Israel Matzav

1967: Chief Rabbis said Israel should control Temple Mount

Despite the sign above, which stood at the entrance to the Temple Mount for many years (I'm not sure it does anymore), Israel's Chief Rabbinate advocated Israeli control of the Mount in the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War.

According to the document, then chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim said that Jews should oversee the site – either alone or in cooperation with other religions – because it belongs to the Jewish people.

Then-chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman was quoted as saying, “the site of the Holy Temple should belong to the rabbinate. As for the mosque…we will not give up ownership of the land on which the mosque was built.”

Chief Rabbinical Council member Rabbi Eliezer Goldschmidt suggested that an honor guard made up of rabbis protect the entrance to the Temple Mount.

“If supervision of the mosque will be in their [Muslims’] hands, it will mean it belongs to them again,” Goldschmidt said.

The rabbis agreed, however, that the site is too holy for Jews to enter.

What a surprise (not). Too bad Moshe Dayan decided on his own to give control of the Mount to the Wakf. This morning. Israel Radio reports that the Pope was treated to a speech by a Mufti on the Temple Mount who accused 'settlers'  of breaking into the mosques and attempting to establish separate prayer times as has been the case in the Machpeila Cave in Hebron for the last 20 years.

Aside from the fact that the Mufti is lying, the hostility toward acknowledging any Jewish claim to the Mount shows that peace is most definitely not at hand.

I wonder if the Pope is sharp enough to realize that if Jews don't have a narrative on the Temple Mount, neither do the Christians (whose narrative presupposes a Jewish Temple on the Mount).

Labels: Chief Rabbinate, Moshe Dayan, Six Day War, Temple Mount

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:03 AM