Israel to let MPs visit flashpoint Jerusalem holy site

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to ease a ban on lawmakers visiting a sensitive Jerusalem holy site rocked by violence last month, his office said Thursday.

An official told AFP on condition of anonymity that members of parliament would be allowed to visit the site known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and Jews as the Temple Mount in a one-day trial next week.

"In consultation with security officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to open the Temple Mount to MPs' visits, for one day at this stage, on Tuesday, August 29," the member of his office said.

"The decision was taken in light of the improvement in the security situation at the site," he said. "Decisions on the issue will continue to be made in accordance with assessments of the security situation."

Netanyahu instructed police in October 2015 to bar lawmakers from visiting the site in the Old City of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem which houses the Al-Aqsa mosque complex and the Dome of the Rock.

It was meant to help calm unrest that erupted in part over Palestinian fears that Israel was planning to assert further control over the compound.

Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he is committed to the status quo there.

The site is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam, and it is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Jews are allowed to visit the compound but not pray there, and the site has been the scene of regular confrontation over any attempt to flout the rule.

Yehuda Glick, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party, had in March petitioned Israel's supreme court against the ban on members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, visiting the hilltop site.

On July 4, the justice ministry said Knesset members would be allowed access for a "pilot number of days" starting on July 23.

But on July 14, three Israeli Arabs emerged from the mosque compound with automatic weapons and shot dead two policemen nearby before being shot dead by other officers.

Israel responded by installing metal detectors and other security equipment at the entrance but that triggered protests which left seven Palestinians dead.

Also, as the unrest raged, a Palestinian broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and stabbed four Israelis, killing three.

The crisis ended when Israel removed the Al-Aqsa security devices.

Source: AFP