Leading Religious Zionist rabbis encouraged Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel to continue ascending the Temple Mount on Monday, after an MK blamed the minister for an increase in the violent Muslim rioting at Judaism's holiest site.
"These days, given the international intervention on our holy Temple Mount, and the discrimination and trampling of fundamental rights in this holy place - we wish to support your trips to the Temple Mount, as a Minister in Israel, in purity, to those places which are permitted to visit," the rabbis stated in a letter.
They added that Ariel's visits to the Mount fulfill a Biblical directive: 'Do not fear; do not be discouraged' and hopes that his visits would help bring the permanent rebuilding of the Temple on the Mount.