The most prominent members of Israel's Knesset were slow to respond to the violent clashes which took place between police and Muslim worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque the last Friday of Ramadan.
The clashes quickly escalated into riots, which led to the injuries of 205 Palestinians and 17 police officers.
Yair Lapid, who is currently working to attempt to form a unity government with Yamina's Naftali Bennett, wished wounded police officers a complete and speedy recovery in a tweet on Saturday morning. 
"The State of Israel will not allow violence to rage within it and certainly not terrorist organizations to threaten it. Anyone who wants to hurt us should know that they will pay a very heavy price," Lapid added.

"This is a time of responsibility on the part of everyone, especially on the part of elected officials," he concluded.

Labor MK Omer Bar Lev said that "Palestinian violence on the Temple Mount must be stopped and resolved. But let us not be naive, there is a direct connection between the violence provoked by Ben Gvir in Sheikh Jarrah and the events yesterday."
"Throwing stun grenades into the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the same kind of tactical loss of police control that will ignite the Muslim world against us," he added.
 

The chairman of the Ra'am Party, Mansour Abbas, wrote on his Facebook page in Arabic: "The blessed al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line, attacks on its sanctity and those who pray in it are unacceptable and we condemn them. We, in all parts of society and the public, must protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque. "

 
Joint List members issued similarly harsh condemnations for both the police's conduct on Friday and the Netanyahu-led government's role in helping to incite them, pointing out specific instances of police misconduct.

The most controversial incident of the night, which was captured on video and widely circulated online, was one in which Israeli officers appear to throw stun grenades directly into al-Aqsa Mosque, as Muslim worshippers were praying.

 
Hadash Party leader Ayman Odeh and Ta'al Party leader Ahmad Tibi both shared a video which showed an Israeli police officer throwing a stun grenade into a crowd of women and children in east Jerusalem on Friday.

Odeh also shared a video of Deputy Jerusalem Mayor and City Council member Aryeh King teasing a Palestinian protester which he seemed to know personally about a bullet wound to the rear which King said the protester received prior to the protest, adding "its a shame it didn't hit you here," and pointing to his forehead.

Odeh said he will file a complaint against King and ask Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to open an investigation into him.

Hadash Party MK Aida Touma-Suleiman said that "Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir were setting fire to east Jerusalem for political purposes," adding that Netanyahu's government was the sole culprit responsible for the "protests yesterday, their brutal oppression and the violence still yet to come."
Abou Shahadeh blamed Netanyahu for Religious Zionist MK Itamar Ben-Gvir's provocative decision to set up an office in Sheikh Jarrah, saying that "Netanyahu's decision to send Ben-Gvir to Sheikh Jarrah – and to attack the worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in an inhumane manner and to prevent prayer from the Muslims in the mosque during Ramadan – came to preserve his place in Balfour."
He said Netanyahu was responsible for all the developments which arose from his decisions to enflame tensions.
The Balad leader concluded his remarks by referring to the mosque, as well as the Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, as "occupied territory," saying that Israel "violates international law there on a daily basis."