Sound The Trumpet : Public security minister draws ire for Temple Mount visit

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“Public security minister draws ire for Temple Mount visit”
by Jpost
June 23rd, 2009

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Tuesday made a rare visit to Jerusalem's Temple Mount, drawing condemnations from the Islamic Waqf, who charged that the tour was a "provocation."

Waqf Director Azzam el-Ahmed told the Palestinian Ma'an news agency that the visit had not been coordinated in advance and that he did not know the reason for the tour.

The visit is "a dangerous, pathetic provocation," said MK Taleb A-Sanaa (United Arab List). "Aharonovitch is unwelcome at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and his purpose was to incense the Muslims and try to show them who's in charge."

A-Sanaa asserted that the tour was only intended to "inflame the area" and warned that the minister would "suffer the consequences of the visit."

However, according to Aharonovitch's media advisor, Tal Harel, the visit was routine, lasting some two hours, during which the minister was briefed by the officials charged with securing the compound.

Aharonovitch was accompanied by Police Commissioner Insp.-Gen. David Cohen and Jerusalem police chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco.

Harel rejected charges that the tour was intended to create a provocation, saying that it had not only been coordinated in advance with the Waqf but that representatives of the Islamic supervisors of the site actually escorted Aharonovitch and his entourage.

"There will always be such comments," he told The Jerusalem Post, adding that the tour was "completely professional" with "no special reason for the timing; nothing unusual."

The real provocation, Harel added, was caused by those who criticized the visit.

"Those who wish to create provocations will create them, irrespective of the trip to the Temple Mount," he said.

Aharonovitch (Israel Beiteinu) already ignited a firestorm of controversy about a week ago after he told an undercover police officer disguised as a drug addict that he resembled an Araboush - an extremely derogatory Hebrew term for Arabs.

Referring to that incident, A-Sanaa said he hoped that Aharonovitch "hadn't again repeated the unfortunate word Araboushim during his visit."

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