In June, Israel marked a half-century since the liberation, in the 1967 Six-Day War, of the Jewish people’s holiest site, the Temple Mount, or of the conquest of the Haram al-Sharif, one of Islam’s holiest sites, depending on one’s point of view. Echoes of jubilant Israeli celebrations had barely died down when the sound of shooting reverberated on the site. On July 14, three Israeli Arabs shot and killed two Israel Border Police officers at the entrance of the Temple Mount compound.

In fact, this flashpoint has been luring various kinds of zealots since Israel captured it in June 1967. In 1969, a messianic Christian set fire to Al-Aqsa Mosque, damaging the pulpit. In the 1980s, Israeli security forces thwarted a plot by the so-called Jewish Underground to blow up al-Aqsa and the nearby Dome of the Rock. In 1982, a Jewish soldier opened fire on the Temple Mount plaza, murdering a Muslim guard and injuring Israeli soldiers, and broke into the Dome of the Rock and fired in every direction. In 1990, Israeli police killed 17 Palestinians during rioting at the compound. Israeli soldiers killed seven Palestinians, four of them on the Temple Mount, in riots that broke out following a visit to the site by Likud leader Ariel Sharon in October 2000.

As noted, in this latest flare-up on the Temple Mount, the attackers were three Israelis, residents of the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm. Their victims were two Israeli Border Guard officers from the Druze community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to deviate from his habit of blaming terror attacks on the Palestinian Authority and demanding that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas put a stop to anti-Israel incitement. Instead, he was quick to call Abbas and promise that he would not violate the fragile status quo at the sacred site and had only ordered its closure for a short time until calm could be restored.

A pledge to adhere to arrangements is seemingly reassuring news. In fact, the Israeli reaction to the latest attack, as well as to previous incidents of violence at the site, epitomizes Israel’s control of the Temple Mount and underscores the limited authority there of its Muslim custodian, the Waqf. Israel is the sole arbiter of when and whether to close the gates to the compound, and when and whether to re-open them. A state considered by the world as an illegal occupier of East Jerusalem is the one that decides to install metal detectors at the gates. It alone chooses which Muslims to let through and which will have to make do with viewing the Dome of the Rock on a color poster in their living room.