Jerusalem police have intervened to prevent a provocative act by the Temple Mount Faithful, a group of religious militants who want to take possession of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The police said the group would be barred from airlifting a five-ton “cornerstone” for the “Third Temple” to the Temple Mount.
Gershon Salomon, the group’s leader, was quoted Thursday by the Jerusalem Post as saying that an unnamed American Jew had contributed the money to hire a giant sky-crane helicopter for the task.
Police are also preventing the group from entering the huge, elevated compound where the Temples of Solomon and Herod are believed to have stood. It is now the location of Al Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, two of the holiest shrines of Islam.
The group planned a series of demonstrations in and around the Old City during the Sukkot holiday, which begins at sundown Sunday. Police have restricted the group’s activities to the area in front of the Mughrabi Gate, a principal entrance to the Temple Mount, and to the Pool of Shiloah, in the nearby Kidron Valley.
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