Jews visit the Temple Mount
“I [Solomon] sit on the throne of Israel, just as the LORD promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the LORD, the God of Israel.” (1 Kings 8:20)
Israel has experienced a backlash caused by a recent Knesset (parliament) debate regarding Israel’s sovereignty on the Temple Mount.
Even though the Temple Mount, as the location of the two Holy Temples of Jerusalem, is Judaism’s holiest site, Jewish worship there is currently forbidden.
At the Knesset meeting, Member of Parliament (MK) Moshe Feiglin said that the government’s failure to protect Jewish rights on the Mount due to fear of Arab violence amounted to discrimination against the Jewish population. (Times of Israel)
In response to the debate in Israel’s Knesset, 86 of 150 Jordanian MPs voted to expel Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, Daniel Nevo, and to recall Jordan’s ambassador to Israel. The vote came one day after 47 MPs signed a motion demanding that Jordan’s 1994 peace treaty with Israel be annulled. (Times of Israel)
Organization of Islamic Cooperation Secretary-Iyad bin Amin Madani
Jordan currently claims sovereignty over the Temple Mount and as word spread of the Knesset meeting, Jordan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur, in an interview with Qatar’s Al-Watan newspaper warned, “If Israel wants to violate the peace treaty in this issue, the entire treaty, its article, details and wording will be put on the table.”
Describing the Temple Mount issue as a “red line” that can threaten the peace process and the “security and stability in the whole region,” Organization of Islamic Cooperation Secretary-General Iyad Madani held a meeting in which all 57 members condemned the Knesset debate as being a “dangerous escalation.”
Madani described the move as being “a dangerous and unprecedented step that comes as part of Israel’s racist policy … aiming to Judaize Jerusalem.” (Arutz 7)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy warned in a statement that Israel would have to bridle its extremist politicians if it wants to avoid the eruption of violence in the area. (HaAretz)
To personally witness the extensive and invasive security checks that Jewish visitors endure when visiting the Temple Mount, last week two US congressmen—Republican Bill Johnson of Ohio and Republican David McKinley of West Virginia—joined a group of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount.
The congressmen were accompanied by Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute.
“We are pleased that [Congressman] Bill Johnson and Congressman David McKinley were given a first-hand opportunity to observe the everyday reality of the discrimination of non-Muslims on the Temple Mount,” Rabbi Richman said.
“We are confident that these men of integrity and moral principle were highly affected by the travesty of justice on the Temple Mount, and they expressed their belief that the majority of the American people are fully supportive of the right of the Jewish people to pray on the Temple Mount.”
