No, Jews didn't climb on the roof of the Dome of the Rock last week

A couple of people have written to me about an insane story in Middle East Monitor. I briefly addressed the story last week when Ma'an published it but here is a more comprehensive answer.

MEMO wrote last week:

Israeli settlers have stormed repeatedly Al-Aqsa Mosque compound over the last two days, and on Thursday even climbed the Dome of the Rock Mosque. The settlers were led by the radical Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who is the former head of the Temple Institute. He was accompanied by a journalist on Thursday who carried a camera to document the attack, while settlers reportedly engaged in verbal altercations with angry Muslim worshipers defending the mosque. Witnesses reported that Rabbi Glick returned to storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque twice on Friday, joined by groups of Jewish settlers whom he lectured to about the alleged Temple.

The settlers have now become accustomed to storming the mosque regularly, usually touring around the yards starting from the Mughrabi Gate and then going to Al-Marwani Mosque, Rahma Gate, Al-Asbat Gate and King Faisal Gate until the Alqtanin Gate, exiting from Al-Selselah Gate. However, this is the first incident where the settlers have climbed the Dome of the Rock Mosque.

The General Director of Muslim Endowments and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs, Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib, has condemned the incident and described it as a provocative and dangerous step. Meanwhile, the Islamic-Christian Committee to support Jerusalem and its holy sites issued a press statement affirming that the incident represents "a flagrant violation against places of worship" and pointing out that the Israeli occupation authorities have almost completed their efforts to Judaise Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings and are preparing to announce it as a Jewish synagogue.

Source: Al Ghad

The story was also mentioned in Iranian.com and, of course, Mondoweiss.

Only one problem.

This never happened. It is pure fiction. It is absurd. The "eyewitnesses" are lying.

As Yisrael Medad mentioned, when large groups of Jews visit the Temple Mount, they are accompanied by Waqf guards. They would not let anything like that happen.

They are also accompanied by Israeli security guards who strictly limit what they can do (you know, sometimes those Jews actually try to pray!)

Yehuda Glick, who is now the number one bogeyman in every "Jews storming Temple Mount" story, would never go near the Dome of the Rock because it is near or on top of the "Holy of Holies" and off limits to religious Jews (although, as Medad points out, last year Israeli MK Moshe Feiglin anomalously found justification to go there, it hasn't happened before or since.)

Arab websites like iaqsa.com take dozens of photos every time a Jewish group visits the holy site. No photos or videos have surfaced of this alleged event - not even from the supposed journalist who took photos.

And, seriously - how would anyone climb up there? Did the Jews bring a ladder through Mughrabi Gate?

The story says Glick returned twice on Friday. Jews aren't allowed on the Temple Mount on Fridays at all.

It is just another Arab lie, even though it was commented on by Muslim and PLO officials.

MEMO is notoriously unreliable, it is a UK-based Islamist website.

The MEMO story has over 16,000 Facebook "Likes." So apparently this story has gone viral.

To get an idea of the restrictions on  Jews in the Temple Mount today, see this article.

A former Canadian minister who visited the Temple Mount on Sunday was shocked to learn of the discrimination shown by Israeli police officers towards Jews.

Stockwell Day, who served as Canada’s Minister of Public Safety between 2006 and 2008, visited the Temple Mount following a coincidental meeting with a resident of Jerusalem, Yosef Rabin, who regularly visits the Temple Mount compound.