By Barry Shaw
NETANYA, Israel — Anyone reading the foreign press about the rioting taking place on the Temple Mount might imagine that Jews were running amok in Jerusalem. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The violence derives from the provocative actions of paid volunteers of Islamist extremist groups such as Murabitun and Murabatat who, for weeks, have been intimidating non-Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount.
The majority of the visitors have been foreign tourists who have had to be rescued by Israeli security forces.
These radical groups have been defying the established arrangements which allows for non-Muslims to visit this holy place, which they have been doing silently and respectfully.
It has been the Muslim groups who have defied the law and order with dangerous provocations leading up to them storing rocks and firebombs in the mosques and attempting to barricade themselves inside while hurling these missiles at passersby and police that had to come to re-establish order and quiet.
It was not the Jews that ordered a “Day of Rage’ but Muslim youths who seem determined to light a global fire in Jerusalem.
Israel’s Prime Minister has appealed to both Mahmoud Abbas and to Jordan’s King Abdullah to use their influences to restore calm.
The same mutual respect that exists within Israeli society that honors the faith of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others must reign in Jerusalem.
Anyone who provokes hate and violence must be punished to the full extent of Israeli law, irrespective of their religion.
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Shaw is Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, Israel. He also is author of Fighting Hamas, BDS, and Anti-Semitism.