After the shooting of Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick Wednesday night, police closed off the Temple Mount to both Jews and Arabs, for fear that mounting tensions between both sides would erupt into a full-fledged riot.

But witnesses Thursday said that the ban had apparently been partially lifted: Arab Muslims were observed on the Mount, but Jews are not being allowed to ascend.

On his way to the Mount Thursday was MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), who was set to attempt to visit the Mount along with other MKs and activists.

Speaking to reporters, Feiglin said that the Israeli security system had once again failed. The Arab who is suspected of shooting Glick spent time in an Israeli prison and was released. “Once again we see how releasing terrorists increases terror and makes the lives of Jews more miserable,” he said.

MK Zvulun Kalfa (Jewish Home), a member of the Knesset’s special committee on Temple Mount matters, said that “closing the Temple Mount to Jews, while allowing rioting Arabs to traipse freely on the holy site, shows our weakness and our willingness to surrender sovereignty. This is the appropriate time to increase our presence and sovereignty there.

“If we want to increase security in Jerusalem altogether we will not be able to do it through weakness – only through standing up for the rights of Jews to pray at any place in Jerusalem,” he added.

Speaking Thursday, Matan Peleg, director of student Zionist organization Im Tirzu, said that “the Temple Mount is and remains the symbol and test of the imposition of Israeli sovereignty on Jerusalem. After weeks of incitement by the far left and Islamists, we have to say that it was very clear that the writing was on the wall for an incident like this. We call on the Israeli government to immediately put a stop to incitement and terror.”

Glick – who founded and heads the LIBA Initiative for Jewish Freedom on the Temple Mount  was deliberately targeted for nationalistic reasons. Security forces killed an Islamic Jihad terrorist, a resident of Abu Tor in East Jerusalem, on Thursday morning, on suspicion that he was involved in the shooting of Glick.

Glick was shot outside Jerusalem’s Begin Center, which had been hosting an event to help in efforts to re-establish a greater Jewish presence on the Mount Wednesday night. He was rushed to Sha’arei Tzedek Medical Center for immediate medical treatment and remains in serious condition.

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