Record number of Jews visit Har Habayis during Pesach despite threats

 

Since the beginning of Passover, 2,642 Jews have already gone up to the Temple Mount, the Beyadenu organization reported Tuesday morning.

This brings the total number of Jews who have ascended to the Mount since the beginning of the year to 27,675.

However, Jewish access to the holy site was not without challenges. Jewish groups were limited sometimes to 20-50 people at a time, and police did not allow Jews to stop for prayer or explanations during their ascent.

In addition, the ascensions often faced shouts of "Allah Akbar" by Muslim visitors, and attempts to disrupt and disturb the order, though no major incidents were reported.

Tom Nisani, CEO of Beyadenu, stressed the importance of normalizing Jewish ascent to the Temple Mount, saying: "The only way to achieve peace and security is through maintaining Israeli sovereignty in the State of Israel. Continued surrender and attempts to negotiate with terrorists will lead to more riots and more attacks. We thank the security forces for keeping the ascenders safe and demand that the Israeli government change the broken record and stop surrendering to terrorists."

During Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, the holy site was quiet and empty mostly except for the mosque area in the south where only a few dozen Arabs tried to curse and threaten the Jewish ascenders walking by. Large numbers of police officers were deployed to the area to prevent escalations.

The ascensions are currently taking place with time for prayer and explanations in the guided tours.

Israeli police, in addition to the additional precautions to prevent Jews from bringing religious symbols, conducted searches on the Jewish ascenders to prevent them from bringing food on the Temple Mount with them "due to the fast of Ramadan" in complete contradiction to the police’s own letter on the subject that the Beyadenu organization received in Ramadan of 2021.