Mom, apple pie and the Temple Mount
August 13, 2012, 9:45 pm
7
Moments
after the liberation of the Temple Mount on June 7th, 1967: From left,
Rabbi Yisrael Ariel – founder of The Temple Institute, the ‘Nazir’ Rabbi
David Cohen, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, and unidentified IDF soldiers.
Courtesy of the Temple Institute
For those who might have thought
that the incident of Palestinian flag-flying over the nation’s holiest
site qualified as incitement against the State of Israel, now we know
better: the Israel Police have determined that the use of General Motta
Gur’s time-honored, cherished slogan, “The Temple Mount is In Our
Hands,” constitutes incitement against Arabs and can lead to violence.Members of the Bnei Akiva Youth
Movement who are organizing a protest rally against the continued
Wakf-sponsored archeological destruction on the Mount have received
police permission to hold that rally next week, opposite the Temple
Mount. However the police have now made their authorization conditional
upon not holding banners with the words “The Temple Mount is in our
hands” or the use of any other “slogans or speeches that incite.”One of the rally’s organizers also
reported that in addition to classifying Gen. Gur’s famous Six Day War
announcement as incitement, “the police warned against saying anything
at all that relates to sovereignty on the Temple Mount, because such
talk infuriates the Arabs.”Motta Gur’s famous statement — the
pure, clarion call of eternal Jerusalem — unified a nation. One hundred
and eighty IDF paratroopers died fighting for the unification of
Jerusalem. If Mom, apple pie and baseball are American, then “The Temple
Mount is in our hands” is quintessentially Israeli – no less than Am Yisrael Chai. Is
it racist to dream of being a free people in our own land, the land of
Zion and Jerusalem? Oops, sorry, I forgot, not everyone feels
comfortable singing those words of HaTikva.Of course, what makes the timing of
this revelation so exquisitely absurd is its juxtaposition with the
release of the most recent Palestinian Authority “incitement index.”
According to Strategic Affairs Ministry director-general Yossi
Kuperwasser, Palestinian incitement is “going on all the time” at an
institutional level, communicated through Palestinian television,
newspapers and textbooks and manifest in three distinct messages: that
the Palestinians would eventually be the sole sovereign on all the land
from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea; that Jews, especially
those who live in Israel, were not really human beings but rather “the
scum of mankind,” and that all tools were legitimate in the struggle
against Israel and the Jews.Evidently, definitions of incitement
differ. It’s a cultural thing. While the police worry about expressions
of Israeli sovereignty, the Palestinians are incited enough by the very
fact that we are alive.
Meantime, archaeological destruction on the Temple Mount continues, and Jews are not permitted to pray at their holiest site.Enter the US State Department, which
released its International Religious Freedom Report two weeks ago. The
report is highly critical of Israel’s illegal policy of denying all
non-Muslims the right to pray on the Temple Mount, despite the ruling of
the High Court to the contrary, and basic Israeli law.
In truth, the most perfunctory
examination of Israel’s Protection of Holy Places Law (June 27, 1967)
informs us that the Israel Police should be busy arresting themselves,
for their part in preventing Jews from praying:
The law reads in part: “The Holy
Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and
from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of
the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings
with regard to those places…. Whosoever does anything likely to violate
the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the
places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places
shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of five years.”
Following the State Department
report, National Union MK Aryeh Eldad has drafted a bill mandating
separate hours for Jews and Muslims to pray at the Temple Mount. “My
side of the mountain…”But as a case in point: Early on the
morning of Sunday July 29, the day the fast of Tisha B’Av was observed,
hundreds of Jews from all over Israel arrived at the entrance to the
Temple Mount to ascend the mountain in purity and reverence, including
the author of this blog.All during the preceding week, and
even early that very morning, the Israel Police had given assurances
that the Temple Mount would be open to Jewish visitors that day. This
was communicated in response to individual inquiries as well as by
reports in the media. All those who gathered in anticipation at the site
that morning, after making all the necessary arrangements according to
Jewish law, tending to logistics at great personal cost, and in some
cases traveling great distances, did so on account of the police
assurances.After keeping the crowd of Jews
waiting on line in the sun, the police abruptly announced that the
Temple Mount would be closed to Jews all day. No explanation was
offered, and certainly no attempt was made to apologize. Later, the
police issued a statement to the effect that the decision to close the
Mount was based on intelligence that indicated there were plans to cause
“provocations” at the site, implying that elements among the Jewish
visitors were bent on causing trouble.
It was only later, in response to an
appeal made by an attorney representing the Jews who were denied
access, that the police clarified that the alleged, possible
provocations were planned by Islamic elements. But the damage to the
reputation and image of the Jewish visitors – who were collectively
punished in an odd “pay it forward” response to the specter of potential
Muslim unrest – had already been done, and the police had their cake
and ate it, too: quiet on the Temple Mount, no headaches – and another
jab at the meddlesome Jews who demand their rights of freedom of
religion.MK Eldad’s initiative is an
encouraging development whose time has come. But the question of
Israel’s relationship to the Temple Mount needs to be addressed on the
most basic level as well. How can Jews be permitted to pray on the
Temple Mount when the very mention of any Jewish connection to the site
is defined as incitement? How can we insist upon an undivided Jerusalem,
if we cannot state that the Temple Mount belongs to Israel? Jews have been praying for world
peace for almost 2,000 years. It is inconceivable that the act of
prayer, the purest expression of a soul’s yearning, should be
interpreted as incitement. How can it be hoped that the police will
accommodate non-Muslim prayer, while those who have been accused of
prayer at the site – leading rabbis among them (including Rabbi Yisrael
Ariel, founder of The Temple Institute and one of the paratroopers who
fought that day with Motta Gur) – are served with illegal restraining
orders, distancing them indefinitely from the Temple Mount? “Illegal”
because they broke no law; Jewish prayer at the Mount is guaranteed by
Israeli law. Evidence continues to mount that the police operate as a
rogue agency – not like the official protectors of Israeli law, but like
an independently owned and operated franchise. Or worse: Are they
getting their orders from above? This mystery remains unsolved.The Temple Mount is har habayit,
the Mountain of the House – it’s not just another issue; it’s the home.
Every challenge we face as a people – security, the Iranian threat,
peace with our neighbors, internal strife and economic prosperity – are
all connected to how we relate to this place. How we relate to this
place, in turn connects to how we view ourselves as a people: Who are
we? Where are we going? What are our responsibilities, both to ourselves
as well as to humanity? The Temple Mount is the key to
Israel’s identity, and what happens there is directly related to the
spiritual healing of all mankind. As long as we cannot utter a few words
of simple prayer there, as long as the most fundamental yearning of a
Jewish heart expressed at Israel’s holiest site is considered to be
incitement, then the hearts of Israel and of all humanity will remain in
dire need of that healing.
