Amid a dispute between Israel and Jordan over the security situation on the Temple Mount, thousands of Jewish worshipers crammed into the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem on Sunday for the priestly blessing for Passover.
Despite increased tensions over the Mount recently, the traditional ceremony ended without a hitch.
To elicit a response from Israeli security forces, hundreds of people locked themselves inside the Al Aqsa mosque on Saturday night, preventing Muslims from worshipping. Police did not, however, enter the structure to expel the extremists as they have in the past.
Instead, Israel’s Foreign Ministry urged Amman to act against the extremists through the Waqf Islamic Trust, which protects Muslim monuments on the Temple Mount.
The tweet responded to a previous statement from the Jordanian Foreign Ministry accusing Israel of breaking the status quo on the Temple Mount and threatening “catastrophic consequences” if Israel maintained its “violations.”
The Jewish Press reported on Sunday that Amman rejected the proposal.
According to Sinan Al-Majali, the designated spokesman for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, the entire 37 acres of the Temple Mount is “a pure place of worship for Muslims,” according to the Petra News Agency.
According to Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the official spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, “Israeli provocations would convert the [Temple Mount] courtyards into battlefields,” according to Petra.
The priestly blessing, which twice a year on Sukkot and Passover draws hundreds of Jews to the Western Wall, was incident-free, according to the Israel Police.
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