In 1967, shortly after the Six Day War, Moshe Dayan ordered the Israeli flag removed from Temple Mount, and handed over administrative control, effectively he gave over the keys, of Temple Mount, to the Waqf.
Last year, in 2010, before Pesach, Yehuda Glick, of The Temple Institute, went to the Old City of Jerusalem with a goat in tow. He says his purpose was completely educational, as he was planning a demonstration of the korban pesach ceremony. As he was near the Temple Mount, the police got nervous, suspecting him of nefarious intentions that might possibly lead to a riot by the Arabs on Temple Mount, arrested Glick and the goat, and confiscated the goat transferring it to officials form the Ministry of Agriculture.
The poor, innocent goat
Glick decided to sue the police, the City of Jerusalem, and the Ministry of Agriculture, for $25,000 for wrongful arrest, as he had no such plans of inciting riots.
if that is not funny enough, the report on the case is even funnier.
The court asked the police representative about Glick's activities and why they were concerned he might do something provocative. They then asked the rep about the goat. They asked if they had gotten a court order to confiscate the goat, or a restraining order against the goat from being in the area, to which the police rep admitted they had not.
The court then asked if they tried to prevent the goat from going up to the Temple Mount complex, to which the rep replied that the goat had not come alone.
The court then asked why they bothered arresting Glick once they had removed the goat. The response to this was that they arrested Glick with the goat for the purpose of investigating the act he planned to commit.
According to Mynet, the court criticized the police for their behavior in the Old City, and for their preventing Glick's activities on har Habayit. The court asked the police representative why they prevent Glick's legitimate activities just because they think it could be interpreted as provocative. the police response was that their goal is simply to prevent riots and bloodshed.
The court closed off ordering the police to submit detailed information regarding similar slaughtering ceremonies that have happened in recent years in the vicinity of Har HaBayit.
I don't know how many Jews are slaughtering anything nowadays in the vicinity of Har Habayit, so they probably won't have much data to bring to the courts to show that slaughtering the goat would have necessarily led to Arab violence. And they probably have more data on Arabs slaughtering in the vicinity, and it not leading to violence and bloodshed. This might work in Glick's favor.
The modern day liberator of Jerusalem
This sounds like it could have been a case perfect for court tv. It does not get any funnier than this.
And to close on a more serious note, will a goat bring about the liberation of Har HaBayit?