Today, Rosh Chodesh Adar, a group of Jews peacefully went up to the Mount to visit. It was described in Palestine Today this way:
Zionist extremist groups on Thursday morning stormed the courtyards of Al Aqsa Mosque from the Mughrabi Gate, with the occupation forces protecting them.
Our correspondent in Jerusalem said that the first batch of 12 extremists stormed the mosque, under police protection of the occupation, as occupation forces arrested four young men and took guard Samer Abu Qwaider out of the Haram al Sharif courtyard.
Also another group of settlers entered into the courtyards of Haram, 9 women and 8 men, as their numbers rose to 36. The "Israel" police restricted [Muslim] worshipers entering to be 45 years old or older.
Our correspondent reports that groups of settlers are walking around in the Old City of Jerusalem and in the vicinity of the Haram, joyfully singing to bring in the Hebrew month.
Palestine Times has photos of the "usurpers" walking around:
Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh charged Israel with calling on Jews to "storm" the Mount with the goal of Judaizing Judaism's holiest site and performing religious rituals there. For some reason he also mentioned that Zionist women were allowed there; apparently this is an especially grievous sin.
What does that moderate Mahmoud Abbas, who supposedly supports full access to holy sites by everyone, have to say? Why, he implicitly threatened violence, like always!
The President condemned intrusions ongoing Al-Aqsa Mosque.Well, the freedom for Jews to worship there is still pretty much zero.
Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said in a press statement on Thursday, "This is a serious escalation and provocation, and completes a series of attacks by extremists on the sanctuaries of the mosques and churches, and will have serious and ominous consequences '.
Abu Rdainah said Israelis are responsible for this escalation, and demanded that the international community intervene to force the Israeli authorities to stop such provocative actions that affect the freedom of worship.
Is today's group visit a huge provocation on the part of Israel?
Not at all.
Makor Rishon reported some statistics. In January, 1,119 Jews visited the Temple Mount. In 2011, some 9,000 Jews visited, among 370,000 tourists.
In other words, if thirty Jews visited today, that is pretty much the average number of Jews who visited every day for the past year (excluding Shabbat.)
This is a manufactured hysteria that is meant to incite Muslim Arabs against Jews and to try to pressure Israel to ban Jews from their holiest spot.
Thankfully, the Israeli police allowed Jews to visit anyway despite the rhetoric and threats.