4th Jew arrested on Temple Mount in 1 month for slandering Prophet Mohammad

JERUSALEM POST – Two jewish were arrested on the Temple Mount on Sunday morning for incitement and disturbing the public order, police said.

One suspect reportedly exclaimed “Mohammad is a pig,” after being insulted by an Arab mob shouting anti-Semitic slurs, while the second Jewish suspect, a 14-year-old boy, was arrested for incitement for donning his tzittzit over his shirt.      

Sunday’s arrest marks the fourth time in less than one month that a Jew has been arrested for slandering the Prophet Muhammad amid hostile Muslim groups heckling and espousing equally offense anti-Semitic invective against Jewish visitors.

On the heels of Sunday’s arrests, Emek Shaveh, a left-wing consortium of archeologists, claimed tensions were further inflamed when government inspectors from the Nature and Parks Authority began fencing-off a Muslim cemetery adjacent to the Temple Mount.

According to a statement issued by the NGO, the cemetery, known as Bab al-Rahmeh, is being cordoned off as a means to limit the number of Muslims near the contested holy site, and to cease the cemetery’s eastward expansion.   

“We understand these works as continuing the trend to limit the non-Jewish presence around the holy compound, and part of a long struggle between settlers and Palestinians over control of the eastern wall of the esplanade,” the statement said.

“In response to the works today, Emek Shaveh contacted the legal department of the NPA, asking whether the work is coordinated with the Israel Antiquities Authority. If not, the concern is that the NPA itself is harming the antiques.”

Noting that the cemetery has long served as a flashpoint in Arab and Jewish tensions, the European-funded NGO stated that the fence breaches “the delicate status quo between the Israeli authorities and Palestinians regarding the perimeter around the Temple Mount.”

“The NPA erected a fence that prevents further burial to the east, aiming to prevent the expansion of the cemetery, which would hurt the [Jerusalem Walls National Park],” the statement continued.

“In our opinion, this is another step designed to prevent Muslim presence around the walls of the Temple Mount.”

While Bab al-Rahmeh cemetery is included in the Jerusalem Walls National Park, the Christian and Jewish cemeteries on the Mount of Olives are not.

Therefore, the Muslim cemetery’s inclusion within the park’s borders now “enables the NPA to operate in the cemetery under the National Parks Act, to fence it in, restrict access to it, and to strive to stop burial there,” the NGO alleged.

“All this is being done in the claim of protecting ancient remains,” the Emek Shaveh alleged.

A spokesperson for the NPA could not be reached for comment.