Dig They Must at the Temple Mount

Who needs a digging or excavation permit or license?

Who needs supervision?

Who cares about any archaeological historic damage?

We're the Waqf!

_________________

UPDATE

Jordan is completely opposed to granting Jews any space to pray on the Temple Mount, a senior Jordanian official told Jordanian news outlet Al-Ghad Al-Ordoni on Tuesday.  Speaking to the Jordanian outlet, Abdul Nasser Nasser, Jordan's top legal adviser for Islamic and Christian property in Jerusalem, said Amman had rejected an Israeli request to give Jewish worshippers a limited, several-meters space on the Temple Mount grounds in which to pray. 

"Jordan will never allow extremist Jews to enter the courtyards of the holy Al-Aqsa mosque to pray or allow their presence in any part of the 144 dunams (35.6 acres), which belong solely to Muslims," said Nassar.

He said the request was part of the Israeli "partition scheme" over the Al-Aqsa waqf and the greater ambition to "Judaize" Jerusalem.

ELDER OF ZION: New photos of pre-Islamic columns, wall on Temple Mount

From Qanta Ahmed in Times of Israel, about her recent trip to the Dome of the Rock and the Temple Mount:

Leaving the Dome, we walked South, on to Al Aqsa....Low domed roofs arched overhead, each rendered in the same limestone. Pleasing corridors stretched in longitudinal halls. Here and there, a lone woman studied her Quran. Other than that, Ibrahim and I were alone. We walked around the corner and, approaching a smaller vestibule, we confronted enormous columns. Their diameter deeper than the height of a tall man, they were disproportionate to the low roof. Each of the massive pillars were carefully supported by modern concrete abutments and steel girdles. These pillars looked much older. They didn’t belong to Al Aqsa. Nearby, Ibrahim pointed out the roof overhead. A distinct break in the brickwork was evident.

“This was the entrance to the Second Jewish Temple that was here before Al Aqsa. You can see it is absolutely distinct.” And without doubt, it was easy to see, this had been a place of worship for Jews centuries before. Perhaps we were standing at the gate. Somehow, these hardy arches, these massive pillars had escaped even the Romans’ determined destruction of the Second Temple. Before this place was made ours, it had clearly been theirs. We were on borrowed ground. Incredible at something so ancient, confronted with the profound reality preceding Islam, we fell into the shared silence of young believers.

(h/t Josh K)

ELDER OF ZIYON: The Churban underneath the Mount (Tisha B'Av 2013)

Monday night and Tuesday are Tisha B'Av, a fast day that commemorates the destruction of the Jewish Temples and other catastrophes.

I won't be posting until Tuesday afternoon, but meanwhile, here is something appropriate for the day.

 In 1996, the Israeli government gave permission to open a temporary mosque in the area of Solomon's Stables, a Herodian-era structure that was built underneath an extension to the Temple Mount. The Waqf made it permanent, and during those days of Oslo, (and right after deadly Muslim riots over the opening of the tunnels next to the Kotel) the Israeli government caved:

Muslim authorities angered Israelis on Wednesday with plans to open a new underground prayer hall at Al Aqsa mosque, on the site revered by Jews as Temple Mount and beside the Israeli tunnel project that set off rioting last month.

Hassan Tahboub, the Palestinian minister of Islamic affairs, said the hall would open in two days.

Tahboub refused to comment Wednesday on the timing, saying only that the hall was not Israel's "responsibility or property."

The previous Israeli government gave permission in January for the chamber to be used for prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and during rainy periods when worshipers cannot pray in the courtyard of Al Aqsa. But Israel did not authorize the Muslims to use it on a permanent basis.

Right-wing Israelis called for the renovated prayer hall to remain closed, saying it violates the delicate status quo over the site and that renovations might damage it.

The mosque was given the name Marwani, and Muslims claimed ex post facto that it existed since the seventh century.

That wasn't the end of the story. From Archaeology, March/April 2000:

Construction at a mosque within Jerusalem's Temple Mount has sparked a fierce controversy between archaeologists, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and the Israeli government.

According to Jerusalem District archaeologist Jon Seligman, the Waqf, the Muslim religious trust that oversees public works in the religious complex, determined last autumn that an emergency exit in the Marwani Mosque was necessary. (The New York Times had previously reported that construction of the exit was urged by Israeli police.)

Israeli archaeologists were angered at the Waqf's use of bulldozers to reopen a twelfth-century Crusader entrance for use as an emergency exit for the mosque. "It was clear to the IAA that an emergency exit [at the Marwani Mosque] was necessary, but in the best situation, salvage archaeology would have been performed first," Seligman told Archaeology.

While the Israel Antiquities Authority has expressed concern over damage to Muslim-period structures within the Temple Mount, other archaeologists have charged that archaeological material dating to the First Temple Period (ca. 960-586 B.C.) was being destroyed. A group of archaeology students examined Temple Mount fill dumped by the Waqf in the nearby Kidron Valley and recovered ceramic material an d architectural fragments dating to this period and later.

"The IAA to a large extent is helpless due to political considerations," says Aren Maeir, a professor of archaeology at Bar-Ilan, "I suppose they do not want this in any way to affect the peace process with the Palestinians."

Sources in the Israeli government have told Archaeology that what was originally intended as a simple emergency exit has become more of a 'refurbishment," with two large entrances under construction. In January, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected a petition to halt all construction by the Waqf on the complex, arguing that the matter was political and should be left up to the government. Responding to a petition filed with the High Court in December by Yehuda Etzion, however, on February 2 the IAA gave the court a list of recovered artifacts.

Waqf head Adnan Husseini stated that the Israeli government had no right to demand a halt to construction at the complex. "We never asked for permission from the occupation," Husseini said.

Salon in 2001 reported on the issue, making it sound like the Jews were making a big deal over nothing, with some help from the Israel Antiquities Authority:

For the past few years, the main drama up there has focused not on people but on dirt — big piles of dirt, excavated from the compound with a bulldozer by Muslim authorities, dumped into a nearby valley and methodically surveyed by anxious Israelis, looking for artifacts from ancient Jewish civilizations.

According to Jon Seligman, the Jerusalem regional archeologist for the Israeli Antiquities Authority, the rubble contained “bits of buildings, ceramics, coins. Nothing spectacular.”

Most of the debris was from the period that followed the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem in the seventh century when the site, in ruins since the Romans destroyed King Herod’s Temple in 70 A.D., was transformed into a Muslim sanctuary.

Despite Seligman’s assessment and numerous police reports that minimize the importance of the work carried out, many Israelis are convinced that Muslims are deliberately destroying significant artifacts from the periods of the First and Second Jewish Temples in order to erase 3,000 years of Jewish history — and, by extension, Israel’s connection to the land.

The rumors are difficult to check. ...Although Israel claims Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital, in practice Israeli archeologists have no authority to control or prevent work on the site. Inaccessible and majestic, the mount is a natural habitat for conspiracy theories.

...Whether construction work in the southeastern corner of the 35-acre compound amounts to a real loss for historical understanding is hotly debated. The Wakf of course denies that any harm was done. Pointing to photographs of his work, Awwad said that the dirt removed to accommodate a staircase was simply filling, mixed up over the centuries and impossible to analyze layer by layer. Meir Ben-Dov, an Israeli archeologist familiar with the area of the mount, also believes the accusations made by the committee are “a big lie.” But dissenting voices have been lost in the brouhaha.

Of course, the conspiracy theorists were proven correct. Thousands of priceless artifacts have been recovered from the dirt dumped by the Waqf. Haaretz described it already in 2006:

The project of sifting layers of Temple Mount dirt has yielded thousands of new artifacts dating from the First Temple period to today. The dirt was removed in 1999 by the Islamic Religious Trust (Waqf) from the Solomon's Stables area to the Kidron Stream Valley. The sifting itself is taking place at Tzurim Valley National Park, at the foot of Mount Scopus, and being funded by the Ir David Foundation. Dr. Gabriel Barkai and Tzachi Zweig, the archaeologists directing the sifting project with the help of hundreds of volunteers, are publishing photographs and information about the new discoveries in the upcoming issue of Ariel, which comes out in a few days.

The bulk of the artifacts are small finds - the term used for artifacts that can be lifted and transported, rather than fixed features. The dirt was removed in the course of excavating the mammoth entrance to the underground mosque built seven years ago in the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The Waqf and Islamic Movement in Israel separated dirt from stones, then used the ancient building blocks for rebuilding, in case the police barred construction materials from being brought in.

Most of the finds predate the Middle Ages. The finds include 10,000-year-old flint tools; numerous potsherds; some 1,000 ancient coins; lots of jewelry (pendants, rings, bracelets, earrings and beads in a variety of colors and materials); clothing accessories and decorative pieces; talismans; dice and game pieces made of bone and ivory; ivory and mother of pearl inlay for furniture; figurines and statuettes; stone and metal weights; arrowheads and rifle bullets; stone and glass shards; remains of stone mosaic and glass wall mosaics; decorated tiles and parts of structures; stamps, seals and a host of other items.

Here is the Marwani mosque - a section of the Temple Mount that Jews would be allowed to visit under Jewish law, since it was part of the Herodian extensions, but Muslim bigotry and Israeli acquiescence ensures that Jews will not be allowed there anytime soon:



Here is video of the basement under the Al Aqsa mosque itself. I'm not sure what direction these tunnels run so I don't know if they go towards the Dome of the Rock or not. The person who uploaded it to YouTube says that "underneath the masjid are caves which go further down." 



This is just a little bit of the desecration happening every single day on - and within - the Temple Mount.

I wish all who observe Tisha B'Av an easy and meaningful fast, and may this be the last time we mark this as a day of mourning.

Some of my previous Tisha B'Av articles:

2005: A sad anniversary
2006: A reason to keep mourning on Tisha B'Av
2007: Tisha B'Av, 1948
2008: Weeping over the ruins of Jerusalem
2009: The Kotel, 1912
2010: A reason to cry
2011: Judaism's holiest site is being desecrated today
2012: Documentary on Israel's disengagement of Gaza

MK Feiglin on the Destruction on Temple Mount

Moshe Feiglin in an emotionally charged description of the destruction taking place before our very eyes on the Temple Mount. (English Subtitles)
ח"כ פייגלין: מזה שנים רבות...אני עולה בקביעות לבקר ולסייר בהר הבית, מפני שהיא לב האומה וגם משום שאט אט הר הבית נשמט מידיו של עם ישראל, בפועל... גם עוברת וגם מועברת הריבונות בהר לידי זרים, לידי הוואקף המוסלמי במקרה הזה..... כשהתחלתי לעלות להר, שמתי לב שבקצהו הדרומי....מונח מערום אדיר מימדים של עצים מוזרים....בהמשך התברר לי שהוצאו ממסגד אל-אקצה ובבדיקה בוטנית התברר שמדובר בעצי ארז - חלק מבית המקדש הראשון מלפני 3,500 שנה....משך השנים הערמה פחתה. היום נשאר אולי שתי קורות..

Muslim Destruction of the Temple Mount! -- הרס העתיקות במבנה ארוות שלמה

MY RIGHT WORD: Temple Mount as a Cover Story

The story:

As a result of earthquakes, Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount had to be dismantled and reconstructed in the 1930s and 1940s. Massive Cedar of Lebanon and cypress beams were reused, and others were simply removed. Some of these beams are significantly older than the mosque itself. Peretz Reuven asks inWooden Beams from Herod’s Temple Mount: Do They Still Exist?: Were these timbers from Al-Aqsa once part of Herod’s Temple Mount architecture?
 

A bit more detailed:

The Al-Aqsa Mosque has sustained serious earthquake damage over the years due to its construction on dirt-fill from Herod’s first century C.E . Temple Mount expansion. As a result, the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been rebuilt and renovated several times since its original Umayyad construction. During the 1930s and 1940s, large-scale restoration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque involved the removal of dozens of beams from the mosque’s ceiling, arcades and dome. The great beams, some of which are more than 42 feet long, were covered by modern boards for centuries. The wood inside the beams has a longer story to tell.

High-quality Cedar of Lebanon and cypress beams from Herod’s Temple Mount would have been used and reused in a phenomenon known to archaeologists as “secondary use.” R.W. Hamilton’s 1949 publication on the dismantling of the Al-Aqsa Mosque already noted that many beams showed signs of secondary use. These signs include functional depressions or protrusions intended from their original use as well as decorative woodcarving styles from earlier periods.

Recent carbon-14 tests on the beams confirm their antiquity. Some
predate Herod’s Temple Mount: One beam dates to the ninth century B.C.E.—the First Temple period! The exact history of the beams is hard to pin down. They were likely used in two or more different constructions, and poor storage has led to the ever-quickening degradation of the beams.

Despite conservation issues, Peretz Reuven was able to make detailed analyses of the beams. For example, indentations on the underside of a beam with Herodian/Roman-period decorations suggest that it rested on column capitals in an earlier structure. The indentations are spaced at a similar interval to columns at Herod’s Royal Stoa.
 

That was the Jewish Temple, not a Muslim Mosque, on the Temple Mount.

Former Labor MK Shocked to Discover Temple Mount Discrimination Former Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon cut short a visit to the Temple Mount after he personally witnessed the discrimination of Jews.

Former Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon cut short a visit to the Temple Mount on Sunday, after he personally witnessed the discrimination by Israeli police towards Jewish visitors to the holy site.

Speaking to Arutz Sheva about the experience on Monday, Ben-Simon said he was surprised, already at the start of his visit, to see that Jews are forced to wait in long, crowded lines to enter one of the holiest sites in the world.

Ben-Simon said that when he finally reached the end of the line-up after a long and unpleasant wait, he was told that the Temple Mount is closed due to what was described as “tension”. He later discovered that the source of this tension is a Quran that fell from the hands of a Muslim worshiper who came to the Temple Mount.

The Arab worshiper claimed that an Israeli police officer had deliberately dropped the book from her hand, but Ben-Simon expressed doubt at the truthfulness of the story and said it was unacceptable that the area was closed off to Jews because of such a minor event.

"Because of a fallen book they close the Temple Mount to hundreds of people who are waiting to get in?” he said. “The Minister of Internal Security must be summoned and asked about the reality in which the police are on high alert because of a fallen book. Who’s in charge here? All this is done without explanation.”

Later in the afternoon Ben-Simon, who was visiting the compound as part of researchhe is conducting for a book he’s planning to write, returned to the Temple Mount, getting in this time, and was shocked by what he discovered.

“I was surprised by the intensity of the tension. People looking at you from all sides, examining the movements of your lips, and heaven forbid if they move in what seems like a prayer," he said. "When I saw this I asked my companions to leave. This is not a visit. I do not feel comfortable when Waqf and police accompany each step I make. I cut the visit short and left within ten minutes.”

Ben-Simon admitted that despite having served as an MK, he was previously unaware that this reality is what Jews are always facing on the Temple Mount, and said that most Israeli MKs do not visit the site and are unaware of this absurd reality.

"The vast majority of those present were tourists. Israelis do not visit," he said, adding, "This is an unpleasant experience that I would not like to go through again. I expect to get a little respect in a place of prayer.”

The former parliamentarian said he finds it difficult to understand how Israel got to the current situation. He likened the corridor leading to the Temple Mount to a military facility where one cannot look left and right, fearing his looks may be interpreted incorrectly and cause rage.

Ben-Simon said the Israeli system should examine the situation at the Temple Mount, though he admitted it would be hard to change things in the current political reality.

At the same time, Ben-Simon said, it is “an impossible situation that anyone who comes to the Temple Mount is suspected of wanting to blow up the compound.” He added that delegations of Knesset members should be taken on a tour of the Temple Mount so they can see the situation firsthand and then closely examine appropriate ways to solve it.

"I did not know the problem existed when I was a Knesset member,” he admitted.

Israel liberated the Temple Mount during the 1967 Six Day War, leaving the Waqf in charge of the compound.

The Waqf, in return, has removed every sign of ancient Jewish presence at the Jewish holy site. At the entrance to the Temple Mount, a Waqf sign says, “The Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard and everything in it is Islamic property.”

Israeli Police, in an attempt to appease the Waqf, discriminate against Jews. They limit the number of Jewish worshippers allowed on the Temple Mount at one time in order to prevent conflict with Muslim worshippers. They often close the Mount to Jews in response to Muslim riots, as Ben-Simon saw for himself on Sunday, despite evidence that Muslim riots have been planned in advance for the specific purpose of forcing Jews out.

Arabs continuously accuse Israel of "Judaizing" the Temple Mount, sometimes resorting to ridiculous propaganda such as accusing Israel of using chemicals to erode the foundations of the mosque in order to cause it to collapse.

At the same time the Waqf consistently destroys Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount in a direct violation of a ruling by the Supreme Court.

EoZNews: A tour of the Temple Mount

Here is the first of what I plan to be a series of videos taken during my current trip to Israel.

Last Thursday, I ascended to the most sacred place in Judaism, the Temple Mount, with Yisrael Medad (author of the My Right Word blog.) He has been there hundreds of times and he showed me around, literally - we circled the Dome of the Rock while staying in areas that most Jewish authorities allow visiting.

The video, about 34 minutes long, is almost real-time, with perhaps two or three minutes edited out. 

I overlaid a satellite image of the Mount at various parts of the video so you can see where we are walking.

I hope you enjoy it!

Jordanian Waqf Wackiness

Jordan’s Islamic Endowments Minister Abdul-Salam Abadi has accused Israel of planning to partition the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the country’s Al-Ghad newspaper reported on Wednesday. The move, claimed Abadi, is in preparation for the building of the so-called “Third Temple” on the site of the mosque in occupied Jerusalem.

Abadi told a delegation of Australian Muslim clerics about Jordan’s efforts to protect and preserve the real, Islamic identity of the Holy City. He said that he has received “clear instructions from the Hashemite leadership to safeguard the Islamic and Arabic identity of Jerusalem.”

The minister stressed the importance of supporting Palestinians in Jerusalem in the face of repeated Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Islamic holy sites in the occupied city.

And this

Mr. Adnan Husseini, Minister for Jerusalem Affairs in the Palestinian government, accused the Israeli occupation authorities of procedures of Judaization and unloading of the holy city of war crimes in particular, and it is working to impose a new reality fake in this city that was sought by the Palestinian people as the capital of an independent state next.

Someone else was inciting, too:

The former Chief Justice of Palestine Sheikh Tayseer Tamimiwarned of the seriousness of the fall of the Al Aqsa Mosque because ofexcavations under the walls of Zionism and its surroundings at a meeting with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby last Thursday at the headquarters of the university in Cairo, hard reality in the occupied city of Jerusalem and its holy sites and ways to mobilize support.

By the way, there's this:

The reconstruction work to restore the Dome of the Chain adjacent to the Dome of the Rock after three years of continuous work by theengineers and technicians in the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been completed.

Chairman of the Board of Awqaf, Sheikh Abdel Azim Salhab said"Dome of the Chain is the oldest vessel [?] in the Al Aqsa Mosque, theUmayyad prerogative [?] had not been altered..."

Here are scenes from yesterday - all peaceful and quiet. 

And here is another 'Kollel student' 

Maybe connected to this:

Islamic Waqf officials and a number of personalities and staff of Endowments and the University of Jerusalem opened  today the center of the Holy unfinished thought of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali in the door of mercy Al-Aqsa Mosque and Al-Quds University.

Arabs Ignoring High Court Ruling, Dumping Artifacts off Temple Mount The Waqf, a Jordanian Muslim religious body entrusted with the management of the Temple Mount, has been renovating the site for years.

A demonstration was held last Wednesday (Dec. 26) at the northern entrance to the Temple Mount, in protest of the Waqf’s continued destruction of archeological artifacts on the holy site. The demonstrators, led by MK Aryeh Eldad, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene and to stop the obliteration of these priceless antiques by the Waqf.

The Waqf, a Jordanian Muslim religious body entrusted with the management of the Temple Mount, has been renovating the site for years. In the process, they have been moving mounds of earth off the mountain. These piles contain numerous archaeological artifacts from many centuries. In 2004, the High Court of Justice passed a ruling prohibiting the removal of the dirt from the Temple Mount to other locations until the contents are combed for artifacts.

Archaeologist Yitzchak Dvira has recently published a report about the Waqf’s ongoing disregard of the High Court’s ruling. In his report he states that since the ruling in 2004, large piles of earth have accumulated on the eastern side of the Temple Mount, and the Waqf continues to move earth from the Temple Mount to dump sites in East Jerusalem. Dvira has documented several recent incidents of heavy machinery moving earth away from the Temple Mount. These actions have resulted in the loss of artifacts important to understanding the Jewish, Christian and Muslim history of the site.

Dvira and his crew have sifted through the piles of earth removed from the Mount and have recovered many artifacts belonging to various historical periods. They have recovered seals baring the names of priests mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, support beams from the First Temple, remnants of the structure of the Second Temple, arrow heads and horse-shoe nails from the Crusade period and even artifacts from the Muslim period.

Dvira states that he sees dozens such artifacts every day in the mounds on the side of the Temple Mount. He told Tazpit News Agency that he believes the earth piles should be removed, but it should be done in a supervised fashion, ensuring no further losses. Dvira submitted his report to the police who have released a statement declaring that all construction on the Temple Mount is under their close supervision, and that Dvira’s claims are incorrect. As of now, all other supervisory agencies have not provided a response.

Dvira points out that all issues regarding the Temple Mount are overseen by the Prime Minister’s Office, and he suspects that there is consent on their part to the Waqf’s actions. PM Netanyahu met with King Abdullah of Jordan last week, and Dvira believes they discussed issues related to the Temple Mount project. The Jordanians have been pressuring the Israeli Government to allow the removal of the earth mounds on the side of the Temple Mount.

Dvira and the Temple Mount organizations warn that this continued neglect and disregard of the law will bring to further loss of historic relics. They intend to petition the High Court once more soon.

Wakf destroys more priceless Temple Mount artifacts

We've seen this before. The 'Palestinian' Wakf is bulldozing the Temple Mount again destroying thousands of priceless artifacts.

Let's go to the videotape.



The story is told in Hebrew here. In 2004, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that excavations cannot be carried out on the Temple Mount without archeological supervision. While there is apparently some dispute as to whether a permit was obtained, what is clear is that there was no supervision other than the person in the video who sought to stop the work. The Antiquities Authority was not allowed to go through the material before it was dumped.

More here and here.

Did digging on the Temple Mount Erase Traces of the Jewish Altar?

Gil Ronen of Israel National News (Arutz 7) published this report about renovation work being carried out at the Dome of the Chain:

Muslim religious authorities are concluding a clandestine eight-month dig on the Temple Mount that is intended to erase traces of the Jewish Temple’s Altar, Temple activists charge.

The digs have been taking place under the Dome of the Chain, believed to have been built over 1300 years ago. For eight months, the dome – which has a diameter of 14 meters – has been surrounded by a metal fence and black cloth, which hide whatever activity has been going on there from outside inspection. The Muslim Waqf religious authority has claimed the activity is simply a refurbishing of the structure, but refuses adamantly to let Jews or tourists near.

Jewish activists made various attempts to enter the Dome, but met with no success. In the end, the Our Temple Mount news outlet found an Arab who was willing to take photos inside the compound in return for a handsome fee (see below). The man said that it appears the Waqf has already completed its digs and is now covering the dig with dirt.

Our Temple Mount notes that according to Jewish tradition, the place where the Dome of the Chain is located is the spot upon which the sacrificial Altar stood in Temple times. Temple activists said that the Muslim digs are intended to erase the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.

Jewish activists paid an Arab to take these photos of illegal digging on the supposed site of the Jewish Temple Altar:

A bulldozer ripping up pavement on the Temple Mount

The screen around the Dome of the Chain.

View of work carried out inside of the Dome of the Chain.

Another view of work carried out inside of the Dome of the Chain.

Although it is deplorable that this much needed renovation work was done without archaeological supervision, no digging to any depth appears to have been carried out, as the paving of the Dome of the Chain appears to be still intact. If the doubtful aim was “to Erase Traces of Jewish Altar”, then the work wouldn’t have succeeded in any case, as the altar stood to the southeast of the Dome of the Chain. If  The Rock inside the Dome of the Rock is the location of the Holy of Holies, then according to my plan of the Herodian Temple Mount, the Dome of the Chain stands where once the Porch of the Temple was located.

This plan shows the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain (blue) superimposed on the plan of the Herodian Temple and its Porch (red). As can be seen from the plan, the Altar stood to the southeast of the Dome of the Chain. © Leen Ritmeyer

In a previous post, I published this photograph of the Dome of the Chain with the location of the Altar outlined in white:

The location of the Altar in relation to the Dome of the Chain and the Dome of the Rock, looking west. © Leen Ritmeyer

Second Temple column tossed out by the Wakf

Journalist Michael Freund posted the image above on his Facebook page. For those who cannot recognize what it is, Freund explains. 

Here, in a pile of rubble and trash on the Temple Mount, lies a marble column from the Second Temple that was broken and then discarded by the Muslim Wakf which effectively controls the area. Our heritage is under assault. It is time for the Israeli government to act, and take back control of the Temple Mount!

It's long past time. But don't hold your breaths waiting for it to happen. 

"Har HaBayit B'Yadeinu" is incitement

In response to reports that the Waqf has been conducting unauthorized work on the Dome of the Rock while causing damage to the Rock (the even haShitya) below a group of teens from Bnei Akiva decided to hold a march as a form of protest. They applied for a permit to march from Binyanei HaUma to the area outside of Har HaBayit, and the permit was granted by the police. (according to the news, the permit for the parade was changed to a stationary protest by the boardwalk of Armon HaNetziv)

The police however wanted to see the signs and placards they would be bearing, and then disqualified, as incitement, the text "Har Habayit b'Yadeinu" - Har Habayit is in our hands, the famous words of Motta Gur said upon the taking of Har HaBayit in the Six Day War.
(sources: Ynet and Srugim)

It practically goes without saying that it is a shonda the way the police relate to Jews and Har HaBayit, whether you consider it from a Jewish perspective or from a democratic and human rights perspective. This isn't even on Har HaBayit though. This is far away from har HaBayit, at Armon HaNetziv. In Armon HaNetziv it is now being consider incendiary to say the famous words "Har HaBayit B'Yadeinu".

Will Motta Gur's book now be banned for incitement? Will all Israeli history books be banned as incitement, or maybe they will just rip out the page in which Motta Gur is being quoted? How can such an historic statement, made by such an historic figure, be considered incitement? Will other phrases calling for our return to Jerusalem and the Temple also soon be banned as incitement - such as portions of our siddurim? How can the police be allowed to continue to find every way possible to suppress Jewish rights and identity surrounding Har HaBayit?

Rabbi Moshe Dovid Tendler on the Temple Mount

For many years it has been the custom of Rabbi Dr. Moshe Dovid Tendler, famed posek, professor, and son-in-law of the great Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, זצ'ל to perform the commandment of "Mora Mikdash" - showing reverence to G-d at the place of the Holy Temple, by ascending the Temple Mount in strict accordance with halacha - Jewish law. The Rabbi ascends the Mount every time he is in the land of Israel. He has made tens of visits to the Temple Mount. The following visit was filmed on the 23rd of Tevet, 5769 - January 19th, 2009.

Time To Get Serious About Safeguarding The Temple Mount By:Rabbi Chaim Richman

This year, as Israel observes the traditional period of national mourning for the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash on Tisha B’Av, it has again been revealed that the Islamic Waqf is carrying out unsupervised work at the Temple Mount, potentially causing irrevocable damage to Judaism’s holiest site.

Of all the unsolved questions surrounding Jerusalem’s biblical past, this modern mystery seems to present the greatest riddle: How is it that in Israel, a country home to priceless archeological treasures that are safeguarded by a governmental Antiquities Authority known for its sweeping powers and far-reaching control, archeological crimes are regularly and systematically committed with impunity by serial offenders whose identity is known to the police?

The crimes, perpetrated in broad daylight in the national homeland of the Jewish people, inflict irreparable damage to the very core of the Jewish people’s identity. The Temple Mount, one of the most significant ancient sites in the world, has somehow acquired a sort of legal extraterrestrial status, with a sort of perverse diplomatic immunity wielded by the Islamic Waqf that controls it.

The Israeli attorney general again has reiterated that the Temple Mount is under Israeli sovereignty. But, he added, authorities must be “extra sensitive” in applying Israeli law to the site and any time authorities need to “test the application of law in the Temple Mount complex, they should be pragmatic and take the area’s unique status into consideration.”

No matter what boastful pronouncements are uttered and repeated about Israeli law and Israeli sovereignty, the Mount for all practice and purpose remains outside the range of both Israeli supervision – and Israeli responsibility. From whom do orders concerning the Temple Mount emanate? The blame for this outrageous state of affairs is shamelessly shifted and shunted from one bureaucrat to the other.

Infrastructure work is currently being carried out within the Dome of the Rock at the very heart of the Temple Mount – the Foundation Stone. The Torah teaches that this spot is the very center of creation, from which the universe was founded, hence its name.

It was upon this stone that the Ark of the Covenant rested within the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple, into which chamber only the high priest ventured once a year, on the Day of Atonement. But today it is far from being inviolate. Several weeks ago, when revelations of the current work first came to light in the Hebrew press, the news was accompanied by photographs of scaffolding, tools and debris resting on the sacred Foundation Stone itself.

A group of concerned Israelis filed a complaint with the Israel Police commissioner. The police responded by admitting that they were aware the Waqf had begun work at the Dome of the Rock more than six years ago, adding that the actions “were being performed with the approval of the Israel Antiquities Authority and under its supervision.”

Unfortunately, this response merely demonstrates the nebulous, tempestuous relationship of the Israel Police to affairs on the Temple Mount – as well as their ambivalence. It has come to light that the IAA completely denies either approving or supervising these works on the Mount.

In the 1967 Six-Day War, Jerusalem again became a united city, and its sovereignty over the Old City returned to Israel. During the war – on June 7, 1967 to be precise – then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol declared “no harm whatsoever shall come to the places sacred to all religions.” The Knesset passed the Preservation of the Holy Places Law, protecting the Holy Places against desecration and guaranteeing freedom of access to all.

In return for obeying the law, Israel agreed to leave the administration of the site in the hands of the Waqf. Since then, every Israeli president and prime minister in succession has pledged the government’s total commitment to Israel’s holiest site, the Temple Mount, site of the First and Second Temple – and the location of the future Temple, according to every prophet of Israel.

As mind boggling and ludicrous as it seems, in recent years the Waqf has denied any non-Muslim connection to the site. The Waqf’s agenda is the final status of Jerusalem; to advance this cause, all physical evidence of the historical Jewish connection to the Temple Mount is a liability.

So in addition to the Waqf’s policy – facilitated by the Israel Police against the position of the Israeli Supreme Court – of preventing all non-Muslims from praying or expressing any religious sentiment at the site, the Waqf “caretakers” also exercise a free and heavy hand in the deliberate destruction of antiquities. While archeologists are prevented from investigating the site, work also is carried out without permit and any archeological supervision. It is one thing to prevent exploration; bulldozing ancient structures and using heavy machinery without any supervision is another thing.

The sages of Israel teach that the prayers of all mankind assemble together in the Foundation Stone before ascending to Heaven. This succinct teaching sums up the essence of what the vision of the “house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 2) is really all about.

The Temple Mount is har habayit, “the Mountain of the House.” It is the house – the home. It is not just another issue. It is our center; its future represents the hope of all humanity. And it is a reflection of the honor of the God of Israel in this world. But a house built on a weak foundation will not stand.

We mourn over the site’s past; we yearn for its glorious future. But it is high time we honor the vision of the Holy Temple by safeguarding the beleaguered Mount and by stemming the tide of its present destruction.

Rabbi Chaim Richman is international director of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem.