services.”

The only thing that the factitious “Israeli war machine” is doing at present is searching for those who may have been involved in the last four terror attacks, in Beersheva, Hadera, Bnei Brak, and Tel Aviv, or who are planning new terror attacks. There have been many arrests, but also, once they have been thoroughly vetted, many of those arrested have been set free. The picture painted of “field executions, arrests, and sabotage” is preposterous, meant to put us in mind of the Gestapo or the NKVD. No “field executions” of any kind; a handful of Palestinians who have either attacked or tried to attack, Israeli soldiers have been shot, in some cases fatally. No cases of “sabotage” committed by Israelis have been reported.. Meanwhile, the Palestinians continue to destroy as much as they can of both archeological and religious sites, such as Joseph’s Tomb near Nablus (Shechem), that testify to the millennia-long Jewish presence in the Land of Israel.

As for this supposed “escalation by[Jewish] extremist organizations,” there have been none, unless one wishes to count that announcement of a cash reward offered by that small group, Returning to the Mount, to anyone who successfully sacrifices a lamb (or goat) on the Temple Mount.

The PA ministry held the Israeli government “fully and directly responsible for these racist incitement calls and their dangerous consequences on the entire region,” adding that “occupied Jerusalem will remain the eternal capital of the State of Palestine.”

What “racist incitement calls” have the Israelis made? The incitement has all been on the Palestinian side, as they whip up fury over future acts — attributed to the “Zionists” — that they know will never take place.

“It also called on the US administration to pressure Israel “to stop the storming of the al-Aqsa Mosque,” a reference to the routine visits by Jews to the Temple Mount which the Palestinians regularly portray as violent incursions.

No Jews have been “storming the al-Aqsa Mosque.” The last time any Jew entered al-Aqsa Mosque was almost a year ago, when the Israeli police, in hot pursuit of Palestinians who had been throwing rocks and bottles both at the police on Temple Mount and at Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall far below, entered to grab the malefactors. Having accomplished that in a matter of minutes, they promptly left.

Despite the denials by Israeli officials, Jordan also condemned what its described as “the ongoing extremists’ calls to intensify the storming of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.”

In a statement, Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Haitham Abu al-Foul warned against allowing the extremists to carry out “provocative acts that violate the sanctity of the holy site, which is a place of worship for Muslims only.”…

The Jordanians, always ready to repeat what the Palestinians fabricate – In Amman there are no profiles in courage – condemned these fictional calls attributed to Israelis to “storm the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.” No such calls have been made by Israelis, and the Jordanians know that perfectly well. But why risk arousing Palestinian ire with Jordan’s government, when 60% of the population of Jordan is Palestinian? It is worth noting that Israel allows a maximum of fifty religious Jews on the Temple Mount at any one time, and Israeli Jews can visit the site only during a four- hour period each day. Meanwhile, there is no limit placed on the number of Muslims allowed on the Mount. As many as 80,000 have gathered at the Al-Aqsa Compound at one time. And Muslims have no restrictions, either, on when they can visit.

The Israelis as a general rule do not impede worshippers from going to Al-Aqsa Mosque, which can accommodate 5,000 worshippers. Only in times of great unrest and violence does Israel, for political and security reasons, sometimes limit Muslim male visitors to Temple Mount to those over 35, or 45, whom the Israelis believe are generally less violent than those younger than 35.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a member of the political leadership of Hamas, said that “the ongoing Zionist incursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque and the [Jewish] threat to conduct rituals there are a dangerous development that the Palestinian people cannot accept.”

He claimed that Jews were planning to slaughter lambs at the holy site as part of a plan to convert the mosque into a Jewish place.

Sami Abu Zuhri apparently has failed to get the memo. The Returning to the Mount group has never said it would be slaughtering lambs in Al-Aqsa Mosque, but only somewhere on the huge plaza — the “compound” that spreads out before the Mosque. And there will be no slaughtering of a lamb or a goat, by Jews on the Temple Mount. The government of Israel has already made that clear. The handful of Jews who belong to the Returning to the Mount group, will be disappointed again this year. Their leader is not even going to be allowed into the Old City. What else must Israel do to allay the putative fears of the Palestinians?

The PLO’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) also issued similar warnings and threats, holding the Israeli government responsible for aggravating tensions.

But it is the Palestinians, and only they, with their wild charges about “Zionist incursions” and Israeli plans to seize Al-Aqsa and convert it into “a Jewish place,” who are aggravating tensions. The government of Israel bends over backwards to accommodate the Muslims on Temple Mount. Jews are allowed to visit only for four hours each day. Only fifty religious Jews – as opposed to ordinary visitors — are allowed on the Temple Mount at any one time. The Israeli police monitor the Jewish visitors to make sure they do not pray, openly or silently, which might offend the Muslims. If they do, they are promptly expelled from the Mount. 

What does the most to “aggravate tensions”? False charges about Jewish ritual slaughter on the Temple Mount, by the Palestinians. Hysterical rhetoric about Zionist plans to “storm” Al-Aqsa. Mad claims about the Zionist plan to convert Al-Aqsa from a mosque to a Jewish site, by the Palestinians. The killings of innocent Israelis, at Beersheva, Hadera, Bnei Brak, Tel Aviv — by the Palestinians.