Smart cameras at Lion’s Gate considered as possible replacement for metal detectors
Foreign Press Association decries ‘deplorable situation’ after journalists removed from area
Amid ongoing tensions in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount, police have placed security cameras at the Lion’s Gate on the eastern side of the Old City where most Muslim worshipers enter to pray at the site.
The closed-circuit TV cameras on scaffolding at the Lion’s Gate now compliment the metal detectors that were placed there last week to secure the Temple Mount from firearms, after three Palestinian terrorists killed two Israeli police officers there earlier this month.
The cameras are reportedly able to detect whether or not individuals are armed with guns, knives or other weapons as they approach, allowing security personnel to identify and detain them before they have a chance to attack.
The Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, rejected even this solution however, saying no security option would be accepted.
“All the religious authorities in Jerusalem are opposed to new Israeli security measures at al-Aksa mosque,” Hussein told Channel 10.
“The situation must return to what it was previously. Muslim worshipers must be able to enter all the gates with total freedom and without any security methods or obstacles.”
Later Sunday morning, several journalists were removed by the police from the vicinity of the Temple Mount in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City and forced to wait outside of Herod’s Gate for more than three hours.
One of the journalists, a cameraman for The Jerusalem Post, had his ID papers temporarily confiscated by the police as he tried to photograph the new security cameras and Muslim prayers at 1 p.m. outside the Lion’s Gate.
The police said the journalists were removed because Muslim worshipers were finishing prayers and leaving the Temple Mount compound, and they wanted to avoid a confrontation between masses of worshipers and the press.
According to the Post’s cameraman however, there was no prayer service at the time he and the other journalists were removed.
A statement by the police regarding the incident said that “certain areas of the Old City are limited for journalists to enter due to ongoing security measures taking place.”
The Foreign Press Association issued a strongly worded protest later on Sunday following the incident, calling it a “deplorable situation” and alleging that “journalists were held for questioning and relegated to distant positions totally useless for reporting or taking relevant photos.”
Said the FPA: “It is unclear how these areas are today open to tourists while accredited journalists and photojournalists are deliberately being kept out. This appears to be a kind of innovative censorship that is surprising in a country that prides itself on press freedom.”