Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) on Thursday instructed Knesset guard commander Brig. Gen. Yosef Griff to deploy a security attachment to accompany MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), in a unique security detail unlike the routine attachments given to MKs.
Edelstein also asked Griff to provide security to any MK, from the political right or left, who feels a threat to their well-being from extremist forces.
Likewise he ordered Griff to be in close contact with security and intelligence sources regarding any threat of assassination on MKs.
The raised level of concern of an assassination comes in the wake of Wednesday night’s assassination attempt by an Islamic Jihad terrorist, who shot Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick several times at point blank range after he spoke at the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem about Jewish prayer rights at the holiest site in Judaism.
Glick remains in critical, albeit stable condition. The terrorist, Mu’taz Hijazi, who was employed at a restaurant in the Center despite having been released from a jail sentence for terrorism in 2012, was shot by police as he opened fire on them during an arrest operation.
The fears concerning the possible threat to Feiglin’s life in particular comes due to his outspoken position of support for Jewish rights to visit the Temple Mount – he was in fact at the event where Glick was shot and was a witness to the assassination attempt.
Speaking immediately after the murder attempt, Feiglin said: “the weakness of the government, the security forces and of the Minister of Public Security against the Arab conduct on the Temple Mount and the harassment of Jews, stimulates the continuation of violence and leads to attempted murder.”
On Thursday, Feiglin also addressed the fact that despite police steps to close the Temple Mount to both Jews and Muslims following the attack, Muslims were in fact let on the Mount while Jews were not; the Muslims in question eventually rioted and forced police to disperse them.
“When I asked to enter so that the sovereign’s representative in Israel, the Israeli Knesset, will be on the Mount, not just Muslim sovereigns which actually took our place on the Mount, they didn’t allow it,” Feiglin noted. “I asked to speak with the prime minister and he never called me back.”
“This is the situation this morning, the reality whereby a wanted murderer is given what he wanted in full. This conduct will certainly not bring about peace, only more murders,” warned Feiglin.
The latest escalation in violence focusing on the Temple Mount comes after Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas two weeks ago called for “all means” to be used in blocking Jews from “defiling” the site, in an uncannily similar manner to former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat’s call for the 2000 Second Intifada.
