Israel Police and Border Police officers thwarted an attempt to break into the Temple Mount compound on Friday and bring a goat onto the site as a Passover sacrifice, police said Sunday.
Twenty-one suspects were detained or arrested for questioning after a group arrived at one of the gates to the compound and attempted to force its way inside, in what police described as an attempt to bring a kid goat onto the Temple Mount while disrupting public order.
The incident took place as Jerusalem District police and Border Police forces were deployed around the Old City and the approaches to the Temple Mount as part of the security preparations for Friday prayers and the maintenance of public order at the holy site.
According to police, officers blocked the group’s path and prevented the suspects from entering the compound. The suspects were later brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, which ordered their release. A subsequent police appeal to the Jerusalem District Court was also rejected, and the suspects remained free.
The attempted sacrifice is connected to Pesach Sheni, the date marked one month after Passover for those who were unable to bring the biblical Passover sacrifice at its proper time. Several right-wing and Temple Mount activist groups have for years attempted to bring goats or lambs into the Old City and toward the Temple Mount around Passover, almost always prompting preemptive police action.
Attempted sacrificial rites at the Temple Mount are treated as volatile provocations
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest site in Islam, where it is known to Muslims as al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Attempts by Jewish activists to conduct sacrificial rites there are treated by police as a volatile provocation, particularly during Jewish and Muslim religious periods, because of the site’s extreme sensitivity and the potential for the incident to ignite unrest.
This was not the first such attempt. Last month, 14 Jewish men and boys were arrested on suspicion of trying to smuggle sacrificial goats onto the Temple Mount. In 2024, police arrested 21 people suspected of planning Passover sacrifices in Jerusalem, including minors found with goats and others suspected of hiding goats in shopping bags and strollers.
In 2023, police detained Temple Mount activists with a goat ahead of Passover, while back in 2017, police arrested seven right-wing Jewish activists after members of the Return to Temple Mount movement publicly called on supporters to bring goats to the Old City for sacrifice.
Police said Sunday that it would continue to act “with determination” to maintain public order, security, and the fabric of life in the Old City and at holy sites in particular.
The force added that it would continue “firm enforcement against any attempt to violate the law and public order.”
