Israeli police disperse protest at Jerusalem holy site

JERUSALEM – Israeli police stormed a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem on Wednesday, firing tear gas to disperse a protest by Palestinian Muslim worshippers, officials said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the crowd hurled stones and firecrackers from atop the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Rosenfeld said police then entered the site and dispersed the group with tear gas and other nonlethal means.

The compound is known to Muslims as the oble Sanctuary and is Islam’s third-holiest site. Israel captured the area along with the rest of east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war.

Jews typically pray below, at the Western Wall, but tensions have grown lately with an increased number of Jews arriving to pray at the Temple Mount as well. Israel permits Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount for visits, but they are barred from praying at the site. These visits often stoke rumors that Israel is preparing to take over the site.

Jews flock to the Western Wall during the weeklong Passover holiday. Police closed access to the adjacent Temple Mount compound after Wednesday’s clash.

The site is ground zero in the territorial and religious conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Its gold-topped Dome of the Rock enshrines the rock where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Jews believe the compound is the site where the two biblical Jewish temples stood, and where religious Jews pray a third temple will one day be built. The site is so holy that Jews have traditionally refrained from praying on the hilltop, but attitudes among some Orthodox Jews have been evolving and there has been growing demand to allow Jews to pray there freely as well.