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Jews Visiting the Temple Mount Is Not an Assault on the Al-Aqsa Mosque

(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - The record needs to be set straight: A few hundred Jews ascending the Temple Mount on Tisha B'Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples that stood on that mount, does not constitute "settlers storming al-Aqsa." It constitutes Jews wanting to visit their holiest site on the fast day dedicated to remembering the Temples that once stood there, and their destruction. Had Jews been prevented from commemorating Tisha B'Av, there would be no end to it. Israel cannot allow the threat of violence to determine its policies. Israel also has the right to expect that 1,700 Jews going to the Temple Mount not be falsely framed as an assault on al-Aqsa. Those who frame it in this manner want to ignite passions and invite violence. To say that any Jew going up to the site on Tisha B'Av is somehow a provocation or a desecration - as claimed by Hamas, Iran, the Palestinian Authority, and Turkish President Erdogan - is not something that Israel should have to accept. The Jordanians sent an "official letter of protest," calling on Israel to respect "the freedom of worshipers." The call for freedom of worship at the site is particularly ironic since Jews are strictly forbidden to pray there.
2021-07-19 00:00:00
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