Har Habayis Ban Extended for MKs

The Knesset Ethics Committee decided to extend a ban on MKs from visiting Har Habayis, contrary to expectations that it would lift the seven-month ban, on Tuesday.

Yerushalayim Police Chief Yarom Halevi told the committee: “As of now, there is no change in the police position on the entry of Knesset members to the site.”

The panel said it will review the matter when there is a change in the assessment of the police and security establishment.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu first issued the order to keep Jewish and Muslim lawmakers away from the Har Habayis after the outbreak last October of a wave of Palestinian violence and terror attacks centered around claims that Israel was attempting to take control of the site.

The leading poskim have declared many times that the site is halachically forbidden to all Jews.