Yehuda Glick shot in Jerusalem

A man fled on motorcycle after shooting Yehuda Glick Wednesday outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. The US-born activist, a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, remains in serious but stable condition, undergoing surgery for wounds in the chest and abdomen. The Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin said a man had spoken to Glick, a settler, in accented Hebrew as he exited the "Israel Returns to the Temple Mount" conference.

"This is a very serious incident," Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said Wednesday. "We will hold those responsible fully accountable." Barkat urged Israelis "not to take the law into your own hands."

The compound at the heart of Glick's cause ranks as Islam's third-most-sacred site and Judaism's holiest, where two ancient Jewish temples once stood. It contains the eighth century al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock, from where Muslims believe their Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Months of conflict

Jordanian religious authorities administer the Old City compound, but Israeli police secure it. The country annexed parts of Jerusalem after the 1967 war in a move not recognized internationally. Non-Muslims may visit the site under close monitoring but may not pray there, a prohibition at the heart of the tensions. Glick encourages Jews to pray not just in designated areas near the Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques, but on the plateau itself.

Tension has risen steadily in Jerusalem since just before a war Israel launched on Gaza that ended in August, with almost nightly clashes between security forces and protesters. In the past few weeks, settlers have expanded their presence in the largely ethnically Arab neighborhoods that many had believed would form the capital of a future Palestinian state - with Israel promising more - and Orthodox Jews, including some politicians, increasingly visiting the compound, accompanied by Israeli police.

Seeking to avert further friction, police have taken the exceedingly rare step of shutting the flashpoint holy site to all worshippers and visitors until further notice, after far-right Israeli activists urged adherents to respond to the shooting by heading en masse to the site on Thursday. Netanyahu has promised that the "status quo" governing Jerusalem's holiest site would not change despite the lobbying of his political allies to enable Jewish worship there.

mkg/av (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)