MK (Bayit Yehudi) Betzalel Smotrich is calling on the government to close down Har Habayis to Arabs in light of the violence that occurred on Tisha B’Av. “We must stop the absurd situation that Jews cannot daven on this holiest place” he stated, adding “It is unacceptable that in Jerusalem, our capital, the Arabs dictate to us what we can and cannot do regarding davening at the Kosel and Har Habayis”.
Smotrich took part in the annual Women in Green organization walk around the Old City on erev Tisha B’Av during which Arabs began attacking them with rocks.
Smotrich calls for correcting “mistakes of the past” and taking control of Har Habayis once and for all.
It is added that Gedolei Yisrael throughout the generations have ruled one may not visit Har Habayis. This is the ruling of Gedolei Yisrael today as well, in addition to being the position of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
The implication in this article is that Israel should not take possession of Har Habayis because poskim ruled an issur of Jews going there. I believe that is completely ridiculous.
I wholly accept the ruling of our poskim about the issur of entering the Makom Hamikdosh including the entire Har Habayis. But the ONLY reason to not go there is because we follow psak halacha. NOT because of any restriction by the Israeli government or the cursed Waqf.
We need to take control. If the Arabs are permitted there, we will risk violent events. There has not yet been an example of an Arab that could pass the test of refraining from violence.
I assume that like myself, MK Betzalel Smotrich is now already quite concerned with Shovu’os 5776 coming out during 1st week of Ramadan, and his concern is very timely and justified.
#1, while you may accept and observe the psak of the Gedolim that entering Har HaBayis is forbidden, the sad reality is that most Israelis do not. And if Har HaBAyis was under full Israeli control, you could be sure that many secular Israelis would indeed visit it, and practice their secular lifestyle there as well. This would be a disaster both for the holiest place in the world, and for those Jews who unfortunately know no better.
It’s just plain racist to close Har Habayis to all Arabs. Arabs are Arabs because they were born Arab and it indicates nothing about their morals and character, which each individual gets to decide. And besides that, there are many Jewish Arabs.
throw all Arabs out of Israel.
” . . . absurd situation. . . It is unacceptable. . .”
Chutzpah yasgeh!