Jewish prayer should be permitted on the Temple Mount - opinion

• Published date: 11 October 2021
• Author: YISRAEL MEDAD/THE MEDIA LINE
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Turkey has condemned it, "strongly." The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced that it will "further encourage fanatic circles" and "cause new tensions." The Egyptian Foreign Ministry denounced it and expressed "its extreme concern for the repercussions of such a court ruling and its impact on the security and stability in the region." The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) warned of the consequences of the decision and the Palestine National Council (PNC) considered the ruling "a direct and explicit aggression against the sole right of Muslims."

And what was the decision? Judge Bilhah Yahalom last week adjudicated that "quiet" Jewish prayer can be held at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as long as it remains silent and does not violate Israel Police instruction nor is it criminal. In fact, her opinion is in accordance with the Law for the Protection of Holy Places and several High Court of Justice judgments. However, it does conflict with Israeli government policy since 1967, known as the "status quo," which says that while Jews (and Christians) may visit the Temple Mount, only Muslims can pray there.

Haaretz's Anshel Pfeffer opines that, indeed, "Jews should have the right to worship freely but not in today's Jerusalem." He thinks that right to freedom of worship "isn't just for the kind of worship we tend to agree with, but also, and especially, the worship we disagree with." Nevertheless, he opposes that right at the moment, not so much due to the vehement responses quoted above, or worse, threats, but rather because of some vague ideological viewpoint: "Jerusalem is not a free city with equal rights for all its residents."

But what of the main problem? Why do so many people slip into a mode of vacuous rationality and suggest either there is no such right, that Jewish prayer is a provocation, or even that the Jewish Temples never existed, as is heard from PNC officials? Or that Jews entering the Haram al-Sharif compound are "storming," as if invading a place not theirs?

Within days of the ruling, on an appeal by the police, District Court Judge Aryeh Romanov confirmed that Jews are barred from worshiping openly at the site. Nevertheless, the issue will not go away and its causes and ramifications need to be analyzed.

It should be clear: No Jew enters a Muslim building on the Temple Mount and surely not in a mosque. The compound is rather large and there is more than enough room for it to be shared. After all, in Hebron, Jews do...