Tel-Chai Nation

Because of threats of violence on Tisha Be'Av, the police closed off access to the Temple Mount:

Politicians responded with outrage and bitter disappointment Tuesday morning after being denied entry – along with hundreds of rank and file Jews and Christians – to the Temple Mount on Tisha Be’av, the sacred annual day of mourning, due to police concerns over Muslim rioting.

Admittance to the Temple Mount, administered by the Wakf Muslim religious trust in conjunction with the Jerusalem Police, has long been a contentious issue among Jews and Arabs.

However, the confluence of Ramadan and Tisha Be’av only inflamed the situation as thousands of Arabs were granted entry to pray at the nearby Dome of the Rock.

Following the incident, a barrage of condemnations by a number of senior government officials – as well as a law suit filed by an NGO – were swiftly issued regarding the police decision.

Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Insitute called the decision to prohibit Jews from entering the Temple Mount a “reward to Islamic terror.”

He was one of those turned away by police at approximately 7 a.m.

“Despite the bitter disappointment and utter disgrace of the police’s absurd decision – itself a reward to Islamic terror – to prevent Jews from ascending to the Temple Mount [on Tisha Be’av], the hundreds of Jews who arrived this morning at the entrance are testimony to the great awakening taking place within the people of Israel toward the importance of the holy site to our nation,” Elkin said in a statement shortly following the incident.

“The sight of so many Jewish men, women and children coming from all over the country at great personal cost, and converging on the holy mountain, is the clearest indication that the plight of the beleaguered Temple Mount is becoming an important aspect of the national consensus,” he added.

Nadav Shragai's noted how it's not like the Temple Mount has been destroyed, and while not everybody wishes to rebuild it, they do agree it's an important site from a historical viewpoint. And that's the important part. Even if rebuilding the Temple isn't something all feel should be done, we can agree that history itself is vital. And it's good that now, more people are starting to take interest in visiting the Temple Mount.

Labels: anti-semitism, dhimmitude, islam, Israel, Israeli Arabs, Jerusalem, jihad, Knesset, Moonbattery, political corruption, terrorism