After numerous incidents in which Jews have been detained, questioned and banned from Har Habayis because they wished to daven, the Ministry of Religious Services has decided to revamp the guidelines for Har Habayis. One of the more publicized recent events was Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave the order to ban MK Moshe Feiglin from Har Habayis, a decision which Feiglin insists was compelled by Waqf objections to his presence.
MK (Likud) Miri Regev in her capacity as chairwoman of the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee raised the Har Habayis issue in a meeting held on Wednesday, 28 Iyar 5773, Yom Yerushalayim. She spoke of the discriminatory policy that exists today, by which Jews are forbidden to daven on Har Habayis, calling it unacceptable. She feels that Har Habayis is “connected to the mainstream and the heart of the Jewish People and the current situation may not continue.”
Shortly after the committee meeting got underway she aired an authentic video of the IDF soldiers liberating Har Habayis from the 1967 Six Day War. MK (National Democratic Assembly) Jamal Zahalka called the short film “offensive to Arab sensibilities.”
MK (Likud) Moshe Feiglin told the committee that from his perspective, the issue is who has sovereignty over the area, Israel or the Waqf. MK (Ra’am-Ta’al) Ibrahim Sarsour asked “isn’t there another place for Jews to daven other than al-Aqsa?” He added “we must realize that one day or another Jerusalem will return to the Palestinians and for now, the status quo must remain.”
Regev stated that the right for Jews to visit Har Habayis is a basic right that is anchored in the Basic Law of the nation, a law that guarantees freedom of religion and worship. She called on the Ministry of Religious Affairs to prepare guidelines that reflect this and present it to the cabinet for approval.
Elchanan Glatt, who serves as director-general of the Ministry of Religious Services announced the ministry was going to amend the regulations for Har Habayis to reflect the rights of Jews to daven on the site, representing a first time that the regulations will be amended since the liberation in 1967.
The news of the committee’s meeting and ministry’s actions have resulted in condemnations and threats from Muslims and Arab nations, reaching the diplomatic level. Jordan has reprimanded Israel’s ambassador to Amman, as well as releasing a statement warning Israel that “The Temple Mount is a red line.”
Adding to tensions is the fact that on Wednesday, Yom Yerushalayim, police detained and questioned the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mahmud Husseini in connection with violence a day earlier on Har Habayis, 27 Iyar 5773, in which a number of policepersons were injured.
In his Jerusalem Day address, President Shimon Peres touched on the Har Habayis issue, stressing Israel will always protect the rights of the “three monotheistic religions in Yerushalayim”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
There should be some way of reaching a compromise on this issue which provides those yidden who wish to do so, the right to daven on har habayis in a respectful way that doesn’t trigger muslim reactions. We have an absolute right to be there but must do so without subjecting the security forces to additional risks they don’t need right now. However, we should draw the line against those idiots who each year try to sneak goats and lambs up to the har habayis to bring a korban peseach or those meschichists who want to send survey teams up to the har habayis to begin laying out the bayis shalishsi.
If this is true – Hodu La-Hashem Ki Tov!
please allow me to recommend you a peice
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/167839#.UYvXwaJkOSo
Rian Kamal, the head of the Al aqsa Fund, which raises money for services, facilities, and other projects for Muslim worshipers on the Temple Mount, spoke at the Knesset hearing on demands by Jewish groups that Jews be allowed to ascend the Mount and pray openly. Currently, Jews are allowed to visit the Mount, but are forbidden from praying. The law is enforced by Israeli police, with Jews often shadowed by a member of the Waqf, who closely watches the Jewish visitor to ensure that his or her lips are not moving in prayer.
According to Kamal, 90% of rabbis are opposed to Jews’ ascending the Mount altogether. “I have a good solution,” he told Mks. “According to the Jewish religion, the Holy Temple is to descend from Heaven when the Messiah comes. Let us allow the place to remain Muslim until that time, and afterwards we will surrender our prayer rights in the area.”
a chutzpa may’lav ato shomea hain!
theyre try to make abstract and fantasize the truth of the beis hashlishi
in order to prove and stone and push around jews on the holiest land and from there the right to be violent all over eretz yisroel
#1 How dare you call people who are trying to do Mitzvos “idiots”.
AS you obviously are unaware, many Rishonim (brought in the Kaftor Vaferach) and Achronim (most notably R’ Akiva Eiger) wanted to bring a korban pesach. Also the Minchas Chinuch says that it is possible to rebuild the Bais Hamikdash even before Moshiach.