The Temple Mount is closed to Jews for the next 10 days for Islamic observances.

The notice says that due to the final ten days of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, the Temple Mount will be closed until after the final Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr to all but Muslims, and offers and apology. There is no English translation provided for tourists.

The Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem is closed to Jews for the next ten days in observance of the final third of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and its culminating holiday, Eid al-Fitr.

The message notifying Israelis they would not be allowed to enter the site was posted in Hebrew, and no English-language translation was written alongside. This made it clear that (1) the prohibition is specific to Israeli Jews, and (2) the Israeli government is clearly aware of just how antithetical to a democratic society such a decision, and would appear to foreign tourists.

Israel has allowed hundreds of [Muslim] Arabs from Judea, Samaria, Gaza and even from abroad to cross the pre-1967 border to access the site to pray at the Al Aqsa mosque. As happens ever year during Ramadan, there have then followed a number of violent riots by those same Muslim worshipers, due to the Islamic clerics who incite their followers into a frenzy of hatred with their sermons, prompting Israeli police to then close the Temple Mount to Jewish and other visitors.

For years, various lawmakers have tried to end this vicious cycle by proposing legislation that would put an end to closing the Temple Mount in response to riots: rather, the site would be closed to the rioters instead.

The site is believed to be the location of the Holy of Holies of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism, and also the third holiest site in Islam.

After its restoration to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, Israel agreed as a gesture of peace to allow its former Jordanian occupier to maintain control over the Islamic holy site. The Islamic Waqf Authority continues to administer control over the site to this day, although Israel Police and other Israeli security personnel hold the ultimate authority over the area.

[Jewish Press]