Dramatic Rise in Jews Visiting Temple Mount

In the first 14 months since the Temple Mount was reopened, up to October 2004, 70,000 Jews had visited the site, an average of 5,000 per month.

These are dramatic numbers, compared to the few thousand Jews who would visit the Temple Mount each year prior to its closure in 2000.

Tzachi Hanegbi, a former minister of internal security, wrote that these visits "are getting the Palestinians accustomed to accepting the deep connection of the Jewish people to the place where the Temple stood."

Dramatic Rise in Jews Visiting Temple Mount