Temple Mount reopens to Jews after weeks of clashes and unrest

Jerusalem Post ^ | MAY 23, 2021 | JEREMY SHARON

[SJackson]

The Temple Mount was originally closed to Jews on Jerusalem Day, following clashes between Arabs and Israeli police, and remained so throughout the Gaza violence in Operation Guardian of the Walls.

Jews visit Temple Mount after closure during Operation Guardian of the Walls. (photo credit: OR NEHEMIAH AHARONOV)

The Temple Mount reopened for Jewish visitors on Sunday morning after it had been closed for such visits for the last 19 days due to the Muslim month of Ramadan and the conflict with Hamas in Gaza. The site was originally closed by police to Jewish visitors starting May 4 for the last days of Ramadan when large numbers of Muslim worshippers pray in al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount and the police seek to avoid friction at the site.

Due to the severe tensions surrounding Jerusalem over the month of Ramadan, the government decided to extend the closure of the Temple Mount on Jerusalem Day in an attempt to reduce the possibility for conflict, although this effort ultimately failed when Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem the same day, sparking the recent conflict with Gaza.

On Sunday morning, close to 100 Jewish visitors ascended to the holy site, activists said. Groups of 20 visitors went up and, according to the Committee of Temple Organizations, prayed the morning service at the site.

Formal and open Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is in practice prohibited by the police, but in recent years the police have increasingly turned a blind eye to discreet Jewish prayer, although without prayer shawls, tefillin and the use of Torah scrolls.

Among the visitors were several rabbis, including Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute and Rabbi Eliyahu Weber, who heads what he calls the Temple Mount yeshiva, who visits the site and holds prayer services there every day.

The committee said the rabbis prayed that “God will lighten the eyes of Israel’s leadership and neutralize the focus of terrorist outbreaks by transferring the Temple Mount mosques to Saudi Arabia or any other Arab country seeking peace.”

A spokesman for the committee specifically thanked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister for Internal Security Amir Ohana and the head of the Jerusalem District Police Doron Turgerman for assisting with the reopening of the Temple Mount.

They also thanked several MKs for working on reopening the site, including Religious Zionist Party head MK Bezalel Smotrich; MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit Party which is part of Smotrich’s faction; Yamina MK Matan Kahana; and New Hope MK Sharren Haskel.

Ben-Gvir welcomed the reopening of the Temple Mount, but described the situation for Jewish visitors at the site as “unceasing discrimination,” in reference to the severely limited visiting times and the ban on formal, open Jewish prayer.

“It is unthinkable that in in the Jewish state there should be a racist infraction of rights based on race,” said Ben-Gvir.

Elishama Sandman, chairman of the Yeraeh organization which encourages Jewish visitation to the site, welcomed the reopening, but lamented its closure due to what he said was “capitulation to terrorism.”

“The next step needs to be increasing the hours for Jewish visitation, opening on Friday and Shabbat, and designating a place for prayer with tefillin and a Torah scroll,” she said.

On Saturday night, MK Moshe Gafni, head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party, called on the prime minister not to reopen the Temple Mount to Jewish visitors, due to difficulties in Jewish law with such visits.

“The Temple was destroyed because of our sins, and those who go up to the Temple Mount are liable to spiritual excommunication,” said Gafni in reference to the Jewish laws restricting entry to some areas of the site without the appropriate ritual ceremonies.

“Not going up to the mount is the deepest proof of our association with this holy place to which we turn from all over the world when we pray," he said. "I request from you [Netanyahu] to leave the Temple Mount closed to Jews.”

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

[frank ballenger]

Unless it was moved to Ethiopia or elsewhere, it may still be where the Israelite King Josiah hid the Ark in a secret underground tunnel under Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, under an area known as the wood storage, in the seventh century BC. No one knows but also no one is allowed to open up the areas underneath. The, let’s say open-minded, David Childress wrote a book about speculations The Ark of the Covenant in 2015.

So, I always get upset when the Arabs start killing people again and the area might be bombed or hit by a missile.

I never saw any of the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies so I can’t tell what everybody else is referencing. I really should watch them sometime. Too busy reading Holy Scriptures.