Amid massive violence on the Tempe Mount, the Ra’am Islamist party issued an ultimatum to its coalition head, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett; no Jews or police on the Temple Mount. On Friday morning, Thousands of Palestinians arrived at the Temple Mount for Ramadan prayer. No Jews were at the site but riots broke out and over 150 Palestinians were reportedly injured in clashes with Israeli police and hundreds of violent offenders were reportedly arrested. Several policemen were injured in the clashes.
וכך זה התחיל הבוקר בהר הבית, הפגנה של מאות שקוראים: ״ברוח בדם נפדה את אל אקצא״. אפשר לראות ברקע דגלי חמאס. pic.twitter.com/ngw22rjMtf
— סולימאן מסוודה سليمان مسودة (@SuleimanMas1) April 15, 2022
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that dozens of masked men carrying Palestinian and Hamas flags had marched to the compound before dawn on Friday and gathered stones and other objects in anticipation of unrest.
“The continued harm to Al-Aqsa is a red line for us, including in the context of coalition stability,” Abbas said in an interview on Radio Al-Shams.“In the case of Al-Aqsa, there are no political considerations.”
Bennett’s coalition is threatened since Idit Silman, the leader of the coalition and a member of the Knesset for Bennett’s Yamina party, announced last week that she will join the opposition over her objections to a Health Ministry instruction that hospitals do not enforce kashrut restrictions during the upcoming Passover holiday.
Al Aqsa Mosque (the further mosque) is the grey domed mosque on the Temple Mount. The Palestinians use the term inaccurately to refer to the entire Temple Mount.
“Muslims have the exclusive right to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The daily invasions are an aggression against that exclusive right,” Ra’am added.
Ra’am MK Mazen Ghnaim threatened to quit the coalition “if the actions of the security forces at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque aren’t halted immediately.”
“A government that acts this way… has no right to exist,” he said in a statement addressed to Bennett.
Hamas, the elected government in Gaza, expressed solidarity with the Arab Knesset members.
“Our people in Jerusalem are not alone in the battle for Al-Aqsa. The whole Palestinian people and its noble resistance and its vital power are with them,” said Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhum.
Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas, called for all Palestinians to rise up against Israel.
“We are declaring a general mobilization in all places where our people are located. We are calling on the masses to come out in the hundreds of thousands to protect our nation and our mosque,” Hamas said in a statement.
David Sidman, the managing editor of Israel365 News, noted that the Arab demands could bring about a positive development.
“The Israeli police are preventing Jews from fulfilling the commandment to bring the Passover sacrifice,” Sidman said. “Not bringing the sacrifice bears the gravest punishment of karet, being cut off from the Jewish people. If the police stand down, the Jewish people will do what is required of them.”
