One of the concerns surrounding Israel’s maintaining control of Har HaBayis is the fact that too many will walk on the holiest site in the world without any knowledge or concerns of the prohibitions and the inyan of Kares.

While gedolei hador shlita have prohibited visiting Har HaBayis, there are rabbonim, talmidei chachamim who feel that if one has taken the proper steps ahead of such a visit, one may visit the areas that we know with absolute certainty are permitted. Some rabbonim not only permit this, but encourage visiting Har HaBayis.

Whatever the case may be, the Ministry of Education R”L is clueless and apparently views Har HaBayis as ‘just another’ heritage site, one that students must experience.

Ministry officials take pride in the fact that last year, 550,000 students visited Yerushalayim under Minister Gideon Saar’s new program נעלה לירושלים. Thousands of the students are Jewish and 31,474 of them visited Har HaBayis too, totally clueless as to the קדושת המקום and the איסור כרת involved in such a visit.

According to the ministry, most of the students that visited Har HaBayis were Arabs, not Jews, perhaps because the ministry sees the significance of the site to Islam, another fable.

According to IDF Major-General Avi Mizrachi, 50% of the inductees have never been in Jerusalem in their lives. Of the 50% that have been in the capital, only 12% have been to the Kosel.

When Saar assumed the post of education minister, he was made aware of these statistics and he decided that every pupil in the public school system would visit Jerusalem in the framework of school at least three times until graduating high school.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)