Israel Matzav

Freedom of Religion, Israeli style: Three Jews arrested for praying on Temple Mount

I want to preface this post by reminding all of you that I do not ascend the Temple Mount, because my rabbi rules that it's forbidden to ascend the Temple Mount until the Messiah comes and we can be purified with the ashes of a red heifer.

But other Jews do ascend the Temple Mount. And while Israel has been very good at guaranteeing free access to all religious sites for all religions since 1967 (unlike what happened between 1948-67 when the Jordanians were in charge), the Temple Mount has been a notable weak point. Non-Muslims are extremely restricted in when they can ascend the Mount, and Jews can be arrested if they are caught praying on the Mount. It happened again on Sunday, the 45th anniversary of Israel's renewed sovereignty in Jerusalem's Old City. Three Jews were arrested for praying on the Temple Mount.

During the tour of the site, [MK Michael] Ben Ari [National Union)] and a number of the other activists started praying out loud.

Police immediately asked Ben Ari to stop. After a number of the activists refused to stop, they were arrested by police. The rest of the tour continued as planned.

Due to delicate status quo agreements, Jewish worshippers are allowed to visit the Temple Mount during certain hours but are not allowed to openly pray at the site.

Itamar Ben Gvir, an activist an the spokesman for Ben Ari, accused the police of incitement. “Police are doing the work of the Waqf,” he said.

“We came today in order to remind the entire world what Mota Gur said – ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands!’” Uriel said in a statement released by his office. “The site is under Israeli sovereignty and therefore the Israeli government must allow every Jew to realize his autonomous rights and to go up to pray on the Temple Mount,” he added.

The problem is that the Israeli government has wimped out of the statement 'the Temple Mount is in our hands' and has changed it to 'the Western Wall is in our hands.' Our government lacks the intestinal fortitude to stand up for our rights.

Labels: freedom of religion, prayers, Temple Mount

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:14 AM