The rising tide of clashes at the Temple Mount, and increased incidents of stone throwing in Jerusalem’s eastern neighborhoods are no coincidence. The rise can be attributed to a number of reasons, with the leading cause being the growing incitement on social networks which is pushing Palestinian youths into the streets to “defend” the Al Aqsa mosque. As they put it, the Jews and the state of Israel are trying to change the existing status-quo.

Every year, during the main Israeli holidays, large numbers of Jews visit the western wall, and tourist visits to the temple mount increase. Concurrently, a wave of incitement begins to take hold, and is not solely limited to social networks. The incitement is also spread by imams, and interested parties like the notorious Shiekh Raed Salah. The incitement takes like wildfire to brush and spreads rapidly across society. In contrast to the past where muezzins would deliver the call toaction through minaret speakers, today everything happens within the networks.

Stone-throwing is usually a byproduct of the temple mount riots. The outbursts by Palestinian youth and the barricading inside the Al Aqsa mosque, and the Israeli police’s attempts to bring back order to the area and prevent harm from coming to Jews, are intensively covered by the media – and not just from Arab countries, but Western ones as well. This leads to responses by governments, such as Jordan’s.

Jordan has been appointed by the World Supreme Council for Mosques (WSCM) to be a patron and guardian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, and so it is allegedly obligated to protect these places from any attempt by Israel to take control of them and change their status quo. The Jordanian clerks know very well what’s happening at the temple mount. They know there are organizations sent by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and inspired by Hamas, a men’s organization called “Murabitun” and a women’s organization called “Murabitat”, whose people get paid to riot in the temple mount area and prevent Jews from even freely moving about in the areas permitted to them.

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