Rivlin: Palestinians making Temple Mount a weapons cache
The Temple Mount must not be used for violence that threatens Jewish and Muslim worshipers, President Reuven Rivlin said Tuesday.
“We will not allow violence and disruption,” he said in an emergency briefing for ambassadors of EU member states to Israel. “Palestinian extremists have turned the Temple Mount into a cache for weapons and a base for attacks.”
Jerusalem was attacked with rockets on Monday, and Hamas and other Gazan terrorist groups shot hundreds of projectiles at civilian areas in the South in recent days, sending thousands of children to bomb shelters, Rivlin said.
In response, the IDF struck more than 200 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip.
Since the beginning of the month of Ramadan in the weeks prior to the rocket fire, Muslim worshipers rioted on the Temple Mount and other parts of Jerusalem’s Old City, leading to clashes with police. The wave of riots reached its height over the weekend, with firebombs and rocks thrown from the Temple Mount at police and at Jews praying at the Western Wall below.
“No country in the world would accept a situation like this,” Rivlin said. “We will never accept this reality. We will protect our citizens by all means necessary.”
Among the attendees at the briefing were EU Ambassador to Israel Emmanuele Giaufret and the ambassadors of Germany, Italy, France and Spain.
Rivlin said he had hosted an Iftar meal, breaking the daily fast during Ramadan, for Muslim ambassadors and local leaders.
“They all know that Jerusalem is an open city where people of all religions pray freely,” Rivlin said. “During the month of Ramadan, tens of thousands of Muslims have prayed safely on the Temple Mount, as they do throughout the year.”
However, he added, “the provocations, the terrorist attacks and
Hamas violence… has turned Ramadan into a nightmare.”
Rivlin called for regional partnerships with Israel to build trust and understanding that will lead to peace.
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi ended his diplomatic trip to South Korea overnight on Monday due to the violent attacks from Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem.
While in Seoul, Ashkenazi held a videoconference meeting with senior Foreign Ministry officials and ambassadors from 20 core countries.
“Israel will not allow its sovereignty and its civilians to be harmed, and it will act with severity against Hamas and terrorist organizations,” he said.
Ashkenazi instructed Israel’s ambassadors to pass on “strong messages” to the countries in which they are posted and in the media.
Economics Minister Amir Peretz remained in Seoul to sign a free-trade deal between Israel and South Korea on Wednesday. South Korea is the first country in Asia with which Israel will have a free-trade agreement, and Israel is the first in the Middle East to sign such an agreement with Seoul.
South Korea is the 12th-largest economy in the world and Israel’s third-largest trading partner in Asia.
World leaders appealed for Israelis and Palestinians to keep calm in recent days.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned in the strongest terms the barrage of rockets from Gaza, called for the rocket attacks to stop “immediately” and urged all sides to take the necessary steps to reduce tensions.
“We’re very focused on the situation in Israel, [the] West Bank, Gaza – very deeply concerned about the rocket attacks that we’re seeing now, that they need to stop. They need to stop immediately,” he said ahead of meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
Blinken expressed concern about the violence and “provocative actions” in and around the Temple Mount.
The State Department said it was dedicated to ensuring calm across the region.
The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether four Palestinian families in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, will be evicted.
The case involves a property dispute between Jews with deeds for the land and a chain of ownership dating back to the 19th century. The Arabs living on the land leased it when Jordan occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank from 1948-1967.