Jerusalem - One of Israel's top rabbis said Thursday that religious law prevented Jews from entering the Temple Mount / Noble Sanctuary compound in Jerusalem's Old City. The flashpoint compound in Jerusalem's Old City is holy to both Muslims and Jews, and has been the scene of mounting tension between the communities for most of this week.
"According to Jewish religious law it is forbidden. There is no room to allow an ascent to the Temple Mount. I said so in the past and I reiterate it today,"Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, a leading expert on the subject, said.
He added that in addition to the religious ban, Jews entering the compound could be seen as a provocation which would lead to needless bloodshed.
Elyashiv made the remarks while hosting President Shimon Peres on the occasion of the week-long Tabernacles holiday, a statement from Peres' office said.
The Noble Sanctuary /Temple Mount houses the al-Aqsa mosque and is the third holiest site in Islam, marking according to tradition the spot from where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.
But it also contains the ruins of the Jewish biblical temple, destroyed by the Roman legions in 70 AD, and as such is the most sacred site in Judaism.
The latest tensions over the compound erupted Sunday last week, when according to Israel a group of Christian tourists made a pre-arranged organized tour of the compound under Israeli police escort.
Rumours soon spread that they were Israeli settlers seeking to symbolically re-inaugurate the ruined Biblical temple at the site, on the eve of the Jewish Day of Atonment.
On Wednesday a delegation from the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, and Arab-Israeli legislators, toured the compound.
They accused Israel of carrying out archaeological excavations under the compound.
Peres, speaking at start of a Jewish-Arab bicycle tour in northern Israel, said Jewish law forbade digging under holy sites and contravened Israeli law as well.
