Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has pushed back against calls from rightwing MPs and ministers to lift restrictions on Jews praying at the site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews as the Temple Mount, insisting there will be no change in its status quo.
The site – which includes the al-Aqsa mosque compound – is revered by Jews as the historic site of the ancient Jewish temples, including the Second Temple. Jews and Christians are allowed to visit under longstanding arrangements for its administration but not to pray.
Demands for greater access have been blamed by Israelis and Palestinians for a recent increase in violent confrontations in Jerusalem, including Wednesday’s lethal attack by a Palestinian driver who drove his car into two groups of Israelis after violence at the al-Aqsa mosque earlier in the day.
Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev, said on Thursday: “At last night’s security consultation, the prime minister made it clear that there will be no change in the status quo on the Temple Mount and that whoever expresses a different opinion is presenting a personal view and not the policy of the government.”
Regev said Netanyahu had made the comment at a meeting with security officials late on Wednesday. His comments were echoed on Thursday morning by the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who denounced MPs and ministers visiting the site for their “idiocy”, which he said was being driven by “cheap headline seeking”.
“If you have paid attention, neither I nor members of my party have gone up to the Temple Mount. We have not issued calls for Israel to exercise sovereignty there,” he told Israel Radio. “What needs to happen now is for calm to be restored [in Jerusalem].”
The remarks came before publicised plans by Jewish extremists to march to the compound in a protest on Thursday afternoon which some fear could lead to further confrontations.
In recent weeks, Netanyahu and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, have traded accusations of encouraging provocative actions at the holy site.
Adding to the growing sense of crisis has been the decision by Jordan’s King Abdullah to recall his country’s ambassador to Israel for consultations over the issue.
The comments by Netanyahu and Lieberman came as a relative of Jedan Assad, the Israeli border policeman killed in the hit-and-run attack on Wednesday, also condemned Israeli political figures who had visited the holy site.
“All sorts of oddball MKs [members of the Knesset], various Feiglins [a reference to the Knesset deputy speaker Moshe Feiglin], went to the Temple Mount to pray,” Assad Assad, a former MK, told Israel’s Army Radio.
“Why do you need this nonsense? Don’t we have enough religious wars all around? Do you want to get the entire Muslim and Arab world riled up, for what? Mr Netanyahu, instead of giving an order not to let these crazies into the Temple Mount, he blames Abu Mazen.”
Wednesday’s attack followed previous serious incidents in the past fortnight including last week, when a rightwing Jewish activist – Yehuda Glick, who has been closely involved in the campaign for easing prayer restrictions – was badly wounded in an assassination attempt by a Palestinian gunman who was later shot and killed by Israeli police.
Amid the violence associated with the issue, the Palestinians and Jordan urged the UN security council on Wednesday to demand that Israel immediately stop provocations and incitement against Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, warning that further escalation could lead to another crisis threatening peace in the Middle East.
Countering that complaint Israel’s UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, sent what the Israeli mission called a “sarcastic letter” to the security council listing acts of incitement by the Palestinian leadership, including last month’s drive-by shooting of a Jewish activist who had pushed for greater Jewish access to the sacred hilltop compound.
Prosor’s letter noted the council’s failure to “utter a word” about “this blatantly dangerous provocation”.
