Note: The translations of articles from the Hebrew press
are prepared by the Government Press Office
as a service to foreign journalists in Israel.
They express the views of the authors.
Absurdity Scales the Heights of the Temple Mount
(Op-ed by Nadav Shragai, "Ha'aretz", Aug 16, 1999)
On June 17, 1967, then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan sent a young reserve
officer by the name of David Farhi, an orientalist by profession, to bring
Jerusalem's Mufti, Sheikh Abd Al Hamid A Saih, from Jericho for a meeting.
The Mufti's mood was bleak. He was furious at the Israeli authorities'
decision to exile him to Jericho, but was mainly concerned over his
meeting with Dayan and the future of the Temple Mount compound.Several
hours later, his fears were quelled. Dayan informed the Waqf (Muslim
trust) leadership that the internal management of the Temple Mount mosques
and square would remain in its hands, while Israeli security forces would
be in charge of guarding the surrounding area. It was made clear to the
Muslim leaders that while they were to determine the internal rules and
regulations, Israel would be in charge of maintaining law and order, and
all limitations and restrictions imposed on the Jews under the British
Mandate and Jordanian rule would be abolished. Jews would be allowed to
visit the Temple Mount, but if they wished to pray they would be directed
to the Western Wall.
This was a new, extremely generous, status quo, which the Muslims never
properly appreciated. Teddy Kollek, a firm advocate of the arrangements
made for the Temple Mount, complained about this more than once. He often
explained to foreign diplomats visiting him in his office that by any
historical measure, this was an immense concession which Israel had taken
upon itself unilaterally. The holiest site in Judaism, where the
foundations of both Temples are buried, the symbol of Jewish independence
and destruction, was to continue to be run by a Muslim religious authority
- and furthermore, Jews were to be forbidden to pray there.
This gesture was based on a desire to minimize any possible friction
between the Jewish and Muslim faiths in a compound sacred to them both.
The fact that most Orthodox rabbis objected to any Jewish presence on the
Temple Mount seemingly made it easier to accept the government ban on
Jewish prayer at the site, especially as no one prevented Jews from
visiting the area. But in recent years there has been a fundamental change
in that status quo, long before Ehud Barak decided last week to seal the
gateway opened by the Waqf in the southern wall of the compound.
Every day, it is becoming more difficult to implement the basic right of
every Jew to visit the Temple Mount. A Jew wishing to enter the gates of
the compound today must try to look like a tourist, taking into
consideration that looking too Jewish will work against him. Jews boasting
a knitted kippa or dressed in ultra-Orthodox black garb who wish to simply
go up on the Temple Mount with their children are automatically suspected
of planning to pray at the site, and all their promises and explanations
are in vain. At times they are prevented from entering the area
altogether; usually, their stay is restricted to several short,
humiliating minutes, escorted on one side by a member of the Waqf and on
the other by an Israeli policeman, who both closely monitor their
movements, especially those of their lips.
This is no longer just a question of the police evading their duty to
enforce the High Court of Justice ruling allowing members of the Jewish
Temple Mount movements to visit the site, nor of the police ignoring the
court's position permitting "quiet, individual prayer, which does not
constitute a provocation or demonstration." It is now a question of
exercising the basic right of "freedom of access to holy sites," as
defined in Israeli law.
This reality overshadows the fact that the State Prosecutor's Office and
attorney general have for years put on hold charges of suspected
incitement and agitation against Muslim clerics who preach on the Temple
Mount, against whom the police recommended that indictments be filed. This
not-so-well-known reality even overshadows the fact that the planning,
construction and archaeology laws, which a High Court ruling (4185/90)
explicitly determined apply to the Temple Mount as well, are in fact
completely ignored there.
There is almost no end to the absurdities created by the reality on the
Temple Mount in recent years: The Waqf's representative has appeared
before the High Court and declared that his client objects to the justices
visiting the Temple Mount. Terrorists have taken advantage of the de facto
extra-territorial status of the area to meet there to plan their attacks
(including those who threw hand grenades at a group of Givati soldiers in
the parking lot near the Dung Gate in October 1986 and those who kidnapped
and killed police officer Nissim Toledano in March 1993). The Palestinians
established a third prayer site on the Temple Mount, Solomon's Stables -
the first new prayer site there in 1,300 years, established under Israeli
rule of all things. And right now, the Muslims are getting ready to
complete another "grab" - establishing a fourth prayer site at the
compound, in ancient Al Aqsa.
But before anything else, before gateways are sealed or opened, before
Palestinian flags are waved or taken down on the Temple Mount, before one
seeks to exercise the right to pray there, it is imperative to remove the
restriction on Jews' right to visit their holy site.
[Translation courtesy of the Ha'aretz English website -
http://www.haaretz.co.il/eng/ - all rights reserved]