Mount On 28 September, Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon and a Likud party delegation guarded by hundreds of Israeli riot police visited the Temple Mount which is widely considered the third holiest site in Islam. Israel asserted its control by incorporating East Jerusalem into Jerusalem in 1980, and the compound is the holiest site in Judaism. The Israeli Interior Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, who permitted Sharon's visit, later claimed that he had telephoned the Palestinian Authority's security chief Jibril Rajoub before the visit and gotten his reassurances that as long as Sharon didn't enter the mosques his visit wouldn't cause any problems. Rajoub vociferously denied having given any such reassurances. Shortly after Sharon left the site, angry demonstrations by Palestinian Jerusalemites outside erupted into rioting. The person in charge of the waqf at the time, Abu Qteish, was later indicted by Israel for using a loud-speaker to call on Palestinians to defend Al-Aqsa, which action Israeli authorities claimed was responsible for the subsequent stone-throwing in the direction of the Wailing Wall. Israeli police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, while protesters hurled stones and other projectiles, injuring 25 policemen, of whom one was seriously injured and had to be taken to hospital. At least three Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets. The stated purpose for Sharon's visit of the compound was to assert the right of all Israelis to visit the Temple Mount; however, according to Likud spokesman Ofir Akunis, the actual purpose was to "show that under a Likud government [the Temple Mount] will remain under Israeli sovereignty." Ehud Barak in the Camp David negotiations had insisted that East Jerusalem, where the Haram was located, would remain under complete Israeli sovereignty. In response to accusations by Ariel Sharon of government readiness to concede the site to the Palestinians, the Israeli government gave Sharon permission to visit the area. When alerted of his intentions, senior Palestinian figures, such as Yasser Arafat, Saeb Erekat, and Faisal Husseini, all asked Sharon to call off his visit. Ten days earlier the Palestinians had observed their annual memorial day for the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The Kahan Commission had concluded that Ariel Sharon, who was Defense Minister during the Sabra and Shatila massacre, was found to bear personal responsibility "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" and "not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed." Sharon's negligence in protecting the civilian population of Beirut,