"Let the Jordan Run" Temple Mount Music Video #LetJewsPray

Our nation is praying for our boys, and, for the most exalted prayer, Jews assemble at the Kotel. But why settle for the outer wall? The most exalted prayer is not at the Kotel. The most exalted prayer is at the Temple Mount, our holiest site.

There is one problem. Jews are not allowed to pray there. The Wakf, which is the Muslim authority granted de facto control of the Temple Mount by the Israeli government since 1967, places strict restrictions on Jewish movement on the Temple Mount. Non-Muslims can ascend through only one gate at specific, inconvenient hours, while Muslims can ascend anytime from eleven gates; Jews are not allowed to even mouth words silently. Often, Jews are supervised by the Waqf, in tandem with Israeli police. Jewish visitors sometimes face intimidation in the form of Islamic chants intolerantly uttered by those for whom the mere presence of a Jew is an insult.

We had the Temple Mount in our hands, and we gave it away. Why can't Israelis and Jews worldwide claim what is most precious to them? Why can't we hold on to what it is we really want, in our hearts? Why all the self-denial? We tiptoe around world opinion, fear of terror, and a desire to be accommodating, giving up what is rightfully ours and giving in to bloodthirsty terrorists.

This attitude permeates Israeli culture, crippling our government's response to enemies it must crush, to enemies that want to repeat the Holocaust...the same people who mercilessly and joyously abducted our children.

"Let the Jordan Run," a parody of the beautiful, empowering anthem "Let the River Run" by legendary Carly Simon, calls for Jewish ascent to the Temple Mount, freedom of Jewish worship, and the end to the bullying of Jews. Get a little more background, here.

I felt very comforted as I made this video. The beautiful stars in the video are from "Students of the Mount," a movement of Israeli students, secular and religious, who just get it. They are our future leaders. The give me faith in our future.

Enjoy and share this video, and come run with us....Next time you're in Jerusalem, go to the Mount, where our prayers will really be answered, because that prayer will also be the ultimate act of defiance against the enemies of the Jews.

Yours,
Orit

Questions for Hugh Robertson of the British Foreign Office

From WAFA:

The newly appointed British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East, Hugh Robertson, Wednesday called at the conclusion of a visit to occupied Palestinian territories for avoiding what he described as provocative actions in holy places.

Robertson, who has visited Jerusalem’s Old City including al-Haram al-Sharif, the site of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, said that discussing the situation of Jerusalem’s holy sites with President Mahmoud Abbas, “We agreed that, given the particular sensitivities, provocative actions in these holy sites pose a risk to the peace process and must be avoided.”

Palestinians have warned that continued Israeli efforts to change the status quo in al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest Muslim site, by dividing it between Muslims and Jews and the ongoing provocative tours by Jewish fanatics of the mosque yards could leave a dangerous impact on life in the city.

The quotes are confirmed by the FCO website. (h/t Ian)

So, Mr. Robertson, can you define what is considered "provocative"?

Because Jews who visit the Temple Mount have been quiet and respectful, even when they decide to pray there. The Muslims, however, have on many occasions thrown stones and chairs and chanted insults at the peaceful Jews. They have rioted when they think that too many Jews have ascended to Judaism's holiest spot.

So please explain to the world, Mr. Robertson, when Jews are walking quietly on their holiest site - forced to be protected by Israeli guards because of the risk of wild Muslim rioters tearing them limb from limb - are the Jews the ones who are acting "provocatively"? Or, perhaps, sometimes, the Muslim rioters are?

Given that you seem to have made this statement at the behest of the Palestinian Arabs, it sure sounds like you are saying that  Jews by their very presence are acting provocatively on the Temple Mount, and therefore must be banned. Is that what you are saying?

Do you agree with the PA that these Jews are acting provocatively?

Do you agree with the PA that these women chanting threats to Jews on the Temple Mount, threatening them with war,  are behaving properly?



Do you agree with the PA that these Jews are acting provocatively and must be banned?

Do you agree with the PA that these people stepping on Stars of David are acting properly and their rights are being trampled upon by Jews on the Temple Mount?

Beyond that, are you saying that Jews should be banned from praying on the Temple Mount, which would violate a number of basic human rights principles?

If that is indeed what you are saying, and it sure sounds like you are, it shows far more about the British Foreign Office than you might have intended to reveal.

Is there any reporter out there who can ask these very simple questions to the esteemed Mr. Robertson?

Insults, Threats as Arab MKs Disrupt Temple Mount Session Debate over law to finally grant Jews the right to pray at their holiest site sparks angry response from Muslim MKs.

A Knesset debate on the implementation of equal Jewish prayer rights at Jerusalem's Temple Mount degenerated into a shouting march Monday, as Arab Knesset Members used threatening words and aggressive body language to disrupt the meeting.

Chairwoman of the Committee of Interior, MK Miri Regev (Likud), appeared largely helpless in the face of an angry onslaught by radical Arab MKs, who were eventually removed by orderlies after launching a string of angry invective towards Regev and another female MK.

According to a proposed law, tabled by MK Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Bayit Yehudi/Jewish Home), daily prayer hours would be set for Jewish groups visiting the Temple Mount, which is Judaism's holiest site.

Despite its supreme significance to Jews throughout the world, Muslim pressure has resulted in a raft of discriminatory measures against Jewish visitors by Israeli Police, including a total ban on Jewish religious activity there. Violators of the ban are arrested immediately, and often slapped with a ban from ascending the Mount altogether.

The laws, if passed, would be a monumental upholding of Israel's official stance of religious freedom. While Israel officially liberated the Temple Mount from Arab occupation during the 1967 Six Day War, the government controversially handed back control of the Mount to the Islamic Waqf foundation, which has been accused of implementing a campaign of Islamization, including the systematic destruction of Jewish artifacts, aimed at erasing all traces of Jewish history at the site. 

During the stormy debate over the law, Regev explained the rationale behind it, saying that "We cannot have a situation in which a state cannot realize its sovereignty and people can't pray at sites holy to them."

Regev further stressed that "we don't want to go into Al Aqsa [mosque] or prevent you (Muslims) from praying there, but want to enable Jews to pray on the compound as well."

But MK Muhammad Barakeh (Hadash) warned that Arab MKs would physically prevent the implementation of equal prayer rights at the Temple Mount, shouting that "Whoever comes to defile the Al Aqsa Mosque will find us there!"

That remark prompted MK Regev to retort: "Is that a threat?”

MK Ahmed Tibi joined the fray, warning that: "The Second Intifada began because of Al Aqsa, and because of you it will erupt because of Al Aqsa... you are a pyromaniac."

"You say that as a friend of Yasser Arafat," said MK Orit Struk (Bayit Yehudi).

"I am proud to be Arafat's friend... his shoe is worth ten like you...", replied Tibi, who later called out at a female MK who was off-camera, possibly MK Struk, "You are a dangerous woman, a pyromaniac. You endanger your children, not just ours... You are a lowly settler.. on the land of others..."

In September, Tibi sparked controversy by declaring that the Temple Mount “is a place of prayer for Muslims alone," and accusing Jewish worshippers of "contaminating" it by visiting it.

MK Moshe Feiglin urged Regev to eject the unruly MKs for breaking Knesset protocol, after calling her a "pyromaniac" and accusing her of "chutzpah."

Obviously pleased with the way he had denigrated the Knesset, MK Tibi finally left the room as he said in Arabic: "Yalla, out, out, you... animals." It is not clear whom he was addressing.

The scene was typical of the way extremist Arab MKs have been behaving in the Knesset since the mid-1990s, when radical Arab leaders like Ahmed Tibi (Raam-Taal) and Azmi Bishara (Balad) entered the Jewish state's parliament. A decision by the Election Committee to disqualify the radical lists in 1997 was overturned by the High Court.

Video: The Shema That Shut Down the Temple Mount! Thirteen Jews were arrested for being on the Temple Mount for praying

Monday, October 14, 2013 (10 Cheshvan): Jews on the Temple Mount today shouted out the Shema prayer, prostrated themselves on the ground (in Aleinu), unfurled an Israeli flag and sang Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem, before being stopped by police. Thirteen Jews were arrested. The Israel Police, acting contrary to Israeli law, forbids any non-Muslim form of worship on the Temple Mount. Jewish symbols such as the flag of Israel of the star of David are also forbidden, as is the national anthem of Israel. The reasoning behind the ban is to placate the Muslim Wakf which enjoys custodial authority on the Mount. The first half of this video was filmed by Jewish participants in today’s Temple Mount ascent, and the second half was filmed by the Muslim Wakf guards.

ISRAEL MATZAV: Incitement at the Temple Mount

In the 'Jewish' state of Israel, standing at the entrance of the Temple Mount and saying the oldest and most famous Jewish prayer, Shma Yisrael, is enough to have you arrested for incitement. 

Two young women were arrested, Sunday evening when they prayed at the gates to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City. They had a bag containing stickers that read "We're returning to the Mount" and "Kahane was right." The police said the girls were suspected of incitement.

Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, who represents the young women on behalf of the Honenu legal-aid organization, said, "It is regrettable that the police do not give freedom of prayer to Jews near the Temple Mount. It's a case of illegal detention and I will recommend to the girls to file a civil suit."

We are going to have hell to pay one day because of our kowtowing to 'Arab Muslim' sensibilities. 

Morons.

ELDER OF ZIYON: Knesset committee to discuss Temple Mount today; Arabic websites freaking out

Here is the only place I could find this story in English, from The Algemeiner last Friday:

Before Jerusalem becomes the stage for the US-led peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority next Wednesday, an Israeli Knesset committee will meet on Sunday to tackle a question religious Jews have been asking since 1967, when Israel gained control of the Temple Mount and left authority over the religious hotspot in the hands of the Muslim Waqf Council.

The confounding issue of Israeli police not allowing Jews to pray on the Temple Mount is being taken up by Likud lawmaker Miri Regev’s Interior Committee, according to The Temple Institute’s Rabbi Chaim Richman, who led a prayer vigil at the Temple Mount as a peaceful protest this week.

While I see one Hebrew source saying that the Knesset will discuss opening the Mount to Jews during the Jewish holidays next month, even it doesn't mention anything about allowing Jews to pray there. Neither does the Knesset website, which similarly says that the mere half-hour discussion is about allowing Jews to visit during the High Holiday period but nothing explicitly about prayer. (It is followed by a half hour about security at Kotel HaKatan.)

However, this is huge news in the Arab media worldwide.

The headline in the Khaleej Times (UAE) is "'Knesset' discusses today to legitimize the desecration of Al Aqsa." The article says that the discussion will also include whether to open all of the gates to the Temple Mount to Jews, not only the Moroccan Gate.

I see over a dozen Arabic articles from Egypt to Moscow similarly warning that the Knesset may allow Jews to pray on their holiest site.


Today was the first time Jews were allowed to visit the Temple Mount since the middle of Ramadan about two weeks ago. Some of the visitors noticed some evidence that the Waqf had engaged in illegal demolitions with earth-moving equipment while Jews were barred from the area.

This Man is NOT Praying

Photo Credit: Lucie March/Flash 90

As the Israeli police and Islamic Waqf have forbidden Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, it is obvious that this man is NOT praying. No sir. No reason to arrest him at all.

He is simply standing in quiet contemplation.

Arab leaders promote Temple Mount travesties

ISRAEL July 18, 2013 — There is an oft-told story about Napoleon Bonaparte and his visit to a Jewish town in Europe. Napoleon walked into a synagogue on the 9th day of the month of Av, the somber fast day observed each year that marks the anniversary of the Holy Temple’s destruction. Upon learning that the Jews were in deep sorrow for a tragedy that had befallen them1700 years prior, he remarked, “Such a people as this will never be destroyed! If they still remember to mourn for their Temple of so long ago, they will surely see it rebuilt.”

It was the Jew’s respect for, and their devotion to, their holy Temple and what it represented that assured the great conqueror of their prominence as a nation and the quality of their character.

If this is a measure of a nation’s character what does the recent events on the Temple Mount say about the Arabs in Israel today?

Forget the fact that the Temple Mount was secured by Israel in 1967 but was given back to the Arabs as a sign of good will shortly afterward.

Forget the fact that Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Mount in 2000 is the official given impetus for the Second Palestinian Intifada, which saw the slaughter of more than 1,000 Jews, blown up for committing such heinous atrocities such as patronizing coffee shops, grabbing a bite to eat at pizza shops and heading home from work on buses.

Forget the fact that any Jew, if he is lucky enough to gain permission to visit the Temple Mount, is so much as caught moving his mouth in a way that can be construed as prayer or bending over in a way that can be interpreted as prostrating is immediately evacuated.

Even if one is to forget all of the above, although it would be no easy task, two events that transpired just this past week, are sufficient to tell the story of the Arabs and their ‘beloved devotion to and respect for’ Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, both areas being Arab pre-conditions to any final peace agreement in the past three decades.

Firstly, this past Wednesday, the Jews around the world mourned yet again the destruction of the Temple. Israeli Police informed the Jewish and Christian communities that they were banned from the Temple Mount during the 9th of Av because a very large group of Muslim worshippers threatened to riot violently.

However, the use of violence by the Arabs on the holiest of holy grounds may not be all that shocking to everyone. To those familiar with Friday morning prayers at the Western Wall where the Arabs, fresh off of rabble-rousing sermons at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, rush out to the Temple Mount courtyard and sling dozens of rocks over the wall, hoping to (and often times successfully) injure Jewish worshippers on the other side.

People familiar with this disgraceful weekly act will perhaps be offended by a desecration of another kind. In a recent report by IsraelNationalNews.com the Jewish Temple Mount organization expressed its outrage over the “‘desecration’ of Judaism’s holiest site, as Muslim authorities encourage ball games, among others, and oversized dolls, on what is considered hallow ground by both Jews and Muslims.’ The Temple Institute said that the Islamist “Al Aqsa Fund” is behind most of this activity on the Mount, and that it seeks to attract Muslims – mostly from northern Israel – to the Mount in this way.”

For those bleeding-heart human rights/politically correct enthusiasts who are worried about the racist stereotyping that every Arab loves soccer, have no fear! A volleyball court has been set up just steps from where their holy prophet Mohammad ascended to heaven.

The Jews want to ascend to the Mount to pray as close as they can to where G-d descended to be close to them. They are denied because it will incite Arab anger and violence.

The Arabs take to the Temple Mount to throw rocks and play sports and there is no news coverage, no outrage and no riots.

If Napoleon’s declaration that the Jew’s devotion and reverence for their long-destroyed Temple shows their tremendous respect and undying commitment to G-d and the land he gave them what on earth would he say about the Arab’s unadulterated defilement of the holy site?

It would be clear to him, and should be clear to all, that the Arabs have no historical connection to Jerusalem, the Temple Mount or the rest of the Land of Israel. Heck, they don’t even have basic decency for it!

It is time the world stopped conducting business in accordance with the fabricated Arab narrative and recognize that Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and the Land of Israel has and always will belong to the Jews.

That’s RIGHT I Said It!

The Other Video Shows A Quite Different Story

Remember this post from a few days ago, from a Muslim camera, of a verbal altercation with Muslims yelling nationalist slogans at Jews who already were outside the Temple Mount compound?

Well, I now have the video filmed by the student of the Haifa Yeshiva.

You will see them on their way out, first taking a group photograph and then going out the Chain Gate to dance.

Almost 9 minutes later (!), at 8:50, some Muslims decide to begin chanting and yelling in order to cause a provocation.  The students are not in the Temple Mount and haven't been for almost 9 minutes.

Here:

Note that the boys move about 50 meters away and still the baracking goes on.

And go here for a very short clip from this morning, Monday, when the group was forced out after five minutes.

______________________

UPDATE



The source of the incitement:

The head of the Islamic movement in the Palestinian territories, Sheikh Raed Salah, that there is very serious evidence confirming that crazy hysterical attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque may increase after the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

He said, "Therefore, we say Wake O Muslims and Arabs, the maximum risk increases him as he seeks the help of all of you even win him from Israeli occupation."

...Said Sheikh Raed Salah, "It has become clear to us that Israel occupation groups stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque, that Israel intelligence is pushing them to do these raids, of course, and the goal is clear: that Israel's intelligence paid them to commit these raids until cumulative results, after a series of covet incursions will impose a division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to achieve their coveted black dream which will not be achieved, God willing, which is building the structure of a mythical place on the Al-Aqsa Mosque. "

He added, "An example is what happened today as dozens of Israeli extremists of the more than 180 extremists have stormed the al-Aqsa mosque, at the same time they were setting up tents on the Islamic cemetery grounds [Mamilla], which is only several hundred meters from the mosque, claiming that they try to revive the destruction of the Temple...[and]...the statement, very dangerous, of the Minister of Infrastructure Israeli named Uri Ariel who said publicly a few days ago, frankly and without hesitation and with all the chutzpah "it came time to build the structure of the fabled liar on the ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque", I mean we are talking very serious and clues are getting on Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque. "

The face of Sheikh Salah expressed a distress call, saying "I appeal to every Muslim nation and the Arab world leadership and their people, and proclaim as well as our Palestinian patient to tell them that there is evidence of a very serious, confirming that the attacks crazy hysterical on the Al-Aqsa Mosque may increase after the end of the month of Ramadan, so we say Wake O Muslims and Arabs , the maximum risk increases him as he seeks the help of all of you even win him from Israeli occupation."

_________________

A short video clip showing how Muslims cower the police into submissiveness and, using verbal violence and mass threatening behavior:

 
Another.

Muslim Extremists Force Jews From Temple Mount Hundreds of pilgrims forced from Judaism's holiest site by Muslim mob. Activist: "Police failed to carry out their duties again"

Hundreds of Jews came to the Temple Mount Monday in honor of Tisha B'Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the two Jewish Temples by the Babylonian and Roman empires respectively.

But their visit was cut short as Muslim worshippers physically blocked them and appeared to be preparing a riot.

Michael Fua, of the Jewish Leadership faction of the Israeli Likud Party, was at the Mount.

“Today, on the eve of Tisha B'Av, the Israel Police failed do discharge its duties again,” Fua accused. “Hundreds of Jews who came to the Mount from all parts of the Land of Israel, were kept waiting for a long time at the entrance to the Mount, at the only gate where Jews are allowed to pass, while hundreds of Muslims entered from the other gates without any check or delay.

"As the third group that the police allowed inside entered the Mount, many Muslims began to gather and shout. As usual, instead of preventing the rioters from ascending to the Mount and grouping together, the police quickly informed the Jewish pilgrims that it will not allow them to carry out a full tour of the Mount, and quickly made them leave through the nearest gate.”

Fua, who videotaped the event, explained: “The video shows Dr. Yoel Elitzur and some of the ascenders, faced by the Muslim mob that is familiar to us from the previous days. It s amazing to see how the Israel Police plays into the hands of the Muslim rioters, and actually encourages them to threaten and run amok.

"This scenario is one that is known in advance and it is time that the police change their behavior, so that the scenario may change, too.”

"Freedom of religion"

This latest incident comes as Likud-Beyteinu MK Moshe Feiglin challenges a banpreventing him from ascending the Temple Mount.

In the letter to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, Feiglin said the ban was in contradiction to three basic laws: the Jerusalem Basic Law, the Knesset Basic Law and the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom. Feiglin also claimed the prohibition went against the freedom-of-religion clauses of the Declaration of Independence.

The Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site, where the two holy Temples once stood before being destroyed by the Babylonian and Roman empires respectively. This Tuesday marks the anniversary of the destruction of both temples (which occurred on the same day in the Hebrew calendar - the 9th of Av).

Despite its supreme importance to Jews worldwide, Jews are subject to draconian limitations on the Mount, including a ban on praying, due to the presence of an Islamic complex, administered by the Waqf Islamic Trust, and threats by Islamist groups. The Israeli police are able to bypass court decisions upholding the Jewish right to prayer there by citing unspecifiied "security concerns", either to ban individual activists or even to issue blanket prohibitions on Jews ascending at all.

Religious Jews are followed closely by Israeli police and Waqf guards to prevent them from praying, or from carrying out any other religious rituals.

Non-Jewish visitors are not subject to such restrictions.

Apart from pressuring authorities to ban Jewish prayer, the Waqf has also been accused of destroying Jewish artefacts on the mount, in a concerted effort to Islamize the site and deny all Jewish connection to it.

Palestinian Media Watch, an NGO set up to monitor extremism within the Palestinian media, reports regularly on what it claims is a campaign by the Palestinian Authority and Islamist groups to erase the Jewish connection to Jerusalem entirely.

ISRAEL HAYOM: Is the Temple Mount really ours? For the last 46 years, Jews have not been allowed to pray on Temple Mount, and few Jews even visit • Currently, not very many people are complaining, but a recent seminar on the topic concluded unequivocally: More Jews need to frequent the holy site.

Mohammed Assaf from the city of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, the winner of the second season of Arab Idol, is currently driving the masses wild with his song about the "wounded al-Aqsa" in his soul -- a song he has dedicated to "martyrs." Last week in the Temple Mount plaza, "al-Aqsa summer camps" began drawing thousands of children. They memorize verses from the Quran while the Jerusalem police raises its alert level for the month of Ramadan -- the holy Muslim month of fasting that began last week with the arrival of thousands of worshippers to the area's mosques.

The Jewish presence at the Temple Mount, however, is minor. The Jews there are mainly police officers. Not only have the Jews been forbidden from praying at this holiest of sites for the last 46 years, very few Jews even visit the site (about 1,000 per month), and the ones who do are mainly members of small movements seeking to rebuild the Temple. The majority of the Jewish public never visit the Temple Mount, nor do they show any practical interest in the site. Therefore, it was a welcome change of pace when the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, a public institution well within the general consensus, recently "broke" the Third Temple movements' monopoly over the Temple Mount and held a seminar there on the necessary, but also rhetorical question: Is the Temple Mount ours? (a reference to the now immortal remark made in 1967 by then-paratrooper brigade commander Mordechai Gur, who said, "The Temple Mount is ours," after his troops conquered the site during the Six-Day War).

Four panels, two hosts and 14 speakers dedicated five hours to the various aspects of this emotionally charged question. The audience was extremely diverse (also a novelty) -- there were police commanders posted on the Mount, undercover Israel Security Agency operatives, Antiquities Authority archeologists and various rabbis, among others. In the unusual debate that developed during the course of the seminar, almost everyone sustained harsh criticism and accusations, but there were also surprises, innovations and interesting insights.

Take Dalia Dorner, for example. It is not every day that a former Supreme Court justice attends a seminar like this and shares the mysteries of judgment and the inner thoughts of High Court judges with the public. Dorner, who currently serves as the president of the Israeli Press Council, surprised everyone. She told the audience that she found the issue of Jews' right to pray on Temple Mount emotionally moving. She still believes, she explained, that despite the many years that the High Court of Justice dedicated to debating the issue, it is not an issue that lends itself to legal judgment. It so evades judgment that it is like the hypothetical scenario in which "someone were to ask us, the judges, to decide whether or not to bomb the nuclear reactor in Iran."

In preparation for the seminar, she recounted, she perused dozens of court rulings on the topic.

"Generations of judges dealt with this matter … the thousands of pages written by them are a waste of paper. A useless endeavor," she said. "The courtroom is not the place for this debate. [Former Prime Minister] Menachem Begin famously said 'there are judges in Jerusalem' but for heaven's sake -- there are legislators in Jerusalem. There is a Knesset in Jerusalem. There is a government. This is a purely political matter."

"If I were to adhere to our traditional rules as judges," she went on to say, "I would say to myself: 'We will not ban the Muslims from praying, but why should the Jews not be allowed to pray?'"

Dorner explained that "in legal deliberations, we have a technique by which we navigate between clashing rights: The right of the Jews to pray versus the security threat posed to the public. Each right ostensibly gives way a little so that the other can be upheld, but not in this case! This case cannot be ruled on, and if the judges were to send the first person who petitioned the court on the topic away, directing him to the government rather than writing thousands of pages of legal opinions, it would have been far more efficient and could have saved a lot of time. We don't have the ability to make a judgment here. Anyone who carefully reads the courts' rulings will see that this is the only conclusion they point to."

"The judges," Dorner continued, "always begin early and initially write 200 pages of beautiful texts, but in the end, they don't give any order."

"The only one who ever said it, straight and to the point," she praised one of her former colleagues, "was Justice Eliezer Goldberg. Though he did agree with an argument in one of the petitions that the Muslim expansion into yet another prayer site on the Temple Mount -- in the mosque they built in Solomon's Stables -- is offensive to the Jews' sensitivities regarding the site," he also clarified that "this is one of those cases where a legal ruling is not the logical way to settle the dispute … the resolution must be between the feelings of the opposing parties … therefore, this politicizing of the court must be avoided. The political echelon, and not the court, should be assigning meaning to the historical remark 'the Temple Mount is ours.'"

"My position," Dorner said, "is even more extreme than his. The rules and the traditional tools at our disposal simply don't apply here, due to the sanctity as well as the sensitivity of the issue, and also because of a billion Muslims."

At that point, someone from the audience asked the honorable judge why, then, when it came to the Women of the Wall, the regular rules of judgment did apply, even though in their case the issue is also a holy site. Dorner replied that in the Women of the Wall dispute (between the ultra-Orthodox worshippers who are offended by the women's group singing, reading from the Torah and donning of prayer shawls at the Western Wall and the women's insistence on their right to do so), the disagreement is between Jews, while the Temple Mount issue is between Arabs and Jews, making it a "purely diplomatic issue."

A question of sanctity

As Dorner was trying to steer future petitioners toward the Knesset rather than the court, clarifying to them how pointless any further legal action would be, Professor Dan Bahat, one of Israel's most respected archeologists, pointed his arrows at the rabbis. Bahat, who once served as Antiquities Authority's Jerusalem District chief archeologist, was invited to speak about the complexity of performing archeological work on the Temple Mount. But his anger toward the rabbis, many of whom use Jewish law rulings to prohibit Jews from visiting Temple Mount to this day, caused him to veer off topic.

"It is all their [the rabbis'] fault," he said. "Ever since the Chief Rabbinate hung a sign warning Jews not to enter the Mount and threatened them with divine punishment, the Temple Mount is not ours anymore. We have lost it. Throughout the generations, Jews have recounted the lengths they went to, and how proud they were to climb to the Mount; what humiliation they endured, and how many bribes they had to pay to enter. And when the Muslims conquered the land, the Jews insisted that they be permitted to clean the Mount and fill the mosque lamps with oil… Even after the Jews were removed from the Mount, they continued to cling to it, and the famous Warren's Gate became Jerusalem's main synagogue, just because it was situated directly below the Temple Mount."

"Today we know where the original boundaries of the Temple Mount ran, and even those who were careful not to enter the grounds could still visit other sites," he continued. "I, myself, am not afraid. I climb all the way to the Dome of the Rock -- the holy of holies. I think it is every Jew's duty to go there."

Later in his remarks, Bahat suggested that the "archeologists unite and determine together exactly where the holy grounds lie on Temple Mount, so that we can convince the rabbis that there are areas that are less holy, and therefore permissible, and then more Jews would visit."

Bahat also voiced a lot of anger toward the police. He called them "the Temple Mount's biggest enemy … though I maintain good relations with them."

"Every time I climb up there, they ask me 'why are you climbing?' or 'where are you going?' They interrogate me, even though they have known me for 30 years. … It's that fear of the waqf," he said.

Bahat did not expound on his time as the district archeologist on Temple Mount. But still, "it is possible," he surmised, "to get a lot more out of one-on-one dialogue with the waqf. They know you; they respect you; and they often fulfill your wishes. Nothing goes well by force over there. Only through dialogue."

"When you are the chief archeologist of the Jerusalem district, you don't have any room to operate on Temple Mount. When I resigned from the position," he revealed, "it was because the late Amir Drori, who was the director of the Antiquities Authority, demanded that everything on the Mount be authorized in writing. I knew that this wouldn't work on Temple Mount, and a dispute erupted, culminating in my departure."

To be worthy of the Mount

Bahat also recounted that one of the things that bothered him most about the work on Temple Mount was the meetings with the waqf.

"When its people would argue with me about it being the actual location of the Temple," he said. "They would say to me: 'if this is really where the Temple was, where are all the 'shiknuzim' -- the ultra-Orthodox Jews? They should have been the first in line to climb the Mount. They don't come, which means that they know it wasn't really here.'"

"Then," Bahat said, "various rabbis came out with conflicting accounts of where the Temple was actually located, even though it was perfectly clear that the Foundation Stone -- the highest spot on the Mount -- is where the Temple really was."

"Ultimately," Bahat remarked, "the disagreements among us [the Jews] serve the Muslims who claim that if we, the Jews, don't know exactly where the Temple stood, it is a clear indication that it wasn't there at all."

Bahat also insisted on clarifying some things regarding the Western Wall.

"It was only since 1625 that we have any record of mass prayers at the Western Wall," he said. "Before then, worshippers would circle the four walls of the Temple Mount, which were equally holy."

And he had more relevant information to share, on the eve of Tisha B'Av: "Ten column capitals with traces of gold remained on Temple Mount, just as they were described in Josephus' writings. These were the last Herodian remains that can be seen on the Mount today."

On the other hand, Bahat's colleague Dr. Gabi Barkai focused mainly on a string of blows dealt to the archeological endeavor on Temple Mount since 1967, the latest of which, as he described, involved "the deliberate hammering of the remnants of the royal colonnade at Solomon's Stables -- a decoration of carved vines."

Legal expert and attorney Dr. Shmuel Berkovich, a highly respected authority on holy sites, also described vandalism of antiquities and wondered "how can it be that the director of the Antiquities Authority described what happened on the Mount in the late 1990s as an archeological crime; and Elyakim Rubinstein, then the attorney-general, talked about a 'kick to the history of the Jewish people' and still no one has ever been put on trial?"

Adjoining Tel Aviv to the capital

Bahat directed his arrows at the rabbis, and so did the members of the movements seeking to build a third temple, who held a separate panel. It was the members of these movements who closed the seminar.

A little bit of background: After the Six-Day War, the support for the Jewish prohibition against setting foot on the Temple Mount was almost absolute -- both among ultra-Orthodox rabbis and Zionist rabbis. The Chief Rabbinate has been very consistent, and still is to this day, with its insistence on forbidding entry to the Mount, but the Zionist rabbis have since changed their position, and hundreds of them currently allow entry into the Temple Mount. However, this has not significantly increased the number of Jewish visitors to the site. The Jews, it turns out, have grown accustomed to frequenting the Western Wall. They are in no hurry to replace it with an even holier site.

Rabbi David Stav, one of the more prominent candidates to become the next Ashkenazi chief rabbi, represented the conservative viewpoint in regard to the Temple Mount. It turned out that, surprisingly, his position is actually ultra-conservative. Stav quoted his teacher, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, who once remarked that when it comes to the Temple Mount, "we are like the [extremist haredi sect] Neturei Karta -- we don't touch." He stood behind his teacher's words.

One of the veteran Jewish frequenters of Temple Mount -- 87-year-old Dr. Menachem Ben Yashar -- then reminded him "what a shock of electricity energized the people on that day of liberation."

"If our religious leadership had taken the initiative, the people would have changed and become worthy of the Mount. … What were we to do? How were we to react to this gift that we had received? Were we supposed to reject it?" Ben Yashar asked.

Stav didn't think twice and replied that "the electricity and excitement during the Six-Day War were because of the Western Wall, not the Temple Mount. No one even knew what the Temple Mount was." The Temple, he explained, is not a technical issue. According to him, despite the countless prayers and the longing for its resurrection, the Temple is currently irrelevant, and will only rise again as a result of a deep moral process that our society needs to undergo.

"I have a feeling that someone here is disconnected from reality," he lashed out at the audience, which voiced displeasure with his views. "The problem for the majority of the people of Israel is not [the Jews'] absence from Temple Mount. First we need to adjoin the 'state of Tel Aviv' to the 'state of Jerusalem.' When the Temple Mount is viewed by most of Israeli society as a dividing, rather than unifying, issue, there is no point in talking to that society about it."

"We refuse to destroy the State of Israel and create bad blood with the Arab residents who live here. Anyone who claims to have a different answer is a false prophet," Stav said.

A democrat's duty

Stav didn't dispute the facts regarding the current situation on Temple Mount. But he thinks that the issue should be decided by the government, not the rabbis. Stav's opponents on the issue were Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, the head of the hesder yeshiva in Petach Tikva, and Rabbi Yaakov Medan, co-head of the Har Etzion hesder yeshiva in Alon Shvut. They both believe that Jews should be encouraged to visit Temple Mount.

Medan explained: "Every time there is a vacuum, others come in and fill it. The director of the Shin Bet security agency has already reprimanded me and warned me that if so few Jews continue visit the Mount, we will not be able to hold on to the site for very much longer. Two months ago, the former head of the Shin Bet's Jewish division told me the same thing. This place could slip right out of our hands if there is no Jewish presence there, and, may Rabbi Stav forgive me, on this we consult the experts first, not the rabbis. If you ask me whether a new Temple should be built tomorrow, I will answer you 'No!' But to give up our right to the Mount? We are a generation that needs to prepare. Only to prepare."

Yehuda Glick, one of the main activists in the movements seeking to rebuild the temple, thanked the Israel Police "for teaching me how to pray without moving my lips."

"I am not giving up," he declared. "If you were to ask a Jew in Lodz in 1940 whether the Zionist movement succeeded or failed, I believe that you would be hard pressed to find a single person who would predict that within eight years a Jewish state would be established. I arrived at this Mount 20 years ago and I was told that only two or three Jews could enter at a time. Today they let in 50 Jews at once. Processes take time, and we are making progress."

At that point, Cherlow stepped in and complained that "Rabbi Stav closes himself off to all the visions of the Temple and the end of days and relegates the thoughts of the Temple Mount to those who can be described as 'extremists' or 'delusional.' Anyone preaching to sit and do nothing is basically supporting a kind of passivity. That also comes with a price. We have placed the Mount at the bottom of the ladder. Where is the passion?"

In conclusion, Stav declared, despite everything, that "any man who has a conscience and believes in democracy cannot remain quiet when Jews are being arrested for praying on the Mount. That is an injustice on the most basic moral level. Every democrat and every rabbi must come out and say that it is unfathomable that in a country that has made freedom of religion its goal, Jews will be banned from expressing their religious beliefs."

Muslim Space Occupation This is a picture of how Muslims attempt to "occupy" space on the Temple Mount and obstruct tours of Jews, and other groups of non-Muslims:

Join Moshe Feiglin for a Temple Mount Visit

If you want to ascend to the Temple Mount with MK Moshe Feiglin, your next chance is tomorrow morning at 7:45 at the lower entrance.

Feiglin: Next Time I Climb Temple Mount May Be as Prime Minister "The change that caused me not to be able to enter was strategic, not tactical." By: Yori Yanover

On Thursday morning, MK Feiglin will be meeting the group that's planning to go up to the Temple Mount. He will stay back as they walk up the bridge to the Temple Mount.
Photo Credit: Flash90

On the 19th of every Jewish month, it has been Moshe Feiglin’s custom to go up to the Temple Mount. Since four months ago, he has been blocked from going there by a decree of Prime Minister Netanyahu, citing a threat to the law and order — meaning that the local Arabs would resort to violence in response.

The Jewish Press: Your fans at The Jewish Press, who read you every week, are wondering why you’re allowing the government to prevent you from entering the Temple Mount, despite your Knesset Member’s immunity.

MK Moshe Feiglin: “This is the explicit instruction from the prime minister. On the two occasions when I did come to the mountain, with the agreement of the authorities, I was stopped – al achat kama v’kama (a fortiori) when I’m told in advance, this is a direct instruction from the prime minister not to let me in. Since today I am a member of the Knesset, I have no intention to attempt to use the force of my muscles, but instead to use my political means.”

The Jewish Press: Except that when it comes to political means – they’ve cut off your political means. If I’m not mistaken, you’re no longer member in any Knesset committees.

MK Moshe Feiglin: “That’s not true. I’m member in five committees, I submit bills, and, of course, I take part in voting in the Knesset—and I do not adhere to the coalition discipline, and, trust me, it hurts them a great deal. It’s a big problem for them. I don’t make a complete break, intentionally. I don’t try to bring down the government. My position is a bit complex, I’m inside and outside. I vote against the coalition on laws that I sincerely disagree with, and I can explain why. At this point I vote according to my understanding on every single bill. But on votes of no-confidence I’m either away from the plenum, to defend the government, or I vote according to my best understanding, depending on the language of the bill.

“For instance, when there were, recently, 40 signatures to compel the prime minister to come before the Knesset, and his speech was followed by a vote, I voted with the opposition against the prime minister. It was extremely inconvenient for them.”

MK Feiglin has several bills in the works, all of them private, including a bill to establish a single chief rabbi in Israel (the AG has inadvertantly carried out his idea, establishing Rabbi Amar as the only chief rabbi until the coming election of new rabbis—following Rabbi Metzger’s self-suspension).

He also submitted a bill to make medical cannabis more available to patients who suffer pain. And he heads the lobby for making the IDF a professional, volunteer army.

He also says he cooperates with MKs from across the House, including Arab MKs and members of the left wing Meretz party.

On Thursday morning, MK Feiglin will be meeting the group that’s planning to go up to the Temple Mount at the Temple Menorah Plaza, in the Jewish Quarter. They’ll have a morning prayer service, after which he will walk them to the Mugrabim Gate, and see them off as they walk up the bridge to the Temple Mount.

The Jewish Press: What about the future? What will happen come the 19th of Av?

MK Moshe Feiglin: Reality, as I understand it now, is that the current prime minister is unable to “climb down the tree”—I assume he is subject to all kinds of American pressures, and is part of processes that we are not aware of, because of which he is unable to climb down the tree. I certainly have no intention to retract what I’ve said, about what the prohibition against the entry of a Knesset member to the Temple Mount means in terms of our sovereignty on Jerusalem—when the Muslim Waqf determines when an MK will go up to the mountain and when he won’t, and the prime minister of Israel accepts this, and, in effect, becomes the messenger of the Waqf, this means that Israel actually does not rule in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

“This leads to the complete halt on construction in Jerusalem, to the rock throwing we’ve seen recently, and that also includes the giving away of the Negev to the Arabs.”

At this point, Feiglin hesitates. “People find it difficult to join me,” he says, thinks a moment and repeats: “People find it difficult to join me because it’s hard for them to understand things that aren’t visual. [On Temple Mount] there’s no dragging of settlers (by police) and the destruction of homes, which are elements that make it easier for the public to internalize the magnitude of the horror.”

The Jewish Press: Do you think a rebellion is starting against Netanyahu inside the Likud over the 2-state issue?

MK Moshe Feiglin: “There’s a general, ongoing agitation against Netanyahu inside the Likud. I won’t call it rebellion, but for certain the prime minister’s position is not as strong as it used to be.”

When I wish him success tomorrow, he says: “Let me say this: It is clear to me that it’ll take some time until I am permitted to enter the mountain, because the change that caused me not to be able to enter was strategic, not tactical. It was a change for the worse. And it’s possible that the next time I go up to the Temple Mount I will already be the prime minister.”

I respond with a surprised laughter, to which MK Feiglin says sternly, “I’m saying this with the fullest seriousness.”

Which I understand to mean that he is not expecting any breaks on the Temple Mount issue from his party leader, and not from any other party leader who may replace him. MK Feiglin has conceded the fact that the only way for him to reach the most sacred place on the planet would be by conquering the most coveted seat in Israel.