Thousands of Jewish worshippers visited a Jerusalem holy site during the holiday of Passover as far-right Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot boasted, \u201cArabs aren\u2019t allowed to come near us.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sukkot, a member of the Religious Zionism party, visited the al-Aqsa compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday morning, prostrating himself on the ground and praying in violation of the delicate status quo agreement <\/strong>that governs the site. <\/p>\n \u201cJews are bowing, praying, holding minyanim here,\u201d said Sukkot, referencing a quorum of ten men required for certain Jewish worship. \u201cArabs aren\u2019t allowed to come near us at all,\u201d the lawmaker added, with Israeli security forces walking amongst the worshippers around him. <\/p>\n While anyone can visit the al-Aqsa compound, only Muslims are allowed to pray there, according to the status quo agreement, which has existed since Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967. The site, which is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is the holiest place in Judaism. It is known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, and it is the third holiest site in Islam. <\/p>\n But the status quo agreement has increasingly been tested and, in some cases, deliberately challenged. Far-right lawmakers in Israel have made repeated visits to the holy site, encouraging other Jewish worshippers to do the same. Some of these visits have sparked protests, as well as diplomatic fallout across the region. <\/p>\n Video from the scene on Thursday showed <\/strong>Sukkot surrounded by a group of Jewish men openly praying while an Israeli police officer walked around in the background, not disturbing or interrupting the prayer session. Sukkot said it was far <\/strong>different to his last visit to the site 14 years ago. <\/p>\n \u201cBack then, they used to watch you closely \u2013 if they saw you whisper a prayer, they\u2019d jump on you. What\u2019s happening now is an incredible miracle,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Sukkot\u2019s visit comes amid a surge of Jewish worshippers going to the holy site to pray, according to the Temple Mount Administration, which said 6,315 worshippers had so far <\/strong>attended prayer sessions since Passover began last weekend. <\/p>\n The organization, which filmed the video of Sukkot at the compound, added that a daily record was set on Thursday, with 2,106 attending. Despite the moniker, the Temple Mount Administration is not a government agency. <\/p>\n Instead, it is a right-wing organization working to organize and promote Jewish prayer at the holy site. They described the number of visitors as \u201chistoric records,\u201d saying it was a 37% increase from last year. <\/p>\n Far-right Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, who leads the Jewish Power party, praised Sukkot\u2019s visit. \u201cWhat wasn\u2019t done in 30 years is being done on my watch, and I\u2019m grateful to have been granted, by God\u2019s grace, the privilege of leading this tremendous change,\u201d he said on social media. <\/p>\n Ben Gvir has frequently visited the holy site, making clear his intentions to allow and promote Jewish worship, despite the prohibition. <\/strong>Following a visit in December, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office was forced to put out a statement saying, \u201cThe status quo at Temple Mount has not changed.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Thousands of Jewish worshippers visited a Jerusalem holy site during the holiday of Passover as far-right Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot boasted, \u201cArabs aren\u2019t allowed to come near us.\u201d Sukkot, a member of the Religious Zionism party, visited the al-Aqsa compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday morning, prostrating himself on the ground and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}