© Mahmoud Illean/Associated PressIn this Friday, Dec. 6, 2013 photo, Israeli border police walk past the Dome of the Rock as they clash with Palestinians. The Jerusalem site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, is ground zero in the territorial and religious conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Jewish visits to the politically sensitive compound are on the rise, and key Israeli lawmakers are lobbying to end a ban on Jewish prayer there. The hilltop site is so holy to Jews that they have traditionally refrained from praying there, congregating instead at the adjacent Western Wall.
Jerusalem - For decades, the religious Jews who bucked a rabbinic ban and visited a contested holy site in Jerusalem where the ancient Jewish temple once stood were seen by many as a fanatic fringe.
But their cause is gaining support among both mainstream religious Jews and Israel's government, much to the dismay of Muslim officials. Jewish visits to the politically sensitive compound are on the rise, and key Israeli lawmakers are lobbying to end a ban on Jewish prayer there. Israel has also approached Jordan, which administers Muslim religious affairs at the site, about allowing limited Jewish worship there.
The visits have unnerved Muslim authorities, who fear Israel is quietly trying to upset a fragile status quo and encroach upon the site. Similar tensions in the past have boiled over into deadly violence.
"If this happens, there will be lot of bloodshed," said Azzam Khatib, director general of the Waqf, Jordan's Islamic authority that manages the Jerusalem holy site, about the possibility of organized Jewish prayers there.
The raised compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, is ground zero in the territorial and religious conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Comment: How many innocent people must be murdered around the world before the international community makes a noise?