Recent Developments in the News regarding the Temple Mount
Last updated December 21, 2009.
1925 Temple Mount
Guide
Click here for the 1925 Temple Mount Guide.
http://www.raptureforums.com/IsraelMiddleEast/guide.pdf
One of the most disturbing end times propaganda being promoted today is the absurd notion that the Jews never had a presence on the famousTemple
Mount Jerusalem .
Anyone who is knowledgeable about history and aware of the recent
archaeological discoveries on the Temple Mount area over the years knows that
the propaganda being perpetuated by the Islamic's, United Nations, and other
ungodly organizations is simply a political ploy to deny the Jews their
historical capital of Jerusalem and the sacred Temple Mount area. The Temple
Mount Second
Temple Second
Temples
“The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’sTemple
is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which
David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace
offerings” (2 Samuel 24:25).
http://www.raptureforums.com/IsraelMiddleEast/guide.pdf
One of the most disturbing end times propaganda being promoted today is the absurd notion that the Jews never had a presence on the famous
“The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s
Before Israel founded, 'Muslims would not have disputed connection Jews have'
JERUSALEM - A prestigious Palestinian professor told WND that the Muslim denial of a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount is political and that historically Muslims did not dispute Jewish ties to the site.
"If you went back a couple of hundred years, before the advent of the political form of Zionism, I think you will find that many Muslims would not have disputed the connection that Jews have toward [the Mount]," said Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University in eastern Jerusalem.
"The problem began arising with the advent of Zionism, when people started connecting a kind of feeling that Jews have toward the area with the political project of Zionism," Nusseibeh stated.
Zionism refers to the political movement that supports the reestablishment of the Jewish state in the land of Israel.
According to sources inside the Palestinian Authority, Nusseibeh has come under some PA pressure for writing in a recent study that Jews historically revered the Temple Mount before the time of Muhammad and Islam.
The PA sources denied any security threats against Nusseibeh but conceded that PA President Mahmoud Abbas' office had asked the professor to issue a clarification acknowledging the Palestinian line denying Jewish ties to the Mount.
The sources indicated that if Nusseibeh did not issue a clarification his position as Al-Quds' president could be in jeopardy.
Nusseibeh, however, denied that he has received any threats over the matter.
"I am surprised that people are surprised by what I wrote. There is nothing in Islam that denies the fact that Judaism is one of the religions of the book," he said.
Nusseibeh contributed to an Israeli-Palestinian study about the Temple Mount entitled, "Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem's Sacred Esplanade." In the study, Nusseibeh does not affirm the existence of the Jewish Temples on the site but writes the Mount was revered by Jews before the time of Muhammad.
The PA long has denied any Jewish historic connection to the Temple Mount or Jerusalem.
Israel's Maariv daily newspaper reported Nusseibeh was threatened by Palestinians regarding his participation in the study.
Chief Palestinian justice: Temples never existed
In a previous WND interview, Chief Palestinian Justice Sheik Taysir Tamimi declared the Jewish temples never existed and Jews have no historic connection to Jerusalem. He also claimed the Western Wall really was a tying post for Muhammad's horse, the Al Aqsa Mosque was built by angels, and Abraham, Moses and Jesus were prophets for Islam.
Tamimi is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem.
"Israel started since 1967 making archeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city, and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880s," said Tamimi.
"About these so-called two temples, they never existed, certainly not at the [Temple Mount]," Tamimi said during a sit-down interview in his eastern Jerusalem office.
The Palestinian cleric denied the validity of dozens of digs verified by experts worldwide revealing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temples throughout Jerusalem, including on the Temple Mount itself; excavations revealing Jewish homes and a synagogue in a site in Jerusalem called the City of David; or even the recent discovery of a Second Temple Jewish city in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
Tamimi said descriptions of the Jewish Temples in the Hebrew Tanach, in the Talmud and in Byzantine and Roman writings from the Temple periods were forged, and that the Torah was falsified to claim biblical patriarchs and matriarchs were Jewish, when they were prophets for Islam.
"All this is not real. We don't believe in all your versions. Your Torah was falsified. The text as given to the Muslim prophet Moses never mentions Jerusalem. Maybe Jerusalem was mentioned in the rest of the Torah, which was falsified by the Jews," said Tamimi.
He said Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus were "prophets for the Israelites sent by Allah as to usher in Islam."
Asked about the Western Wall, Tamimi said the structure was a tying post for Muhammad's horse and that it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the Wall predates the mosque by more than 1,000 years.
"The Western Wall is the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It's where Prophet Muhammad tied his animal, which took him from Mecca to Jerusalem to receive the revelations of Allah."
The Kotel, or Western Wall, is an outer retaining wall of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple and still stands today in Jerusalem.
Tamimi went on to claim to WND the Al Aqsa Mosque , which has sprung multiple leaks and has had to be repainted several times, was built by angels.
"Al Aqsa was built by the angels 40 years after the building of Al-Haram in Mecca. This we have no doubt is true," he said.
The First Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.
The Temple was the center of religious worship for ancient Israelites. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's presence dwelt. All biblical holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Temples served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and were the main gathering place for Israelites.
According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. It's believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.
The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition.
The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed in about A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark what Muslims came to believe was the place at which Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah.
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible 656 times.
Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night on a horse from "a sacred mosque" � believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia � to "the farthest mosque" and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque became associated with Jerusalem about 120 years ago.
According to research by Israeli Author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam historically disregarded Jerusalem as being holy. Berkovits points out in his new book, "How Dreadful Is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. He wrote Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place � the Kaaba in Mecca � to signify the unity of God.
As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."
A guide to the Temple Mount by the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published in 1925 listed the Mount as Jewish and as the site of Solomon's Temple. The Temple Institute acquired a copy of the official 1925 "Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif," which states on page 4, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord.'"
To develop relationships between these two faiths further, Jews and Muslims need to be more aware of nuances within their respective traditions
by Dan Rickman
I have just returned from a week in Jerusalem and yet again tensions are high surrounding the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, and this yet again threatens relations between the two great monotheistic faiths of Islam and Judaism.
The gap of understanding is highlighted by right-wing rabbis encouraging Jews to visit the Temple Mount. The suggestion that Jewish visitors are being "humiliated" in being prevented from praying there and being limited to the Western Wall is astonishing to me.
The conflict creates painful discourse regarding the respective religious histories with Jewish and Muslim "scholars" queuing up to de-legitimise the historical validity of the other side. In addition, there are many difficult issues which seem to suggest that reasoned discourse is impossible, for example regarding what remains of Jewish communities in Muslim countries.
Many Jews are familiar with negative images from the Koran if only because these are used frequently in the ongoing propaganda wars between Zionist and anti-Zionist groups. Yet many Jews are unaware that within Jewish sources there are also many negative stereotypes about "the other", the most radical perhaps being a view in the Palestinian Talmud that non-Jews do not even exist.
These sorts of jarring views are sadly common place in almost all religious literature and as a consequence religion has all too often played a negative role in this conflict.
Yet despite all this, there are more moderate voices in all these faiths. Moreover, Judaism has traditionally had tremendous respect for Islam as a pure monotheistic faith and this is recognized even nowadays in the plethora of groups trying to improve Jewish-Muslim understanding.
Deeper links
Judaism and Islam have a lot in common. They both have written scripture (Bible and Koran) and also oral tradition (halacha and sharia). The study of this law is also considered a value in both religious traditions and their legal, mystical and philosophical systems have significantly interacted over the centuries and learned from each other.
In addition, these traditions see their role as applying to all spheres of life, which means that inevitably they are political to a greater or lesser extent. It is not at all surprising then that when meetings of Rabbis and Imams are arranged they find they have much in common.
I'd suggest that there are deeper links as well. Judaism and Islam both exist outside the mainstream Western intellectual discourse which lies at the heart of liberal democracy and the modern nation state. This has a number of profound implications. Both religious traditions have to address the conflicts between their world views and modern democracy.
Additionally, in countries where Jews and Muslims are in a minority they face prejudice based on common misunderstandings which means that anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are in fact two sides of the same coin. It therefore does us no credit as Jews (whether religious or secular) when we repeat or accept negative stereotypes of Islam.
The way to address these misunderstandings is to learn more about each other's religious traditions as well as our own and there are books such as Rabbi Reuven Firestone's "An Introduction to Islam for Jews" which are well worth reading to address this.
Rabbi Firestone suggests that worthwhile dialogue requires "focus on text study and social responsibility projects" and this is reflected in initiatives such as the Center for Jewish-Muslim Engagement. There are, of course, many examples in Israel where Jews and Muslims co-operate and work together, a recent example being a course to train Jordanian paramedics at Ben-Gurion University.
To develop these relationships further, Jews and Muslims need to be more aware of the nuances within their respective traditions. There was a furore when Ken Livingstone invited Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi to London leading him to produce a detailed justification of his actions based around the need for dialogue.
Firestone says that Sheikh Al-Qaradawi is a "moderate conservative" whose views are very influential lying between radicals and Westernised Muslims. Whilst his better known pronouncements do jar with Western sensibilities, one can readily find analogous statements from rabbis.
This raises a question for Judaism itself which until recently did not have political power. Now that it does, through religious parties in Israel, what lessons can be learned from other religious traditions, especially Islam which is so similar, to use this power responsibly?
A peek into Temple Mount excavations - Ronen Medzini - www.ynetnews.com
Western Wall Heritage Foundation holds tour of tunnels in attempt to ward off Muslim claims that al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger of collapsing. Waqf refuses offer for similar tour for Muslims, saying 'settlers won't give us approval to enter a Muslim-owned area.'
Excavation works being held near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have sparked uproar in the Muslim world in recent years. Recent riots in the capital were allegedly sparked by a repeated Muslim claim that the Jews are attempting "to take over" the Temple Mount mosques or damage them through the digs taking place in tunnels within the mount.
According to the Muslims, the digs are taking place under the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and are threatening to collapse them.
Initial photos obtained by Ynet show the excavation works along the tunnels, as photographed during a tour held in the area about two weeks ago, which was attended by several officials and organizations from all parts of the political spectrum.
Following the tour, its participants said they did not witness attempts to dig under the mosques' plaza.
The digs begin on al-Waad Street in the Old City's Muslim Quarter and connect to the Western Wall tunnels under the ground. The works began more than four years ago, and have since caused angry responses in the Muslim world, which is finding it difficult to receive a clear picture of the dig, due to the discrete manner in which it is are being led by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.
One of the claims is that the dig is endangering the buildings located above it and damaging the heart of the Muslim heritage. The fears are also related to the fact that many of the members of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation are also members of the Ateret Kohanim association, whose goal is to see Jews settle in the Old City's Muslim and Christian quarters.
The tunnels are expected to be open to the public in the future, but today they remain closed until the excavation works will be completed. In light of the many claims, however, the Foundation decided to invite several officials to tour the area.
The tour's participants included the Foundation's executive director Mordechai (Sullie) Eliav, Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, Jerusalem Council Members Meir Margalit (Meretz) and Rabbi Yossi Deutsch (United Torah Judaism), and representatives of left-wing organizations.
The tour's participants spoke to the excavation workers, who told them that the digging is currently 12 meters (39 feet) deep. According to estimates, the final dig will be 16 meter deep, where the workers will reach an impenetrable rock layer.
According to the participants, the workers uncovered important archaeological remains from the First Temple during the excavation.
It should be noted that the tour's participants testified that in some of the places, improvised reinforcement works were being conducted to support the walls and ceiling, in a manner which raises fears that there is indeed a danger of collapse, or at least a danger that the land above may sink. The picture brought here support this claim.
Arab diplomats seek solution
"I don't support digging in sensitive places, and I understand the Muslims' fears," said Margalit. "However, in the name of intellectual integrity, I did not see any attempt to dig under the mosques' plaza. I cannot guarantee that such a thing will not happen in the future, but it's clear to me that in the meantime there were no signs testifying that this is in fact taking place.
"It's important for me to say this because I am very concerned about what may happen following the wave of rumors and speculations running around this city," he added, "and everyone must contribute as much as they can to calm things down."
Ynet has learned that the Western Wall Heritage Foundation is now planning to conduct another tour, which will be attended by a professional Muslim delegation, in order to refute the accusations.
Margalit has even approached representatives of the Jerusalem Waqf with an offer to tour the area, but they have rejected it for now, claiming that "we will not receive approval from settlers to enter a Muslim-owned area."
Diplomats from an Arab country arrived in Jerusalem on Thursday in an attempt to come up with a creative solution which would allow a Muslim delegation to tour the area. A third party is now trying to mediate between the Foundation and the diplomats in a bid to organize such a delegation, which will be comprised of representatives from Arab countries.
However, in light of the recent political tensions, which have led to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' announcement that he would not run for president in the upcoming elections, it appears that such a tour will not be made possible for the time being.
Writing Jews out of Jerusalem's history
The whipping up of unrest around the Temple Mount is part of an insidious campaign to cast Jewish people as modern interlopers
Jeremy Sharon
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 1 November 2009 10.00 GM
The Temple Mount, or al-Haram al-Sharif to Muslims, must rank as one of the most sensitive religious sites in the world. The sporadic riots of the past month at the site are therefore particularly alarming, as such incidents have the potential to ignite much wider unrest.
For that reason, it would seem to be in everyone's interest to reduce as far as possible tensions and friction at the Temple Mount to an absolute minimum. But the statements and actions of a number of Muslim clerics based in Israel, Palestinian politicians and even foreign governments have only inflamed and exacerbated an already explosive situation.
Of even greater concern is the underlying sentiment behind the recent riots, protests, declarations and denunciations. Whether or not "Jewish extremists" went up to the Temple Mount (and they did not) and irrespective of whether or not they planned to, the violent and vitriolic response to these rumours is indicative of a fundamental lack of tolerance for the religious beliefs of the Jewish people.
And the incitement has been widespread, coming from both political and religious sectors. The Islamic Movement in Israel, in particular, has made strenuous efforts to inform its flock that Jewish groups were planning to "desecrate", "storm" or otherwise "endanger" the al-Aqsa mosque and arranged buses for worshippers to come and "protect" the site.
Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch and one of the principal provocateurs, declared to a crowd, "We'll liberate al-Aqsa with blood and fire" and stated that Israel was seeking to build a synagogue on the al-Aqsa mosque. Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad told a meeting of foreign ambassadors that the riots were due to "an assault by extremist religious settlers on the Temple Mount compound". The Syrian foreign ministry decided to stir the pot too, stating "[Damascus] believes the Israeli security forces' invasion of al-Aqsa was part of Israel's scheme to Judaise Jerusalem and destroy the mosque."
Not one shred of evidence has been presented to back up any of these accusations, the reason being that there simply is none.
Such baseless incitement over one of the most sensitive places of worship in the world is incredibly irresponsible. The destabilising effect of this agitation undermines whatever small amount of trust there may be between Israeli and Palestinian interlocutors. Additionally, it further inflames wider Arab and Muslim opinion, which is similarly deleterious to the project of tolerance and coexistence in the region. Inventing wild myths about Jewish designs on Muslim holy places can only harm any prospects for the normalisation of ties between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbours.
Aside from the agitation is the disturbing notion that Jews seeking to visit, or even pray at, their holiest place of worship (the Temple Mount and not merely the Western Wall) should be seen as provocation, desecration or in any other way unacceptable. Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are an indelible part of the Jewish national consciousness. The very term for the movement to re-establish the Jewish national home, Zionism, derives from a synonym for Jerusalem, Zion. Every day, three times a day, Jews all over the world turn towards Jerusalem and pray for it to be restored to its former glory; they have done so for nearly 2,000 years. That Jews are actually banned by the Israeli government from praying on the Temple Mount is a quite astounding concession to the demands of the Islamic waqf that administers it.
But preventing Jews from praying at the Temple Mount is not the only goal. A far more insidious campaign is afoot, one that rewrites history by arguing that there never was any Jewish temple at the site, thereby seeking to delegitimise any connection that Israel and the Jewish people may have to it, and by extension, the land as a whole. In a region in thrall to an epidemic of conspiracy theories, the irrefutable archaeological and historical evidence attesting to the Second Temple alone is sadly deemed insufficient.
The failure to acknowledge the connection the Jewish people have to Jerusalem is symptomatic of a problem which goes to the heart of the political conflict; that the Palestinian body politic has never reconciled itself to the fact that the Jewish people have deep-rooted historical ties to the land and are not simply foreign invaders who wandered in a few decades ago.
However politically expedient, Palestinian and Muslim leaders must desist from the incitement against Israel and the delegitimisation of the Jewish people's connection to the land, if there is ever to be any political accommodation between the two sides. If the Palestinian public never appreciates the depth of feeling Jews have for their holy places and their historical homeland, then the state of Israel, within any borders, will forever be illegitimate in the eyes of the Palestinians and will remain a target for eventual removal. Such an attitude poses a tremendous obstacle to the future prospects of peace between the two peoples.
Televised: Temple Mount broadcast
A7 Radio's "The Tovia Singer Show" with Tovia Singer
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/1547
Listen Now! In this eye-opening broadcast Ari Abramowitz, who is substituting for Jeremy Gimpel, joins Tovia for a show packed with controversy, insight and�spontaneity. Who is the Messiah the son of Joseph?�Why is there not a clear messianic prophecy found in the Torah?�Buckle up�as they�confront listeners probing questions live on camera and on air.
Discuss this topic in the new Forums Section
Rabbi Tovia Singer is the founder and director of Outreach Judaism, an anti-missionary organization, addressing more than 200 audiences a year in Israel and the United States. He is the author of the book and accompanying audio CD series Let's Get Biblical. He has hosted the Tovia Singer Show since 2002. It airs live every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:00 p.m. - 12:00 midnight Israel time / 3 p.m. - 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and is downloadable as a podcast on Israel National Radio.
Upping the ante at Al-Aqsa
Despite Arab government denials, Muslim officials on the ground confirm Jewish extremists are escalating plans to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque, writes Khaled Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem
(Photo Caption) Palestinian youths hurl stones towards Israeli riot policemen during clashes in Jerusalem's old city on Sunday
Government-backed Jewish religious extremists have stepped up their efforts to seize a foothold at Al-Aqsa Mosque esplanade in East Jerusalem, ostensibly in order to erect there a Jewish temple.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of the three holiest Islamic sanctuaries. The other two are the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet Mohamed's Mosque in Medina in Saudi Arabia.
On Sunday, 25 October crack Israeli soldiers stormed the Al-Aqsa site, firing rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear gas canisters at Muslim worshipers. The troops also savagely beat Palestinian worshipers, including women and children. The paramilitary police, known as the Border Guard, also briefly shut off the Noble Sanctuary (the 141,000-square metre court housing Islamic holy places), barring Muslims from accessing the site.
More than 20 were injured, some badly, and dozens of others arrested. The Israeli occupation authorities also cut off electricity to the Old City of Jerusalem, including Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The new violation of the holy site by Israeli forces followed a call by Muslim leaders in Jerusalem alerting inhabitants to go to the mosque and maintain a presence there to repulse a fresh attempt by Jewish extremists to storm the Noble Sanctuary and seize a foothold to practise Jewish rituals. Jewish extremists, along with some government officials, hope that persistent provocations at the exclusively Islamic holy site will allow them to worship at the site and eventually build a Jewish temple.
Many Jews believe that the ancient Temple of Solomon stood where Al-Aqsa Mosque was built more than 1,300 years ago. Destroying Al-Aqsa Mosque and building a Jewish temple in its place is said by some extremists to be a condition for the second coming of Christ.
In recent days and weeks, Talmudic extremists placed a huge menorah -- a Jewish religious symbol -- opposite the Dome of the Rock Mosque. Other extremists erected at the same place a model of the so-called Temple of Solomon. Israeli occupation authorities made no effort to stop the manifestly provocative acts.
Meanwhile, the religious Zionist camp in Israel, which spearheads anti-Islam provocations at Al-Aqsa esplanade, held a meeting in West Jerusalem during which Jews were urged to descend to the Islamic holy place and wrest it from the hands of the "goyem" (a derogatory epithet for non-Jews). The meeting was attended by several prominent rabbis affiliated with the settler movement, as well as several Knesset members and other extremist leaders.
Following the meeting, a statement issued called on Jews to maintain a presence at the "Temple Mount" to prevent Arabs from turning the site into "a theatre of violence". Participants urged Jews interested in "changing the status quo at the Temple Mount" to "work more and speak less" and to carry out their task "quietly and through subterfuge".
Earlier, the Israeli media reported that Israel was planning a "major archaeological excavation under Al-Buraq Court", renamed "the Western Wall plaza". Historically, the place had always been part of Al-Aqsa Mosque until the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem in 1967. The excavation, Muslim leaders argue, could seriously destabilise the foundations of Al-Aqsa Mosque and other nearby historic Muslim structures. Israeli officials pay little or no attention to Muslim protests and often invoke the mantra that Jerusalem is Israel's eternal and undivided capital.
Adnan Al-Husseini is the head of the Supreme Muslim Council, the body overseeing and running the Haram Al-Sharif compound. He accuses Israel of "planning to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque by way of digging subterranean tunnels in its vicinity."
"When they speak to the media or meet with some Muslim officials from Turkey or Egypt and Jordan, they assure them that everything is fine and that the Islamic holy site faces no danger. However, we who live here and see things with our eyes on a daily basis are sure 100 per cent that Israel's ultimate goal is the demolition of the mosque and the building of a Jewish temple." Al-Husseini added: "Are we to believe Israeli lies and mendacious denials or our own eyes?"
Sheikh Mohamed Hussein, another prominent Muslim official at Jerusalem's Noble Sanctuary, described the situation as "very, very dangerous". "The Israeli authorities are trying to desensitise Muslim public opinion in the hope that Muslims at a certain point would accept a partitioning of this Islamic holy place. But, of course, this will never ever happen."
Hussein urged Muslim governments and peoples "to do away with words and routine condemnations and take meaningful measures to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque from Israel's evil design." He added: "The situation can't continue like this. The Arab-Muslim world must take immediate action to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque. Muslim states that have diplomatic ties with Israel must act as well."
According to Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, the chief judge of the Palestinian Authority, present Israeli provocations in Jerusalem are aimed primarily at partitioning Al-Aqsa esplanade.
"They want to take over Al-Aqsa Mosque step by step as they did with the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron following the massacre of 1994." There Israeli occupation authorities partitioned the mosque, one of the most ancient in occupied Palestine, between Jews and Muslims, giving Jews the lion's share of the ancient structure where the patriarch Ibrahim (Abraham) is believed to be buried. (In Islam, Ibrahim, Isaac, Jacob and other Israelite prophets are also considered Muslim prophets).
Muslims never accepted the partitioning, stressing that the mosque was an Islamic site of worship for more than 1,300 years.
On Al-Aqsa, demonstrations have taken place in several Muslim countries, calling on Muslim governments to take proactive steps against Israel, including severing diplomatic ties. However, it is highly doubtful that token protests by Muslims will deter Israel and stop extremist Jewish groups from pursuing their designs against the main symbol of Islam in occupied Palestine and the Levant region.
Indeed, it is quite likely that this crisis, which is a ticking bomb, will reach a critical point. One foreign observer in Ramallah remarked that "the peace process is nearly dead even without this powder keg surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque. All I can say is that I foresee a lot of trouble and violence ahead."
Source: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/970/re2.htm
Clash around Al-Aqsa Mosque cannot be resolved through religious dialogue: experts (UPDATED)
29.10.2009 18:01
EDITOR's NOTE: comments of two experts have been added after the 12th paragraph
Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 29 / Trend News, U.Sadikhova/
The problem of clash between the Arab and the Orthodox Jews and the Israeli police around the Al-Aqsa mosque cannot be solved by a religious dialogue, because the problem is a continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict, experts believe.
Analysts also do not rule out that it may trigger a new wave of violence in the region.
The Palestinian Delegation to the UN, which has an observer status, urged the UN Security Council to take urgent steps due to worsening of the situation on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, venerated by both Muslims and Jews, RIA Novosti reported.
In recent weeks, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, especially around the third-largest Muslim holy Al-Aqsa Mosque, were the scene of constant clashes between Arabs and the Israeli police and Orthodox Jews. Last Sunday 18 people were arrested in the clashes.
However, even minor disturbances in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians consider the capital of their future state, and where the major Muslim shrines are located, can lead to serious complications.
Visiting the Temple Mount in 2000, Ariel Sharon, who later became the Prime Minister of Israel, turned into the intifada that lasted several years.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), one of the largest in the Islamic world, in a statement called on Islamic countries to take steps to protect their holy places in Jerusalem.
However, analysts believe that the conflict caused by the clash around Al-Aqsa is political in nature, although it arose between representatives of different religions.
The Arab experts were unanimous in their opinion that the clashes in Jerusalem are the result of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands.
"The problem is that the Israeli government is trying to gain upper hand over all Jerusalem," Director of the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies, Hasan Abu Nimah, said to Trend News in a telephone conversation. "This problem cannot be solved through inter-religious dialogue and negotiation between religious communities, because that arose as a result of policies of the Israeli government."
The issue of East Jerusalem is one of the most difficult in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Both Palestinians and Israelis consider the city their capital.
Analysts and international organizations also fear that the clashes around Al-Aqsa can lead to increased violence and escalate into armed clashes between Arabs and Israelis.
American professor in the religious studies Carl W. Ernst said that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute cannot be solved by religious dialogue, since it is based upon nationalism and dispute over territory.
"Religion is used to harden the positions of opposition between the different parties. If the problem is taken out of the sphere of religion, then it is much more likely that compromise is possible," Director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations at the University of North Carolina W. Ernst wrote Trend News in an e-mail.
Analyst on the Arab-Israeli conflict Yossi Mekelberg also shares with Ernst, saying that the problem of Jerusalem and clashes around the Al-Aqsa mosque are not a religious problem, because the major point here is to divide the city between Israelis and Arabs.
The problem of Jerusalem is on the one hand religiously but on the other hand it is the capital of Israel and the future capital of Palestinian state, Mekelberg said.
"It is a nationality issue of sovereignty, not only the issue of religion," Senior Research Fellow of the Chatham House British Royal Institute of International Affairs, Mekelberg told Trend News in a telephone conversation. "The problem of Jerusalem is a very important issue and so the [Middle East] quartet will be involved in this to encourage the both sides [Palestinians and Israelis] for talks [�], in order to end the violence."
Mekelberg said Jerusalem is a "very sensitive issue, beyond Israelis and Palestinians".
The Analyst on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Yossi Mekelberg believes that the issue of Jerusalem and the clash around Al-Aqsa is not a religious issue, because there is the question of dividing the city between Israelis and Arabs.
As long as that conflict continues, there will always be extremists on both sides who will seize opportunities to advance their own causes by creating situations of conflict, John Voll, professor of Islamic history at the Georgetown University said.
"The international community should encourage all parties in the conflict to be more open to resolving conflicts without resorting to violence," Associate Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown Unversity Voll wrote Trend News in an e-mail.
Specifically, important parts of this effort must be that the allies of Israel need to urge Israel not to resort to violent military responses to Palestinian protests, Voll believes.
OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu also warned that "the Israeli police attack against the Al-Aqsa mosque could lead to undesirable consequences."
Radical groupings will advantage from the clash around Al-Aqsa to raise tensions around the world to make thinks worse and so it will be a very big mistake, if it affects the relations between Muslims and Jews around the world, Mekelberg said.
The Director of the Al-Quds Center for Political Studies, Oraib al-Rantawi said that the clashes on the Temple Mount create conditions for war in the region and for new clashes.
"The events surrounding the Al-Aqsa can lead to a new intifada, and provoke a new wave of aggression in the region between the Palestinians and Israelis," al-Rantawi told Trend News in a telephone conversation. "Israel is playing with fire, because a new wave of aggression can spread to the whole Muslim region, based on the fact that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a symbol of the entire Islamic world."
Concerning the role of the Islamic community (ummah) to the situation around the clashes on the Temple Mount, the Director of the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies, Abu Nimah believes that the ummah is limited only by the statements to which Israel is not paying attention.
In his view, the position of the Islamic Ummah to protect Al-Aqsa is still "sleeping".
On Monday, Syria accused Israel of intending to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, calling his actions "a blatant violation of the sanctity and inviolability of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and a part of the plan for Judaizing Jerusalem and destructing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, RIA Novosti reported with reference to the Syrian sources.
The OIC also called on the Muslim Ummah to take a "firm stance to protect their holy places following the intensification of the Israeli attacks against the Islamic holy places in Jerusalem."
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at trend@trend.az
Something is Rotten in the State of Israel
by Joharah Baker(Wednesday, October 28, 2009)
"The reference to the Aqsa Mosque Compound as the "Temple Mount" has been mainstreamed even in Western discourse, thus, offering legitimacy to the Jewish alternative to Islam's third holiest site. Again, never mind the fact that the actual site of the Holy of Holies and even the first and second temples are disputed much less the location of where the third temple should be built."
It is unfathomable that the recurrent unrest in and around the Aqsa Mosque Compound are individual spats of violence unrelated to any larger picture. Anyone even slightly versed in this entangled conflict knows better, knows that every statement, every move in Jerusalem is laced with political overtones and is a tiny piece of a much larger canvas.
So, yesterday's events in Jerusalem's Old City can only be viewed as one more link in Israel's master plan for the city and for the Aqsa Mosque Compound in particular. For the second time in the past month, extremist Jewish groups announced their intent to enter the mosque and for the second time, Palestinian Muslims in Jerusalem staved them off. Following a morning call from the mosques' muezzin to the people of the Old City to "come and protect Al Aqsa", clashes ensued between Israeli riot police and soldiers, many who had taken up position the night before in anticipation of confrontations.
And confrontations they certainly were. Angry Palestinians set fire to tires and trash cans after Israeli police shut the doors to the mosque's compound, trapping dozens inside. Stun grenades, rubber�coated metal bullets and tear gas filled the streets and the two sides clashed violently for hours. By the time things quieted down, at least 30 Palestinians had been injured and three Israeli police.
As disturbing as the incident itself is, what's worse is its dangerous implications. Israel has had its eye on this area of the Old City since it captured the eastern sector in the 1967 War. Not only is it in the heart of Jerusalem, which Israel has yet to relinquish even partial claim over, it is said to be the place where the first and second Jewish temples were built and subsequently destroyed. The Third Temple is, Jews say, to be built on this exact spot.
What follows is speculation, but speculation that is based in hard truths and realities that cannot be ignored lest we drop the ball on this extremely significant and delicate subject. Israel has always retained an overall policy of sending up "test balloons" to gauge reactions - both locally and internationally - then absorbing any backlash, until finally implementing its plans when the dust finally settles. This happened with the construction of the separation wall, with the Qalandiya checkpoint and the Lebanon War. Israel would throw the idea out into the open and wait until it could give a convincing enough justification before putting plan into action. Today, much of the world falls for the line that the Separation Wall was built to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers and protect innocent Israeli civilians. Never mind that the wall swallows up approximately 40 percent of the West Bank, cutting off people and land, and that an eerily similar plan was devised just after the 1967 occupation dubbed the Allon Plan which basically drew the same borders.
As for the Qalandiya checkpoint, the same strategy was undertaken. At first, then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called for the 100 day plan in January, 2001, supposedly as a means to quell the Aqsa Intifada of 2000. Part of the plan, which included a severe military crackdown on Palestinian protesters, was setting up a "makeshift" checkpoint near the Qalandiya airstrip. Soon however, the dirt barricades turned into cement blocks, which then turned into vehicle and pedestrian lanes with corrugated iron roofs, which finally turned into a full blown terminal, which effectively severs the West Bank from Jerusalem.
Today, we are faced with a similar strategy for Al Aqsa. Israel has always called it the "Temple Mount", in reference to the supposed location of the first and second temples and the Holy of Holies. The reference to the Aqsa Mosque Compound as the "Temple Mount" has been mainstreamed even in Western discourse, thus, offering legitimacy to the Jewish alternative to Islam's third holiest site. Again, never mind the fact that the actual site of the Holy of Holies and even the first and second temples are disputed much less the location of where the third temple should be built. Anyway, even if the Jewish temples were built on or around the area that now houses the Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, this should in no way contradict with what exists there today. If every group of people made claims to ancient ruins, would the world not be in archeological chaos by now?
It seems however, that Israel is looking further than even its own religion. Like all things to do with the conflict, this is about politics. After the repeated upsets at the compound and the increasing number of extremist Israeli Jews who insist that they will enter the compound for prayer, Israeli government officials began releasing their infamous test balloons.
It is difficult to surmise what came first, the proverbial chicken (the Israeli government's plan) or the egg (the push by extremist Jews). The end result, however, is that both compliment each other with a common goal of marginalizing Palestinian and Muslim presence in the city. On October 1, the Islamic-Christian Society in Support of Jerusalem announced that Israel plans to allow Jews exclusive access to the Aqsa Compound on 50 Jewish holidays to perform prayers. The announcement came after a day of clashes at the compound.
While there have been no reports of such a move since then, the prospect of such a decision could have catastrophic ramifications. And given Israel's history with throwing out outrageous ideas before actually implementing them on the ground, this does not seem as outrageous as one would imagine.
Besides, Israel already has a prototype for this kind of arrangement - the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. As early as 1975, Israeli authorities divided the mosque between Jewish settlers and Palestinian Muslim worshipers, with the entire mosque falling under Israeli control. After the 1994 massacre of 29 Muslim worshipers by Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein, the iron door between the two sides was shut permanently, thus banning Palestinians from a large portion of the mosque they had prayed and worshiped in for years.
This is why the prospect of Israel attempting to pull off something of the sort at Al Aqsa is not so far-fetched. Israel seems to have a policy of, "If we can do it, then we will." There is no doubt that Israel, being the occupying power backed by the world's only superpower, "can do it." However, if it does decide to inch towards this eventual goal, it should know by now that the backlash will be severe. The burning tires, stones and flying chairs are just a hint of what will happen should Israel try to take full control over Al Aqsa. Palestinians are sure not to go down easily, if they go down at all.
Source: by courtesy & copyright 2009 Joharah Baker
Remember, the Temple was built by Herod
Robert Eisenman www.jpost.com
The Temple, over which we now see such weekly struggles, was built by Herod who, for all intents and purposes, was not Jewish. He had not an ounce of Jewish blood in him - if one can speak in such "racial" terms in this period - his mother, according to Josephus, being an "Arab" from Petra, probably related to the royal family there; his grandfather, a Greco-Arab priest of Apollo from the Gaza/Ashkelon "Philistine"/Palestine Coast.
On occasion, he might have simulated Jewish ways in line with his appointment as king of the Jews (which did not necessarily require being Jewish - it was a Roman title and a tax-farming fiefdom). His father Antipater was the first Roman procurator of Judea (c. 60 BCE), who parlayed a Roman governorship into a family dynasty, in the process eliminating the Maccabees and garnering a Roman citizenship for himself and his family after him.
Herod might have had a few Jewish wives among the 10 or so he allowed himself, including two high priests' daughters - one the proverbial Maccabean princess Mariamme/Miriam, whom he actually had executed, as he did his children by her, due to his jealousy of their Maccabean blood and therefore their popularity among the masses. Almost all of his other wives were Greek or Arab.
He also built a host of Greek temples - in Sebaste (Samaria) in honor of the Emperor Augustus, at Caesarea and across the Mediterranean, as well as the Antonia fortress in the Temple in honor of Mark Anthony and Phasael (Feisal) after his brother was executed by one of his Maccabean wife's uncles.
Herod used his building projects to magnify his own image and keep a disaffected population busy. The Temple itself, which he began early in his reign in the 20s BCE, was not finished until shortly before its fall in 70 CE. Herod in fact was a typical Arab potentate, combining the worst qualities of a latter-day Saddam Hussein and the harem aspects of the House of Saud.
As Josephus tell us, Herod had spies everywhere, executed all the members of the previous Maccabean or nationalistic Sanhedrin except the two Pharisees "Pollio and Sameas" - probably Hillel and Shammai - and even went on the streets in disguise to search out malcontents. These he had taken to the fortresses Hyrcania and Machaerus (as John the Baptist was, by one of his Greco-Arab sons) to be tortured and ultimately put to death. He was hated by the Jewish people and, as noted, responsible for the extirpation of the whole Maccabean family root and stalk, including his own several grafts upon them; and there followed 110 years of struggle (37 BCE-73 CE) to be rid of him, his heirs and the Romans who imposed them on the Jews and supported them.
Nor is the celebrated Western Wall anything but a part of this extravaganza he built to mollify Jews and busy unemployed priests. It was consecrated by their Roman overlords, after they destroyed the Temple, as a place Jews could go once a year (on the Ninth of Av) in humiliation to bewail their former glories - therefore its traditional name, the Wailing Wall.
SO THE Jews go today to worship at the remains of a stone edifice built by their arch-enemy, responsible more than anyone else for their destruction, who was himself certainly not native born and hardly Jewish at all except where convenient. (This is much like Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:19-27. To paraphrase: "I am a Jew to the Jews, a Greek to the Greeks, a law-keeper to the law-keepers, a law-breaker to the law-breakers. I believe in winning. I will do whatever I have to do to win. That's how I fight, not beating the air." And Herod did "win," as did Paul, his probable descendant).
But here's the rub. The Pharisees and the Herodian Sadducees whom they dominated were the only party willing to live with Herod and the Romans. In fact, Pollio and Sameas in 37 BCE recommended opening Jerusalem's gates to Herod and the Roman army given him by Mark Anthony. This behavior was repeated over and over, including 130 years earlier, at the time of Judah Maccabee, when they were willing to support Alcimus, a high priest appointed by a foreign power (the Greek Seleucids in Syria) - probably "the birth moment" of the Pharisee party. It happened again when Pompey stormed the Temple 100 years after that. According to Josephus, the Pharisees cooperated with the Romans in slaughtering the Temple's pro-Maccabean defenders.
Notwithstanding, over and over again the people rejected the counsel of the Pharisees, including at the time of the uprising against Rome in 66 CE, when they cooperated in inviting the Roman army into the city. The Pharisees were not the popular party they are assumed to be, despite the pretensions of historians probably based on Gospel portraiture.
Predictably the nationalists were the popular party (as they usually are even today).
Pollio and Sameas became the heads of Herod's Sanhedrin after he had executed all its Maccabean and pro-nationalist members when he took undisputed control. Earlier, in the mid-50s BCE, they alone opposed bringing him to Sanhedrin trial when he was governor of Galilee (under his father) and had executed guerrilla leaders there.
BUT THE Pharisees cum Rabbinic Judaism were, as noted, the only party Rome was willing to live with after the uprisings of 66-70 and 132-6 CE. Their patriarchs became the de facto Roman tax collectors in Palestine, as the Herodians had been earlier.
We all respect our rabbis, their durability, learning, and great venerability. We acknowledge their leadership in surviving 2,000 years of the Diaspora, that is, up to the Holocaust - but they were not up to the Holocaust. They could not provide real leadership then. Only the pro-Zionist parties left or right and the worker's movements did.
In the same manner, the rabbis, experts at non-territorial leadership, cannot provide = almost by definition - leadership in a territorial situation. Now, in the face of the seemingly miraculous Jewish regaining of the Temple Mount in 1967, their bans for or against walking on the Temple Mount smack of quaintness and out-of-touch or even self-serving unreality. One is not walking upon anything there except perhaps Herod's Temple (recently Herod's tomb seems to have been found under his pile of dirt Herodion, not surprisingly apparently smashed to bits by revolutionaries).
Perhaps there is an authentic First or early Second Temple Holy of Holies hidden somewhere beneath the ruins, but it would take an archeological investigation to determine this. The Western Wall with all its familiar comfort is nothing but stones set down by the destroyer of the Jewish people and its royal family and a probable abomination, i.e. kissing stones set down by Herod.
The problem is we must start from scratch based on being a territorial people once again.
We need a new approach to religion if, for instance, we are to combat the J Streets, Goldstones or George Soroses of this world, not to mention appealing to the imagination of questioning disaffected youth; and the first step should have been to start rebuilding the Temple.
This does not mean one should revive the priesthood or the sacrificial cult. You need living symbols to move the people. If nothing else, Herod showed us this and the durability of the wall he built is its final proof.
Unfortunately, Rabbinic Judaism can no longer provide us these. Two millennia, yes, and up to the Holocaust. But no further. It cannot provide us with the blueprint for becoming territorial once again. Moshe Dayan was wrong in ordering the Israeli flag taken down, in effect, surrendering sovereignty and giving the Muslim Wakf control over the Temple Mount. No self-respecting people after two victorious wars would have behaved in this way. But he had no guideposts to rely upon, only egocentrism and his own pragmatism - plus he loved the grande geste.
But now, almost three generations after the Holocaust and with its memory beginning to fade, we have nothing positive to appeal to our young generations in Israel and abroad. It is poetry and the spirit that provide this. They are the positives, not humiliating renunciations. The reconstruction of a Temple - any Temple - should have begun 40 years ago and we would be well on our way toward achieving these things. This does not mean we should emulate the old design. Its content, shape and operation should be open to investigation, even architectural competitions, and creativity; but the symbol would be there.
It took the Herodian Temple almost 90 years to be completed. Ours and even its early stage - archeological investigation - hasn't even begun. People need a positive historical Judaism to go forward and this does not mean a Roman/Herodian-sponsored Phariseeism. People need positive symbols to rally around. The time is late. There is plenty of room on the Mount for everyone.
In no other manner can we gain the respect of the world and regain our own self-respect, and the world come to understand us - and we come to understand ourselves.
Within the last three months, the Temple Institute has created an altar for use on the Temple Mount. The altar is 3 x 3 meters and 2 meters high, and fulfills the minimum requirements for a valid temple altar. Now that we have a valid altar, we have the opportunity to seek to bring certain classes of sacrifice which "thrust aside," the laws of Biblical purity. These sacrifices include communal sacrifices that have a fixed time.
In order to proceed towards this goal, we must know the exact location of the altar from the first and second temples. This has always been the number one goal of our organization.
We, therefore, have communicated with Gabai Berchai, a renowned archeologist, who is now interested in helping us to get permission to perform a limited exploration on the Temple Mount, for the purpose of locating the underground pile of rubble, where the altar once stood. Professor Ritmeyer, a world renowned expert on the Temple Mount wrote me that he believes it will be possible to locate the underground pile of stones and rubble from the altar, and the drainage well, which was in the SW corner of the altar, in two weeks of digging with 10 trained archeology assistants.
In preparation to make the dig request, we are working with architect Tuvia Sagiv, of Tel Aviv, inventor of the Southern Theory of the location of the temple, to do an infrared photographic scan of the Temple Mount. This scan has a chance of tracing the full underground course of a wall that was uncovered last years by Muslim excavation of a utility trench in the region east of the central area of the Temple Mount. The ruined ancient wall may very well have been the wall of the woman's court of the Second Temple. It was in the proper location. Historical knowledge of the Temple Mount makes this conclusion even more likely. After the Romans destroyed the mount, they built a Temple to Jupiter and an alter. Subsequently the Byzantines conquered the Romans, destroyed the temple to Jupiter, and turned the Temple Mount into a garbage dump. When the Muslims conquered Jerusalem, they removed the garbage and built several structures, which remain today, including the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa Mosque. Based on history the ruined wall could only have been from the Temple or possibly the Temple to Jupiter, although archeologists may be able to rule that out.
If the actual size of the ancient wall corresponds to the size of the woman's courtyard of the Second Temple than we will be able to accurately determine the exact location of the Second Temple and the altar.
We currently need $4,000.00 dollars to complete this project. The photos will eb taken from a helicopter flying over the Mount of Olives, and therefore requires no special permission! We are seeking pledges right now. When the pledged amount reaches $5,000.00 all those pledging will be asked to send in their money directly to Tuvia Sagiv, who is arranging the flight and the filming.
Professor Weiss calls for the rebuilding of the Temple
Written by Chris Perver, www.prophecynews.co.uk
Violent protests in the streets of Jerusalem have continued this week amid heightened tensions over the Temple Mount. The fighting began several weeks ago on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Hebrew calendar, when Muslims began throwing stones at a group that was visiting the site. The Muslims accused Israel of allowing Jews into the compound to pray on the Day of Atonement, something that the Israeli police forbid on the grounds that it could cause offence to the Islamic Waqf that administer the site. Israel denied that any religious group was planning to pray on the Mount, and believe that the violence was purposely orchestrated to coincide with the Jewish holy day. Last week Israeli police entered the Temple Mount in order to arrest stone-throwers and to bring an end to the rioting which threatens to destabilize the peace process. Jordan expressed concern over the Israeli intervention on the Mount, claiming it was a flagrant violation of international law, while Syria accused the Jewish state of attempting to destroy the al Aqsa Mosque. Hamas declared that only war will resolve the contention over Jerusalem. Some Orthodox Jewish groups have called for protests against the Muslim rioters by ascending the Temple Mount, while others have asked their followers to stay away from the area, believing that it is forbidden for any Jew to set foot on the Mount for fear of accidentally entering the place where the Holy of Holies once was. Professor Hillel Weiss, of the Organization for Human Rights on the Temple Mount, has called for the immediate rebuilding of the Jewish Temple itself.
Quote: "In a move that may heighten tensions in the capital, the Organization for Human Rights on the Temple Mount (OHRTM) called for Jews to visit the east Jerusalem compound, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque. During a rightist event held in Jerusalem Sunday evening, just hours after Muslims rioted in and around the Temple Mount amid reports that Jewish extremists were planning to visit the site, Professor Hillel Weiss said, "The (third) temple must be built now. The mosques do not have to be destroyed in order for us to do this."
There are of course diverging opinions in Judaism as to whether or not the Dome of the Rock would need to come down in order to build the Third Temple. Some believe that the Temple should be constructed opposite the present Eastern Gate, which would place a rebuilt Temple slightly to the north of the Dome of the Rock. Others believe that the bedrock underneath the Dome of the Rock was the original bedrock where the Holy of Holies once stood, and that the rebuilding of the Temple would necessitate the Dome's destruction. Incidentally, the Dome of the Rock, also known as the Mosque of Omar, is actually a Muslim shrine and not a mosque. Muslims revere the al Aqsa mosque, which is located at the far end of the Temple courtyard, as the place where Mohammed ascended into heaven (even though Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Qur'an). But the Dome of the Rock is less revered than the al-Aqsa mosque itself. And as we have seen lately, even a prominent Muslim author has already gone on the record in calling for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple. Under the present political conditions, Israel could not go ahead and rebuilt the Temple. But religiously speaking, there is little preventing them from doing it. The Bible seems to indicate that it may be the Antichrist who will open up the way for the rebuilding of the Temple, under the pretext of achieving unity between the world's religions.
I have been talking this past week with some friends of mine who are preterists, who believe that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ occurred in 70 AD and that the Jewish Temple was destroyed never to be rebuilt again. I won't go into the rights and wrongs of their views. But I believe the Temple will one day be rebuilt. The Temple mentioned in Ezekiel 40-48 has never been constructed. There are many structural and ceremonial differences between the Temple that was built by Ezra and later expanded upon by Herod and the Temple that is mentioned in Ezekiel 40-48. Whether or not the Temple mentioned in the book of Ezekiel is the Temple that the Antichrist will defile, I do not know. But I do know that preparations are now being made for the rebuilding of the Temple, and that can only mean one thing, that Jesus Christ is coming back. Micah had this to say concerning the rebuilding of the Temple and the return of Christ to this earth.
Micah 4:1-3: But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
One day the House of the Lord will be established in the top of the mountains of Jerusalem. And only then, when the Prince of Peace returns, will there be true peace on Earth and goodwill to all men (Isaiah 9:6-7).
But you can know this peace now. Jesus Christ said in John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid". This peace comes through the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus Christ died for you. He was the Lamb of God who bore away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He was the one upon whom the Father laid the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). And through believing on Him for salvation, you can know your sins forgiven, and have eternal life in heaven. Why don't you turn away from your sins, and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation today.
Isaiah 53:6: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
TIME FOR A TEMPLE?
Jewish plans to Rebuild the TempleBy Randall Price
The most volatile 35 acres on earth are undoubtedly those comprising a rectangular platform in East Jerusalem on which the ancient Jewish Temple once stood. Both the Old Testament (Is. 1:2-3; Ezek. 37:26-28; 40-48; Dan. 9:27; Mic. 4:1-2; Hag. 2:7-9; Zech 6:12-15; 14:20) and the New Testament (Mt. 24:15; Mk. 13:14; 2Th.2:4; Rev. 11:1-2) affirm that a new Temple will once again occupy this platform as part of God's end-time program for the nation of Israel.
What evidence is there in Israel today that this predicted rebuilding is close to becoming a reality?
THE PRAYER FOR THE TEMPLE
Since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D., Jewish prayers have been made for its rebuilding. Such a precedent was set by the Prophet Daniel while in Babylonian exile (Dan. 9:17), and Orthodox Jews - the denomination most desirous of a Third Temple - today recite three times daily the words: "May it be Thy will that the Temple be speedily rebuilt in our own time." Even so, almost 2,000 years have passed, Israel is largely a secular state, and many people understand this thrice-recited prayer only metaphorically. Given this largely non-religious climate, what does the modern Israeli public think of the idea of rebuilding the Temple?
In 1989, at the beginning of the Temple Movement, Time magazine reported that a 1983 newspaper poll had shown "that a surprising 18%.3 of Israelis thought it was the time to rebuild." However, since that time Israel has suffered through the Intifadah, the "peace process," and numerous riots provoked by the issue of the Temple Mount. When last year I put the question to Ehud Olmert, mayor of Jerusalem, he replied that most people were not in favor of rebuilding the Temple, believing that such an act was associated with fanatics wanting to destroy the peace process.
However, on February 11, 1996, The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement - an Israeli activist organization that publicly demonstrates in favor of rebuilding the Temple - commissioned a poll, conducted by the international Gallup organization, of Israelis of all age groups. The question asked was: "The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, headed by Gershon Salomon, put forth its main ideology on the struggle for Israeli sovereignty and the Jewish future of the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, and the land of Israel, and the rebuilding of the Temple. How likely would you be to support the idea of this movement?"
The results, according to the Temple Mount Faithful, were the largest show of support any organization in Israel had ever received (58%). Of the polled group, the highest percentage came from young Israelis. Depending on the usual variables in statistical surveys, this indicates a substantial increase in the readiness of Israelis to see Jewish sovereignty reasserted over the Temple Mount and a new Temple erected.
THE PROTOCOL FOR THE TEMPLE
Orthodox Jews differ as to when and how the Third Temple should be built. One school of thought believes that the Temple cannot be built in a secular state but will descend in fire from heaven completely built after a religious government is established when the Messiah arrives in the Age of Redemption. Those who follow this belief forbid entrance to the Temple Mount on the ground that someone might tread upon the site of the unlocated Holy of Holies, a place that has retained its sanctity despite the loss of the Temple. The predominate school of thought, however, is that the Torah obligates the Jewish nation to rebuild the Temple whenever it becomes possible to do so (Ex. 25:8). Therefore, since 1967, when access was gained to the Temple site, the nation has sinned in not obeying this divine command. They argue that no Temple was ever built without human preparation (1 Ki. 5-6; Ezra 3:7-11), and that this effort had divine approval (1 Chr. 22:14; 23:4).
Based on rabbinic authority, they contend that even though heaven must send the Prophet and the Messiah as a sign of redemption, this will not be done until there is national repentance and a desire to begin the task of rebuilding (see Yalkut Shimoni Samuel 106). Therefore, they say, since 1967, when Israel acquired sovereignty over the Temple site, Israel has continually experienced national problems because it has failed to rebuild. When the Palestinian Intifadah began in 1987, various Jewish groups who held this ideology felt they could wait no longer and began to work in different ways to prepare for the day when the Temple could be rebuilt. Thus was born the Temple Movement with its research and activist wings striving separately, but with a united goal.
THE PLACE FOR THE TEMPLE
In order to build the Temple, it is believed that the exact location of the former two Temple must be correctly identified. One reason for this is that it is argued that the site for the Temple was divinely appointed (Gen 22:2; Ex. 15:17; 2Sam. 24:18; 1 Chr. 21:18).
Another reason is that there also appears to be a continuity between Temples - each being build with its Holy of Holies enclosing the same protrusion of Mount Moriah known as Even ha-Shetiyah (The Foundation Stone). Because it was upon this stone that the Ark of the Covenant had been set and the Shekinah (Divine Presence) had descended (1 KI.8), departed (Ezek. 8:4; 11:23), and promised to return (Ezek. 43:1-7), it is thought that no other place can be substituted. The problem has been in locating this place. The Temple Mount platform, built to support the Temple and its courts, has been preserved down through the centuries.
While this has limited the area for the search, it is impossible to resolve the matter due to the lack of access to the site for archaeological confirmation. Nevertheless, based on many evidences that can be discerned without archaeological investigation, three major theories of location have been advanced.
One theory put forth by Tel Aviv architect Tuvia Sagiv, based on accounts in ancient sources and topographical elevations, argues that the Temple was situated at the southwestern corner of the platform near to where the Al Aqsa mosque is today. He also suggests from surveys of this area - employing ground-penetrating radar probes and infrared thermo graphic scans - that traces of underground structures may prove the presence of vaults and that Hadrian's Roman temple to Jupiter once stood in this souththern region. If this Roman temple was built over the destroyed Jewish Temple, as was often the custom, this may indicate that the Temple was originally at this location.
A more popular theory is that of Hebrew University physicist Asher Kaufmann. His research - relying upon details given in the Mishna tractate known as Middot (Measurements), computations of angles of line-of-sight between the Mount of Olives where the red heifer was sacrificed, and the eastern court of the Temple where the Great Altar stood, as well as physical clues discovered around the outside of the platform that are now destroyed or hidden by the Muslims - concludes that the Temple was built on the north-western corner of the platform only about 330 feet from the Muslim Dome of the Rock. He believes that the bedrock identifiable within a small cupola at this site, known in Arabic as the Dome of the Tablets, was the Foundation Stone within the Holy of Holies.
Another theory, with both traditional support and the consensus of Israeli archaeologists, is that the Temple stood exactly where the Dome of the Rock is today. Early research by Benjamin Mazar, the Israeli archaeologist who directed the excavations adjacent to the Temple Mount, and recent research by Leen Ritmeyer, who served as chief architect for the excavations, have produced diagrams of the locations of both the First and Second Temples, based on physical evidence remaining at the site. Ritmeyer has done extensive study of the rock within the Muslim Dome of the Rock and concluded that not only is it the Foundation Stone, but that foundation trenches and the walls of the Holy of Holies, and even the place where the Ark of the Covenant rested, are still discernible. Most of the Orthodox Jews presently preparing for a Temple have agreed upon this latter location. Once access to the site is gained for archaeological excavation, answers will be quickly forthcoming.
THE PLANS FOR THE TEMPLE
According to Temple Institute spokesman Rabbi Chaim Richman, detailed blueprints for the Third Temple have existed for the past four years. The plans were necessarily drawn according to the primary sources for this information: the Bible, Josephus, and Middot. Additions to these ancient specifications have included the use of electricity and other modern improvements that agree with Halacha (the Law). Other structures pertaining to the Temple's function have also been planned or actually built.
According to Goren, its present location adjacent to the Temple Mount is correct for the restored Temple complex as envisioned by the Prophet Ezekiel, which is to be 30 times larger than that of previous Temples. The legal stipulations that the Sanhedrin will use to govern Israel's relationship to the rebuilt Temple and its services have already been researched and are in the process of being published (the first volume in 1986) by the Research Center for Jewish Thought under the direction of Yoel Lerner.
THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE TEMPLE
Since 1987, a group of rabbinical researchers, designers, and craftsmen, under the direction of Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, have been creating in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem what they call a "Temple-in-waiting." Their efforts have resulted in computerized visualization and blueprints for the Third Temple and the production of ritually qualified vessels, garments, and other items necessary for a restoration of the Temple services. Known as the Temple Institute, this organization has been at the forefront of the publication of Third Temple research. Among the items that have been or are in the process of being created are: apparel for the high priest (his eight-layered woven robe, the golden crown worn on his head, and his jeweled breastplate bearing the names of the tribes of Israel); priestly garments and the blue-purple die (tchelet) for the priestly tsitsit (fringes on the prayer shawl); the eleven sacrificial incense spices, urns, ewers, incense pans, forks, shovels, and carts (for burnt offerings); the gold and silver mizrak (vessels used to dispense sacrificial blood on the altar); the golden laver, flasks and measuring cups (used in the libation offerings); vessels for the meal offerings; the lottery boxes (for the Day of Atonement); the mortar and pestle and the stone vessels (kelal) for grinding and holding the purifying ashes of the red heifer; the golden menorah (lamp stand); cleaving instruments and oil pitchers for replenishing the oil for its light; silver trumpets (for assembling Israel at the Temple); and the barley altar.
While a replica of the Ark of the Covenant is prominently displayed in the Temple Institute's visitors center, spokesmen for the Institute publicly state that they believe the original still exists in a secret chamber located under the Temple Mount beneath the site of the Holy of Holies. When access to the site is possible and all other ritual requirements have been met, they expect it to be recovered and take its place within the restored Temple.
THE PRIESTS FOR THE TEMPLE
According to rabbinical tradition, even though the genealogical records of the Temple were lost and Jews were scattered throughout Gentile lands, those of the tribe of Levi were forbidden to alter their names (which connoted their priestly heritage) when assimilated into foreign cultures. Thus, we continue to this day to have Levis and Cohens and derivatives of those names. Recently, a more scientific test to verify those of priestly lineage has appeared. In studies of male Jews claiming descent from Aaron, it was found that they as a group uniquely carry an aberration of the Y chromosome. Because each person's DNA is as individual as a fingerprint, this characteristic linked these men together as a separate and identifiable group that must be traced back to an original ancestor.
However, even without such information to identify priests, Rabbi Nachman Kahane, head of the Young Israel Synagogue (the closest synagogue to the Western Wall. located in the Muslim Quarter) and the Institute for Talmudic Commentaries maintain a computerized list of all known candidates in Israel. Other Orthodox organizations in Israel are helping to educate this priesthood. The Yeshiva founded by Motti Dan Hocohen, known as Ateret Cohanim, trains its students in the order of priestly service. The yeshiva states that it is not interested in activist attempts to enter the sacred precincts, but, with its sister organization Atara Leyoshna, it has aggressively attempted to acquire numerous Arab properties in the Muslim Quarter next to the Temple Mount in order to establish a "Jewish presence" in preparation for rebuilding the Temple.
THE PURIFICATION FOR THE TEMPLE
According to the rabbis of the Temple Movement, in order for a Temple to be rebuilt today, those who would enter the area of sanctity and perform the holy tasks must first be ritually pure. Because all Jews have become ceremonially unclean in the Diaspora (Dispersion), the only means to reverse this condition and establish a functioning priesthood is through the ashes of the red heifer (described in Num.19).
This year, a red heifer was born in Israel - the first in 2,000 years. There is some debate concerning its legitimacy due to the presence of several white hairs. Nevertheless, other qualified red heifers have been secured from Mississippi rancher Clyde Lott.
These have already been approved by Israeli authorities for import and are now awaiting transport to Israel.� Because the Jewish sage Maimonides taught that there had been nine red heifers between the beginning of the Tabernacle and the end of the Second Temple, and that when the tenth arrived it would be prepared by the Messianic King,� a special urgency is attached to this recovery by leaders of the Temple Institute, such as Rabbi Chaim Richman. (14)
THE POLITICS OF THE TEMPLE
The issue of rebuilding the Temple has been at the forefront of the Arab-Israeli conflict, though often downplayed. The Islamic Authority (called in Arabic the Wakf), which maintains rigid control of the Temple Mount, blamed the Israeli government for starting a fire in the Al Aqsa mosque in 1969 in order to destroy the structure and rebuild the Temple, despite the fact that a mentally unstable member of a Christian cult actually set the blaze.
Ever since, the Muslims have assumed that every incursion in or near the area - whether for archaeological or religious purposes - has been for the same purpose. For this reason, riots followed: an excavation to uncover the subterranean Western Wall tunnel in 1982, a demonstration by the Temple Mountain Faithful in 1990 in which 17 were killed, excavations to reveal the Herodian street next to the Western Wall in 1995, and the opening of an exit tunnel to the Hasmonean tunnel in 1996, in which 58 were killed.
In March 1997, Yasser Arafat was shown in a photograph - distributed internationally by the Associated Press - holding up an artist's rendering of a restored Jewish Temple and telling his people to "get ready for the next battle" (for Jerusalem). Similar calls for conflict were also issued from loudspeakers on the Temple Mount to Arabs in East Jerusalem during each of the preceding riots.
RELIGIOUS ACCESS TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT
Since 1967, when the Israeli government returned jurisdiction of the Islamic holy places on the Temple Mount to the Wakf, Jews (and Christians) have been forbidden under Islamic law to enter the area for religious purposes. However, the law protecting the holy places adopted by the Knesset on June 27, 1967, had as one of its provisions:
"Whoever does anything that is likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the various religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places shall be liable to imprisonment..."
This included Jews who above all regarded the Temple Mount with utmost reverence and had just fought to recover it.
Nevertheless, after 30 years in a united Jerusalem with the Temple Mount under Israeli sovereignty, Jews still are not permitted access to the site of the Temple for prayers or religious acts of any kind. Last year, however, the Israeli Supreme Court finally issued a ruling upholding the right of Jews to pray on the site. In a letter from Benjamin Netanyahu to Yehuda Etzion, the activist whose trial for resisting arrest, when forcibly removed from the Temple Mount after attempting to pray, resulted in the court ruling, the Prime Minister stated:
"The right of the Jewish people to its holy place - the Temple Mount - cannot be questioned. I believe it is necessary to arrange for Jewish prayer at the site, especially given that we permit freedom of worship to all religions in Jerusalem..."
If access to the site of the Temple is soon permitted for religious purposes, many services long suspended since the Temple's destruction will be reinstituted. Such actions, it has been argued, would further demand a rebuilt Temple to complete and focus these acts of devotions (see Ezra 3:2-3). For this reason, Gershon Salomon's Temple Mount Faithful have attempted to offer a Passover sacrifice near the site of the ancient altar, which they believe to be the Dome of the Rock. Salomon states why his organization believes this sacrifice is so important:
"Major rabbis during the time after the destruction of the Temple, especially Rabbi Tucochinsky in Jerusalem in the 1930s, stated that the first Passover sacrifice which will be made about the coming of Mashiach ben David and the rebuilding of the Temple."
�Although denied access to the Mount for this purpose, last Passover (April 8), members of the group cut the Omer Hatnofah (first wheat harvest) from Israeli fields and symbolically offered it as firstfruits on a makeshift Temple altar. Members carried small stones from their fields and deposited them on the pavement of the Temple Mount. In addition, during the annual Feast of Tabernacles, the group conducts a restored water libation ceremony (originally performed when the Temple was standing) at the Pool of Siloam. Along with this, they regularly attempt to lay a cornerstone, which they have made for the Third Temple on the Temple Mount, and don chains and sackcloth and march to the site every year on Tisha B'Av (the time of mourning the destruction of the Second Temple).
THE PERSPECTIVE FOR THE TEMPLE?
The modern physical preparations and political demonstrations by Orthodox Jews point toward the ultimate fulfillment of a restored Jewish Temple. The first of these will be rebuilt to occupy a prominent role in the period known as "the time of Jacob's Trouble" (Jer. 30:7), or the Tribulation (Dan. 9:27; Mt. 24:15; Mk. 13:14; 2 Th. 2:4; Rev. 11:1-2). The last of these will be designated as the Messiah's Temple and will appear in the Millennial Kingdom (Is. 2:2-3; 66:23; Ezek. 37:26-28; 40-48; Mic. 4;1-2; Hag. 2:7-9; Zech. 6:12-15; 14:2, 16-21).
These Temples will play an important role in the future prophetic program for Israel and the Gentile nations (Is. 56:6-7; Jer. 3:17; Zech. 6:15). For believers in this age of the church who are awaiting the Rapture - an event that will occur before the Tribulation commences with the signing of the covenant of Daniel 9:27 - these presents efforts to rebuild represents a significant sign of events that will be part of the Tribulation. As such, readiness to rebuild announces the nearness of the coming day and encourages us as believers to live godly and productive lives as we watch and wait for the "blessed hope" (Rom. 13:11-14; 1th. 1:10; 5:5-11; Ti. 2:13).
Jerusalem Post: Articles and topics: Quarry for Herod's Second Temple discovered. July 6, 2009
A quarry from the late Second Temple Period that produced stone to build the Temple Mount's supporting walls has been uncovered in central Jerusalem, the Antiquities Authority said Monday.
The latest discovery brought to three the number of quarries found in the city over the past two years which archeologists believe were used in the construction of the Temple walls.
The 2,030-year-old quarry, which spans more than one dunam (0.1 hectare), was discovered during a salvage excavation on the city's Rehov Shmuel Hanevi ahead of planned construction of residential buildings at the site, the Authority said.
The immense size of the stones found at the site, reaching a height of 2 meters, indicate that they were used in the construction of King Herod's magnificent projects in Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount walls, said Dr. Ofer Sion, the director of the dig at the site.
"We know from historical sources that in order to build the Temple and other projects which Herod constructed, such as his palace, hundreds of thousands of various size stones were required - most of them weighing between two and five tons each," he said. "The dimensions of the stones that were produced in the quarry that was revealed are suitable for the Temple walls."
Sion added that the quarry that was exposed was actually a small part of a large series of quarries that was spread across the entire slope, from Musrara to the Sanhedria neighborhood.
He said the recent exposure of the quarries in Sanhedria and in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, farther north, indicate that Herod began quarrying closest to the Temple Mount, and then worked away from it.
In those days the world of hi-tech focused on quarrying, removing and transporting stones," Sion said.
Historical sources record that Herod trained more than 10,000 people to be involved in this work: They prepared transportation routes and then moved the huge stones in a variety of ways - on rolling wooden fixtures that were drawn by camels, in pieces on carriages, etc.
Among the artifacts discovered in the excavation were metal plates that were used to severe the stones from the bedrock, as well as coins and pottery shards that date to the end of the Second Temple period.
Dozens of quarries have been found in Jerusalem, but these are the first three that archeologists think were used in the construction of the Temple Mount.
A few dozens quarries were likely used in the building of the Temple Mount, said Prof. Amos Kloner, a former Jerusalem district archaeologist at the Antiquities Authority.
By MATTHEW WAGNER
A new Jewish interfaith initiative launched last week argues building the Third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem would not necessitate the destruction of the Dome of the Rock.
"God's Holy Mountain Vision" project hopes to defuse religious strife by showing that Jews' end-of-days vision could harmoniously accommodate Islam's present architectural hegemony on the Temple Mount. "This vision of religious shrines in peaceful proximity can transform the Temple Mount from a place of contention to its original sacred role as a place of worship shared by Jews, Muslims and Christians," said Yoav Frankel, director of the initiative. The Interfaith Encounter Association at the Mishkenot Sha'ananim's Konrad Adenauer Conference Center in Jerusalem is sponsoring the program, which includes interfaith study and other educational projects.
According to Islamic tradition, the Dome of the Rock, built in 691, marks the spot where Muhammed ascended to Heaven. But according to Jewish tradition, Mount Moriah, now under the Dome of the Rock, is where the Temple's Holy of Holies was situated.
Until now Jewish tradition has assumed that destruction of the Dome of the Rock was a precondition for the building of the third and last Temple. However, in an article that appeared in 2007 in Tehumin, an influential journal of Jewish law, Frankel, a young scholar, presented a different option. His main argument is that Jewish doctrine regarding the rebuilding of the Temple emphasizes the role of a prophet. This prophet would have extraordinary authority, including the discretion to specify the Temple's precise location, regardless of any diverging Jewish traditions. Frankel considers the scenario of a holy revelation given to an authentic prophet that the Temple be rebuilt on the current or an extended Temple Mount in peaceful proximity to the dome and other houses of prayer such as the Aksa Mosque and nearby Christian shrines. However, both Muslims and Jews have expressed opposition to the initiative. Sheikh Abdulla Nimar Darwish, founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel, said it was pointless to talk about what would happen when the mahdi, the Muslim equivalent of the messiah, would reveal himself. "Why are we taking upon ourselves the responsibility to decide such things?" Darwish said in a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post. "Even Jews believe that it is prohibited to rebuild the Temple until the messiah comes. So what is there to talk about. "The mahdi will decide whether or not to rebuild the Temple. If he decides that it should be rebuilt, I will go out to the Temple Mount and help carry the rocks." Darwish warned against any attempt to rebuild the Temple before the coming of the mahdi. "As long as there is a Muslim alive, no Jewish Temple will be built on Al-Haram Al-Sharif [the Temple Mount]. The status quo must be maintained, otherwise there will be bloodshed." In contrast, Baruch Ben-Yosef, chairman of the Movement to Restore the Temple, made it clear that the Temple had to be built where the Dome of the Rock presently stands. "Anybody who says anything else simply does not know what he is talking about," he said. "A prophet does not have the power to change the law which explicitly states the location of the Temple." Ben-Yosef also rejected the idea that rebuilding of the Temple had to be done by a prophet. "All you need is a Sanhedrin," he said.
Mainstream Orthodox rabbis have opposed attempts to rebuild the Temple since the Mount came under Israeli control in 1967.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel even issued a decree prohibiting Jews from entering the area due to ritual purity issues.
However, several grassroots organizations such as the Movement to Restore the Temple, and maverick rabbis, including Rabbi Israel Ariel, head of the capital's Temple Institute and a leading member of the revived Sanhedrin led by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, have called to take steps to renew the sacrifices on the Temple Mount and rebuild the Temple.
Greetings from Ahimelekh and Yehokhil, from Netofa in Judah
Royal seal impressions were discovered in excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority at Umm Tuba, in the southern hills of Jerusalem.
A large building that dates to the time of the First and Second Temples, in which there was an amazing wealth of inscriptions, was discovered in a salvage excavation conducted by Zubair Adawi, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the village of Umm Tuba in southern Jerusalem (between Zur Bahar and the Har Homa quarter), prior to construction work by a private contractor.
Considering the limited area of the excavation and the rural nature of the structure that was revealed, the excavators were surprised to discover in it so many royal seal impressions that date to the reign of Hezekiah, King of Judah (end of the eighth century BCE). Four "LMLK" type impressions were discovered on handles of large jars that were used to store wine and oil in royal administrative centers. These were found together with the seal impressions of two high ranking officials named Ahimelekh ben Amadyahu and Yehokhil ben Shahar, who served in the kingdom's government. The Yehokhil seal was stamped on one of the LMLK impressions before the jar was fired in a kiln and this is a very rare instance in which two such impressions appear together on a single handle.
Another Hebrew inscription, 600 years later than the seal impressions of the Kingdom of Judah, was discovered on a fragment of a jar neck that dates to the Hasmonean period. An alphabetic sequence was engraved with a thin iron stylus below the vessel's rim in Hebrew script that is characteristic of the beginning of the Hasmonean period (end of the second century BCE). The letters hay to yod and a small part of the letter kaf were preserved on the sherd. Similar inscriptions bearing alphabetic sequences were discovered in the past, usually on ostraca (inscriptions written in ink on pottery sherds) or engraved on ossuaries (stone receptacles in which human bones were buried). The alphabetic inscription that was discovered in this instance is unique and the significance of it requires further study: was this a "writing exercise" done by an apprentice scribe or should we ascribe it some magical importance?
The remains of the large building included several rooms arranged around a courtyard. Pits, agricultural installations and subterranean silos were hewn inside the courtyard. A potter's kiln, a large columbarium cave in which there is a rock-hewn hiding refuge, pottery vessels, etc were also discovered inside the built complex. The pottery vessels that were recovered from the ruins of the building indicate it first dates to the end of the Iron Age (the First Temple period) in the eighth century BCE. Following its destruction, along with Jerusalem and all of Judah during the Babylonian conquest, Jews reoccupied it in the Hasmonean period (second century BCE) and it existed for another two hundred years until the destruction of the Second Temple. During the Byzantine period the place was reinhabited as part of the extensive rural settlement of monasteries and farmsteads in the region between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Some three years ago the impressive remains of a monastery from this period were excavated that together with the remains of the current excavation confirm the identification of the place as "Metofa", which is mentioned in the writings of the church fathers in the Byzantine period. The name of the Arab village, "Umm Tuba" is therefore a derivation of Byzantine "Metofa", which is Biblical "Netofa" and is mentioned as the place from which two of David's heroes originated (2 Samuel 23:28-29).
Visit here for downloading high resolution pictures.
Photographic credit: Mariana Saltzberger, Israel Antiquities Authority.
Photographic credit: Mariana Saltzberger, Israel Antiquities Authority.
For additional details, kindly contact: Meyrav Shay, Acting Spokesperson of the Israel Antiquities Authority: 972-52-4284408, meyrav@israntique.org.il
FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
What? Israel to help Muslims carve Quranic verses on Temple Mount Islamic writings all over holiest site for Judaism
Posted: September 16, 2008
By Aaron Klein
�2008 WorldNetDaily
By Aaron Klein
�2008 WorldNetDaily
The Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM � After three years of waiting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert quietly has granted permission to the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount to repair and enhance Quranic verses plastered around Judaism's holiest site, WND has learned.
The approval came as result of the petitioning of the Israeli government by Jordan, which has been solidifying control over the Temple Mount in recent years.
There are more than 4,000 Quranic quotations written in Arabic calligraphy and carved into various Islamic buildings throughout the Temple Mount, including inside and outside the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.
Six hundred of the carved verses are in poor condition, according to the Waqf, the Mount's Muslim custodians.
The Waqf has been asking Israel for permission to repair the Quranic quotation carvings for years now. It even transported to the Israeli port city of Ashdod boxes of European tools and machinery especially made to repair the Temple Mount Quranic verses. The tools have been sitting in Ashdod for three years, according to informed sources.
Following Jordanian intervention, Olmert last week gave the Waqf approval to begin fixing the Quranic quotes, the informed sources told WND.
Jordan controlled areas of eastern Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, from 1948 until Israel recaptured the site in the 1967 Six Day War.
During the period of Jordanian control, Jews were barred from the Western Wall and Temple Mount, and hundreds of synagogues in eastern Jerusalem were destroyed. Jordan constructed a road that stretched across the Mount of Olives, adjacent to the Temple Mount, bulldozing hundreds of Jewish gravestones in the process.
Following the Six Day War, one of the first acts of Moshe Dayan, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, was to ensure the Jordanian-allied Mufti of Jerusalem, Abd Al Hamid A Saih, the holy site would remain under Islamic custodianship.
Dayan later also famously ordered an Israeli flag removed from the Dome of the Rock.
Jordan continues to maintain a major influence over the Temple Mount. Sheik Azzam Khateeb, who was installed in February 2007 as the new manager of the Waqf, is known to be close to the Jordanian monarchy. The previous Waqf manager, Sheik Adnon Husseini, was loyal to Palestinian Authority although toward the end of his rein, he seemed to be warming to Jordan.
In a gesture to Jordan, in January 2006, Israel granted Jordan permission to replace the main podium in the Al Aqsa Mosque from which Islamic preachers deliver their sermons. The podium, which was partially funded by Saudi Arabia, is considered one of the most important stands in the Muslim world. Muslims now believe it marks the "exact spot" Muhammad went up to heaven to receive revelations from Allah.
The new stand bears the emblem of the Jordanian kingdom. It replaced a 1,000-year-old podium believed to have been shipped to Jerusalem by the Islamic conqueror Saladin.
That stand was destroyed in 1969, when an Australian tourist set fire to the Al Aqsa Mosque.
In recent years, Jordan quietly has been purchasing real estate surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in hopes of gaining more control over the area accessing the holy site, according to Palestinian and Israeli officials speaking to WND.
The officials disclosed the Jordanian kingdom in 2006 and 2007 used shell companies to purchase several apartments and shops located at key peripheral sections of the Temple Mount. The shell companies at times presented themselves as acting on behalf of the Waqf custodians of the Temple Mount, according to information obtained.
The officials said Jordan also set up a commission to use the shell companies to petition mostly Arab landowners adjacent to eastern sections of the Temple Mount to sell their properties. They said profits from sales at any purchased shops would be reinvested to buy more real estate near the Mount and in eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods.
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. The First Jewish Temple was built there by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.
The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's shechina or "presence" dwelt. All Jewish holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Jewish Temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place for the Jewish people.
According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. The site is believed to be the Biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.
Jewish tradition holds Mashiach, or the Jewish Messiah, will return and rebuild the third and final Temple on the Mount in Jerusalem.
The Kotel, or Western Wall, is the one part of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans and stands today in Jerusalem.
Throughout all notorious Jewish exiles, thorough documentation shows the Jews never gave up their hope of returning to Jerusalem and re-establishing their Temple. To this day Jews worldwide pray facing the Western Wall, while Muslims turn their backs away from the Temple Mount and pray toward Mecca.
The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph.
About 100 years ago, Al Aqsa in Jerusalem became associated with the place Muslims came to believe Muhammad ascended to heaven. Jerusalem, however, is not mentioned in the Quran.
Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" � believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia � to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah that became part of the Quran.
Palestinians today claim exclusivity over the Temple Mount and Palestinian leaders routinely deny Jewish historic connection to the site, but historically, Muslims did not claim the Al Aqsa Mosque as their third holiest site and admitted the Jewish Temples existed.
According to research by Israeli author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam previously disregarded Jerusalem. He points out in his book "How Dreadful Is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. Berkovits wrote that Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship, and sanctifying only one place � the Kaaba in Mecca � to signify the unity of God.
As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."
It wasn't until the late 19th century � incidentally when Jews started immigrating to Palestine � that some Muslim scholars began claiming Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associated Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.
A guide to the Temple Mount by the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published in 1925 listed the Mount as the site of Solomon's Temple.
The Temple Institute acquired a copy of the official 1925 "Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif," which states on page 4, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute.
This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord.'"
By LELA GILBERT
My first introduction to Jerusalem in 2006 took place on Tisha Be'av, the fast commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples. I stood at the Western Wall, during that time of the Second War in Lebanon, watching thousands of Jewish faithful, from all different walks of life - women and men, soldiers and Hassidim, Sephardim and Ashkenazim - gathered in unity to remember and to mourn. It was like entering the very soul of Israel.
Gabriel Barkay. 'Temple denial is more serious and more dangerous than Holocaust denial.'
This Tisha Be'av caused me to reflect further on those lost Temples, particularly now that I have spent two years in the country, during which I had occasion to visit the Temple Mount. After passing through two security checks before entering, a different world appeared - one with no visible vestige of Judaism - on that ancient and holiest of Jewish sites.
Christianity hasn't fared any better. In fact, for Christians, the writing is on the wall - literally and figuratively - the wall inside the Dome of the Rock. In Arabic calligraphy dating from the seventh century, the text declares that God has no son; that Jesus was not resurrected (Islam also denies that he was crucified); that Jews and Christians, "the People of the Book," transgress by not embracing Muhammad's revelation; and that Allah's reckoning will come swiftly on those who do not believe.
Christians' attachment to the Temple Mount is based on Jesus's words and deeds as recorded in the Gospels.
It was strange enough for me to discover, therefore, that Jews and Christians are not permitted to read their scriptures or pray aloud there. But it wasn't until learning that during the 2000 Camp David negotiations, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat had denied that any Jewish Temple had ever existed on the Mount that I grasped the depth of the divergence from the Hebrew Scripture, New Testament and historical records that is out there, and not as fringe an idea as one might assume.
SIFTING THROUGH tons of rubble that had been illicitly dug up on the Temple Mount by the Muslim Wakf and stealthily dumped into a landfill, biblical archeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkay, professor at Bar-Ilan University, is in the midst of the project of a lifetime. I put the question of Temple denial to him.
"This denial of the historical, spiritual and archeological connections of the Jews to the Temple Mount is something new," he says. "There was always talk about the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem - called the 'praise of Jerusalem'- in Arabic literature, in Islamic literature. This new idea of Temple denial is due to the Arabic fear of Jewish aspirations connected to the Temple Mount. It is part of something I call the 'cultural intifada.'"
Barkay says the change took place in the 1990s: "In the Washington DC think tanks surrounding president Bill Clinton, it was understood that the Temple Mount was the crux of the problem of the Middle East conflict. These think tanks decided that if there could be 'split sovereignty' on the Temple Mount, then split sovereignty could also be achieved over the entire land of Palestine. So they suggested that in a future agreement, the Temple Mount would be split horizontally. That is to say that whatever is above ground, the part that includes the shrines of the Muslims, would be under Palestinian sovereignty. Whatever is underground, which would include the remnants of the Temple of the Jews, would be under Israeli sovereignty.
"It's a brilliant idea, an excellent idea, but totally idiotic from a practical point of view. You cannot have a building standing with its foundations in another country. You cannot have a building with the infrastructure and the plumbing in another country. And you cannot have sovereignty on the subground without having accessibility to the subground, because the accessibility is from above ground. The whole thing was stupid."
Barkay explains that the Temple Mount is honeycombed with more than 50 different cavities, holes, passageways and cisterns that are "filled with earth which is saturated with very valuable archeological materials. Enormous damage was done in these works which were carried out mainly from 1996 and onward. The idea that came from the circles surrounding Bill Clinton and leaked to the Wakf authorities is what generated the illicit building activities - I wouldn't call them excavations - but destructive work which was carried out brutally on the Temple Mount. The fear, the fear of anything representing a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount drove them mad."
PRIOR TO my own visits to the Mount, I had been warned not to carry a bible or "holy objects" with me, and to stay away from the Dome of the Rock shrine and the Aksa Mosque, into which non-Muslims are forbidden to go. Nor was I allowed to see a third edifice which I'd read about - the Marwani Mosque - a gigantic, subterranean building, located in the southeast corner of the Temple Mount Plaza. In 1996, the Wakf had reconfigured an underground structure, formerly known as "Solomon's Stables," into a mosque. Their contractors lowered the inside surface of the building by removing large quantities of priceless soil, rich in archeological evidence.
According to Barkay, the history they hauled away in dump trucks was not Muslim. "The building was never a mosque. It is actually more connected to traditions about Jesus. There are quite solid hints in the literature of the existence of an early Christian church there, marking the place where St. James was killed in the first century. The place is more Christian than Muslim."
In November 1999, the Wakf asked permission from the Israeli government to open an emergency exit leading from the Marwani Mosque.
"The prime minister at that time was Ehud Barak, and as usual he didn't consult with anybody else," Barkay recalls. "He gave them permission. But instead of an emergency exit, they created a main entrance to the building - a monumental entrance. For that entrance, they dug a pit 40 meters long and 12 meters deep. They did it with bulldozers in the most destructive manner possible, that of a bull in a china shop. The work on that place should have been done carefully, not with bulldozers. They removed 400 truckloads of earth."
For Barkay, sifting through those truckloads of material is essential, because it amounts to exploring a black hole in archeological history. Although Israel is one of the most excavated places in the world, explored continuously since the 1850s, the Temple Mount has been surveyed but never excavated. Therefore, ironically, the digging and removal of earth in the 1990s has provided a new opportunity.
"At least it enables us to look at the soil, though everything comes from a very disturbed context," Barkay says. "But we know it comes from the Temple Mount. And we have tens of thousands of finds."
These finds, that cover approximately 15,000 years, have altered the historic understanding of the area's history. Sponsored by the Ir David Foundation, volunteers working with Barkay have been sifting through the debris, and have found Stone Age flint implements. They have discovered pre-Israelite material, Bronze Age pottery, two Egyptian scarabs and several seals and seal impressions.
One very significant find, confirming the recorded history of the Temple's existence, is the fragment of a bulla, a clay lump with a seal impression upon it, which is about 2,600 years old and dates from the First Temple period. Its inscription bears part of official's name, Gealyahu son of Immer. The Immer family is recorded in the Bible. "In Jeremiah 20:1," Barkay says, "probably the brother of Gealyahu is mentioned, a priestly man named Pashur son of Immer. He is introduced as the man in charge of the Temple."
Findings from the time of Solomon's Temple up to the 20th century illuminate the raging conflicts of passing civilizations. "We have enormous quantities of war artifacts: We have lead slingshots of the Seleucid armies in the battles of Judah Maccabee. We have arrowheads of the army of Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the First Temple. We have arrowheads of the Hellenistic period. We have one arrowhead bearing distinguishing markings of having been shot by a catapult. Those machines were only used by the armies of Titus in 70 CE in the destruction of the Second Temple. We have stone slingshots; we have spearheads; and we have medieval arrowheads from the Crusader conquest of the Temple Mount. There are even bullets from both the Turkish army and the British army in World War I."
Other findings on the Temple Mount - jewelry, coins, pottery shards and architectural fragments - provide specific details of human life spanning several millennia. "We have material dating back to the 10th century BCE, the time of David and Solomon. We have material from the time of the kings of Judah. We have material in abundance from the early Christian period. This is very significant, because it is written in most history books that the churches moved to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher after it was built (it dates back to at least the fourth century), and that thereafter the Temple Mount was neglected and was a garbage heap. But now we have to build a new history, based on archeological evidence.
"We have fragments of capitals from church buildings. We have remnants of chancel screens that separated the presbytery from the nave of the church. We have several bronze weights for weighing gold coins from the Christian era. We have to rethink the role of the Temple Mount in the time of early Christianity. Was it a garbage heap? Or is that biased history? I think that history was ideological."
Barkay says that large quantities of animal bones have been found on the Mount. "Bones are very important. We have pig bones which had to have come from pagan or Christian times. We also have bones of foxes. And that is interesting, because in the Talmud we have a story about foxes which until recently I thought was a legend."
IN SPITE of these discoveries, Temple denial remains a growing phenomenon in Europe and America, particularly in leftist intellectual circles. It is supported by the reality that there are no visible remains of the temples of Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. Barkay contends that there were remains still visible in the 1960s and 1970s, which have either been removed or covered up by gardens.
"The Islamic Wakf says, 'We are not going to let you dig, but show us any remains of the Temple.' You cannot have it both ways. If you don't allow people to dig, then don't use this absence of remains as an argument.
"Temple denial is a very tragic harnessing of politics to change history. It is not a different interpretation of historical events or archeological evidence. This is something major. I think that Temple denial is more serious and more dangerous than Holocaust denial. Why? Because for the Holocaust there are still living witnesses. There are photographs; there are archives; there are the soldiers who released the prisoners; there are testimonies from the Nazis themselves. There were trials, a whole series of them, starting with Nuremberg. There are people who survived the Holocaust still among us. Concerning the Temple, there are no people among us who remember.
"Still, [to deny the Temples], you have to dismiss the evidence of Flavius Josephus; you have to dismiss the evidence of the Mishna and of the Talmud; and you have to dismiss the writings of Roman and Greek historians who mention the Temple of Jerusalem. And you have to dismiss The Bible. That is, I think, way too much."
The writer has authored or co-authored more than 60 books, primarily in the field of ecumenical Christian non-fiction. Her work includes the recently released biography Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World and the award-winning Their Blood Cries Out, co-authored with Paul Marshall. She is also an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute. (Jerusalem Post Opinions, August 14, 2008).
Synagogue Planned For Temple Mount, Hashemites to Add Minaret
News Article, December 9, 2004:
"Determination of the location of the Temple based on the angle of sight of Agrippa II"by Tuvia Sagiv sagivtuvia@barak.net.il
http://templemount.org/sagiv2/
Archaeologist: Major inspection of Temple Mount stability essential
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
The Government of Israel Reopens the Temple Mount to Israelis, Jews and Christians After the Holy Site of the Temple Had Been Closed to Non-Moslems for 3 YearsThis is, thanks to G-d, a great success for the Temple Mount Faithful Movement campaign to open the Temple Mount, to remove the enemies and their desecration of the holy site of the G-d and people of Israel and to rebuild the Third Temple in our lifetime as an opening for the coming of Mashiach ben David.
Arab agents infiltrate Temple Mount
'Muslim countries vying for influence, expecting Israel to give up holy site'
Posted: June 25, 2008, 9:39 pm Eastern
By Aaron Klein
(c) 2008 WorldNetDaily
(c) 2008 WorldNetDaily
Temple Mount
JERUSALEM - A number of Arab states quietly have sent intelligence agents to infiltrate the Temple Mount to determine how they can obtain more influence over Judaism's holiest site, informed security sources told WND.
"It's possible in the coming two years a deal will be made that transfers the Temple Mount out from Israeli hands," said a security source. "The Arab countries are vying for influence, since they think controlling the site means big prestige in the Muslim world."
The security sources said the Arab agents mostly are attempting to infiltrate the Waqf, the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount, securing all sorts of positions from Waqf garden workers through religious clerics inside the Mount's many mosques.
The Waqf is largely controlled by Jordan, which took over top positions from the Palestinian Authority in recent years.
The sources said the agents' primary job is to collect information on how to gain more influence on the site. The agents also are to report on which Waqf officials are paid by Jordan, through which clerics can be suspected of having good relations with Israel.
"The Arab countries want to work their way in so Jordan doesn't get the most control once Israel gives up the Mount," said a security source.
Saudi Arabia sent the most agents to the Mount, but other countries, including Egypt, also sent agents, security sources said. "Don't be surprised if in the near future even Somalia sends some people over to study how to have influence on the Mount," said a security source.
In line with Israeli-Palestinian negotiations started at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis conference, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is working to create a Palestinian state before the end of the year. Olmert is widely expected to announce Israeli evacuations from most of the West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem. The Temple Mount is located in eastern Jerusalem, although Israel is not expected to immediately give up the holy site during the initial attempted creation of a Palestinian state.
The Arab countries are "near certain" Israel will eventually evacuate the Temple Mount and likely hand it over to the PA together with a coalition of Muslim states, said an informed security source.
Temple Mount '100 percent Islamic'
Mainstream Palestinian leaders claim the Temple Mount is Muslim in spite of overwhelming archaeological evidence documenting the first and second Jewish temples.
Earlier this month, Rafiq Al Husseini, the chief of staff for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, declared Jerusalem and the Temple Mount belong to the Muslims and said any Israeli action that "offends" the Mount will be answered by 1.5 billion Muslims.
"Jerusalem is Muslim. The blessed Al Aqsa mosque and Harem Al Sharif (Temple Mount) is 100 percent Muslim. The Israelis are playing with fire when they threaten Al Aqsa with digging that is taking place," Husseini said.
In a WND exclusive interview last year, Taysir Tamimi, chief Palestinian Justice and one of the most influential Muslim leaders in Israel, argued the Jewish Temples never existed, the Western Wall really was a tying post for Muhammad's horse, the Al Aqsa Mosque was built by angels, and Abraham, Moses and Jesus were prophets for Islam.
Tamimi is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem.
"Israel started since 1967 making archeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city, and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880s," said Tamimi.
"About these so-called two Temples, they never existed, certainly not at the [Temple Mount]," Tamimi said during a sit-down interview in his eastern Jerusalem office.
The Palestinian cleric denied the validity of dozens of digs verified by experts worldwide revealing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temples throughout Jerusalem, including on the Temple Mount itself; excavations revealing Jewish homes and a synagogue in a site in Jerusalem called the City of David; or even the recent discovery of a Second Temple Jewish city in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
Tamimi said descriptions of the Jewish Temples in the Hebrew Tanach, in the Talmud and in Byzantine and Roman writings from the Temple periods were forged. He contended the Torah was falsified to claim biblical patriarchs and matriarchs were Jewish when they actually were prophets for Islam.
"All this is not real. We don't believe in all your versions. Your Torah was falsified. The text as given to the Muslim prophet Moses never mentions Jerusalem. Maybe Jerusalem was mentioned in the rest of the Torah, which was falsified by the Jews," said Tamimi.
He said Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus were "prophets for the Israelites sent by Allah as to usher in Islam."
Asked about the Western Wall, Tamimi said the structure was a tying post for Muhammad's horse and that it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the Wall predates the mosque by more than 1,000 years.
"The Western wall is the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It's where prophet Muhammad tied his animal which took him from Mecca to Jerusalem to receive the revelations of Allah."
The Kotel, or Western Wall, is an outer retaining wall of the Temple Mount that survived the destruction of the Second Temple and still stands today in Jerusalem.
Tamimi went on to claim to WND the Al Aqsa Mosque , which has sprung leaks and has had to be repainted several times, was built by angels. "Al Aqsa was built by the angels 40 years after the building of Al-Haram in Mecca. This we have no doubt is true," he said.
The First Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.
The Temple was the center of religious worship for ancient Israelites. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's presence dwelt. All biblical holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Temples served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place for Israelites.
According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. It's believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.
The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition.
The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed in about A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark what Muslims came to believe was the place at which Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah.
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible 656 times. Muslims worldwide pray with their backs away from the Temple Mount and toward Mecca.
Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night on a horse from "a sacred mosque" - believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia - to "the farthest mosque" and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque became associated with Jerusalem about 120 years ago.
According to research by Israeli Author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam historically disregarded Jerusalem. Berkovits points out in his new book, "How dreadful is this place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. He wrote Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place - the Kaaba in Mecca - to signify the unity of God.
As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula, and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."
It wasn't until the late 19th century - when Jews started immigrating to Palestine - that some Muslim scholars began claiming Muhammad tied his horse to the Western Wall and associated Muhammad's purported night journey with the Temple Mount.
Inevitability of Third Temple
By Anne T. Garcia
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 4:06 PM CDT
By Anne T. Garcia
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 4:06 PM CDT
As various factions call for peace in the Middle East, observant Jews and Christians ask the same question: When will construction on the Third Temple begin?
This is a hot button issue, with Moslems opposed to any increased Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. Still, those in the know understand there will soon be another Jewish Temple on Mount Moriah.
Let's review history. The first Temple, built by Solomon, was dedicated in 960 B.C. and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The second Temple, later called Herod's Temple, was dedicated in 515 B.C. It was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70 and the Jews were scattered throughout the earth.
The future Temple must be built on precisely the same spot where the first two stood.
Why? Because God Himself chose the spot, as He spoke to Solomon (pay special attention to the word "place"): "Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever." (2 Chronicles 7:15,16)
However, there is a bit of a problem with the place God chose to be His special place. Namely, it has been occupied by the Arabs for the past 1,300 years.
Traditionally, scholars have held the Dome of the Rock hovers over God's special place and will have to go to make room for the Third Temple. How would the Jews be able to build on Islam's third holiest site?
Several possibilities could be considered:
--The Arabs could disassemble the Dome of the Rock and reassemble it on Arab property--not likely.
--The Dome might fall via a so-called "act of God," such as an earthquake.
--A military conflict might destroy the edifice, a possibility the Israelis studiously avoid.
The question remains, how can the Jews build a Temple on the site where Mohammad allegedly ascended into heaven to visit with Allah?
Within the last generation a fourth possible scenario has emerged. Could it be that the Dome of the Rock is not the exact location of the previous Temples? Is it possible that the solution is for the Temple and the Dome to stand side by side on the Temple Mount?
In the 1980s Dr. Asher Kaufman, professor of physics at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, suggested an alternate site for the two previous Temples. He believes the Temples may have been located northward, where the Islamic "Dome of the Tablets" now stands.
Then about seven years ago Tel Aviv architect Tuvia Sagiv proposed a southern site for the earlier Temples. In his thinking the Temples were located east of the Western Wall, where the El Kas fountain stands.
It will probably require archeological digs to determine the correct spot. This is implausible in the present political milieu. But if there is a peace deal, then it may be time.
Some argue it wouldn't be fitting to put a Temple next to a structure dedicated to Allah. Yet the Book of Revelation implies this may be how it is actually going to work out.
Notice that in Revelation 11 John is given a measuring rod and instructed to measure the Third Temple: "Rise and measure the Temple of God, the altar and those who worship there. But leave out the court which is outside the Temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the gentiles." (Revelation 11:1,2)
Clearly from this passage we see the Temple next to a gentile presence on the Temple Mount. Are we on the cusp of the fulfillment of a major prophecy? We are living in the most exciting time since Jesus walked the earth 2,000 years ago.
Anne T. Garcia's television show, "Understanding the End of the Age" can be accessed on Direct TV every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on channel 376 and 1 p.m. on channel 377. For more information, or to contact her go to fromthehidden.com.
http://monroecountyclarion.stltoday.com/articles/2008/04/08/opinions/doc47fbc4a63990f519030828.txt
http://monroecountyclarion.stltoday.com/articles/2008/04/08/opinions/doc47fbc4a63990f519030828.txt
First-Ever: First-Temple Building Remains Found Near Temple Mount
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Antiquities Authority announces the first time in the history of the archaeological research of Jerusalem that building remains from the First Temple period have been exposed so close to the Temple Mount--on the eastern slopes of the Upper City.
A rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period (8th-6th centuries B.C.E.) has been discovered in archaeological rescue excavations near the Western Wall plaza. The dig is being carried out in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza, near the staircase leading up towards the Jaffa Gate.
The Israel Antiquties Authority has been conducting the excavations for the past two years under the direction of archaeologists Shlomit Wexler-Bdoulah and Alexander Onn, in cooperation with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The remains of a magnificent colonnaded street [i.e., lined by columns] from the 2nd century C.E. were uncovered; the street appears on the mosaic Madaba map, and is referred to by the name Eastern Cardo. The level of the Eastern Cardo is paved with large heavy limestone pavers that were set directly atop the layer that dates to the end of the First Temple period. This Roman road thus "seals" beneath it the finds from the First Temple period, protecting them from being plundered in later periods.
The walls of the buildings found in the dig are preserved to a height of more than two meters.
Ring Seal Found, Inscribed with Owner's Name
Another impressive artifact found in the salvage excavations is a personal Hebrew seal made of a semi-precious stone that was apparently inlaid in a ring. The seal is elliptical and measures approximately 1 by 1.4 centimeters.
The seal's surface is divided into three strips separated by a double line: in the upper strip is a chain decoration comprising four pomegranates, and in the two bottom strips is the name of the owner of the seal, engraved in ancient Hebrew script. It reads: "[Belonging] to Netanyahu ben [son of] Yaush." Though each of the two names are not unfamiliar, no one with that name is known to scholars of the period.
A vast amount of pottery vessels was also discovered, among them three jar handles that bear similar stamped impressions. An inscription written in ancient Hebrew script is preserved on one these impressions, reading "Belonging] to the King of Hevron."
Note: These finds are particularly important in that Muslims are stepping up their program of historical revisionism and denying that there ever was a temple in Jerusalem.
Arab leader denies temple ever existed
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 10, 2008
www.jpost.com
www.jpost.com
The al-Aqsa mosque was never the site of a Jewish temple, Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, said Monday during a press conference he convened in Jerusalem to respond to voices calling for the expulsion of Israeli residents of the city who participate in terror activities against Israel.
"Those calling for the expulsion of Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem are hysterical and stupid and belong in the trash can," Salah said at the conference. He went on to deny any Israeli or Jewish historical claim to the city, denying that there ever existed a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount.
"The claims of the Jews are big lies and they have no right to any speck of dust here," he said.
Israel, he claimed, was carrying out extensive digs under al-Aqsa mosque, and was hiding destructive tunnels under the compound which had already caused damage to the mosque and several houses in the Muslim Quarter.
"I think that we are at a critical time. We believe that al-Aqsa is in danger and that it is under occupation, and we believe that Jerusalem is in danger because it is under occupation," Salah said. "Jerusalem is not only houses - it is faith, it is history, it is a culture, it is a present, a future and an eternal right that we will not relinquish."
In January, Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz filed an indictment against Salah, charging him with incitement to violence and racism in a speech he made last year protesting the archeological dig carried out at the Old City's Mughrabi Gate.
During his sermon in Jerusalem's Wadi Joz neighborhood on February 16 of last year, Salah urged supporters to start a third intifada in order to "save al-Aksa Mosque, free Jerusalem and end the occupation."
Salah's speech also attacked Jews, saying, "They want to build their temple at a time when our blood is on their clothes, on their doorsteps, in their food and in their drinks. Our blood has passed from one 'general terrorist' to another 'general terrorist.'"
He also said, "We are not those who ate bread dipped in children's blood."
Former mufti: Western Wall was never part of Jewish temple
Mike Seid , THE JERUSALEM POST Oct. 25, 2007
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380646406&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The former mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, has made the claim that there never was a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, and the Western Wall was really part of a mosque.
"There was never a Jewish temple on Al-Aksa [the mosque compound] and there is no proof that there was ever a temple," he told The Jerusalem Post via a translator. "Because Allah is fair, he would not agree to make Al-Aksa if there were a temple there for others beforehand."
Sabri rejected Judaism's claim to the Western Wall as part of the outer wall of the Second Temple.
"The wall is not part of the Jewish temple. It is just the western wall of the mosque," he said. "There is not a single stone with any relation at all to the history of the Hebrews."
Asked if Jews would ever be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount under Muslim control, he replied: "It is not the Temple Mount, you must say Al-Aksa. And no Jews have the right to pray at the mosque. It was always only a mosque - all 144 dunams, the entire area. No Jewish prayer. If the Jews want real peace, they must not do anything to try to pray on Al-Aksa. Everyone knows that."
"Zionism tries to trick the Jews claiming that this was part of a Jewish temple, but they dug there and they found nothing," Sabri added.
Archeologists overseeing Islamic infrastructure work on the Mount announced this week that they had unveiled a sealed archeological level dating back to the First Temple period.
The First Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century BCE, and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Second Temple was built 70 years later, enlarged during the first century BCE by Herod, and destroyed by the Romans in the year 70.
The Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa Mosque were constructed on the Temple Mount site in the late seventh century.
The controversial issue of the holy sites is expected to come up during negotiations ahead of a US-sponsored summit on the Middle East in Annapolis later this year.
Palestinian leaders, most notably the late Yasser Arafat, have consistently denied Jewish claims to the Mount.
Sabri made the comments in an interview with the Post's Friday supplement, In Jerusalem, for a cover story on how religious leaders view the capital.
Archeologists find link to First Temple era
E-mail News Brief
Tell the Editors - JTA News
Published: 10/21/2007
Israeli archeologists say they have stumbled upon a sealed archeological level dating to the First Temple period.
The discovery at Jerusalem's Temple Mount, where the archeologists are overseeing contested Islamic infrastructure work, was announced Sunday by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The find marks the first time that archeological remains dating back to the First Temple period have been found on the bitterly contested holy site, the state-run archeological body said. The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is the holiest site of Judaism and the third holiest site for Islam.
The sealed archeological level, which dates from the eighth to the sixth centuries B.C.E., includes fragments of ceramic table wares and animal bone.
Independent Israeli archeologists from the nonpartisan Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, which repeatedly has lambasted the Antiquities Authority for allowing Islamic officials to carry out the infrastructure work this summer, downplayed the findings. -- http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/104790.html
Quarry for Temple Mount's Giant Rocks - Found
by Hillel Fendel
The Antiquities Authority announced today that it has found the quarry that supplied the giant stones for the building of the Temple Mount. The quarry is located in what is now one of Jerusalem's newest neighborhoods, Ramat Shlomo (also known as Reches Shuafat), between Ramot and French Hill. The quarry was found in the course of an archaeological rescue dig prior to the construction of a neighborhood school.
The ancient quarry is spread out over at least five dunams (1.25 acres), with rocks between three and eight meters long - the size of those that can still be seen today at the foundations of the Temple Mount and in the Western Wall - hewn out of the ground. Click here for photos of the quarry on the Israel Matzav blog.
Divine Regards
Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem told Arutz-7 that the discovery of the quarry was both historically dramatic and spiritually exhilarating: "Precisely now, when the Moslems are trying to erase all vestiges of the presence of our Holy Temple, and when even among our own leaders there is a trend towards giving it away and viewing it as an unnecessary burden - precisely now, with this discovery, G-d is sending the Jewish People a kiss, as if to say, 'Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you; there are those who want to give it [the Temple Mount] away or take it away from you, but I still have big plans for both you and for the Holy Temple - and the Temple will yet become the focal point of the world once again."
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky has ordered a halt to the school-building plans, budgeting 350,000 shekels ($86,500) for the archaeological work.
Jerusalem archaeologist Yuval Baruch told Arutz-7 that the ancient hewing was done in stages. First, deep and narrow trenches were dug around the four sides of what was to be the rock. Then, dozens of small specially-shaped picks were used to make holes underneath, at a distance of several centimeters from each other, until the rock was able to be separated from the ground. Archaeologists found one such pick in the area - a 15-centimeter (6-inch) long metallic object.
Gideon Charlap, a top Jerusalem architect and Temple Mount expert, told Arutz-7 that while rocks for the Temple may not be hewn with iron on the Temple Mount, iron may be used on the rocks before they reach the Mount. This, as opposed to stones used for the Temple's altar, which are never permitted to be hewn with iron.
The rulers of ancient Jerusalem used top-quality, shining-white stone for their public buildings, of the type they called Malcha (from the word for royalty). Dozens of quarries have been discovered in and around Jerusalem over the years, Baruch said, "including some from the period of Herod, like this one. However, never before has one been found with such large rocks."
The Shuafat mountain is some 80 meters higher than the Temple Mount. That, and its proximity to the main road to Jerusalem from the north, made this quarry a prime candidate to provide the rocks to be used in the city's important buildings. Teams of oxen pulled the giant stones down the moderate incline towards the city. The rocks were then placed upon the bedrock, forming the foundation of the Temple Mount, and keeping it stable and firm without the use of concrete even up until today.
Coins and pottery were also found in the quarry, dating back 1,900 years - further evidence that this quarry was used during the height of construction in ancient Jerusalem.
Ancient Drainage Tunnel and Escape Route Found
Earlier this month, the Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of the City of David's main drainage channel - later used by Jerusalem residents when they tried to flee from the Romans. The channel is located along the route from the Temple Mount to the Shiloah Pool, and apparently continues on to Nahal Kidron on its way to the Dead Sea. It drained the rainfall of ancient Jerusalem - the Jewish quarter, the western region of the City of David, and the Temple Mount. The excavations were jointly carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Elad Association.
The excavation directors wrote, "There is evidence in the writings of Josephus Flavius, the historian who described the revolt, the conquest and the destruction of Jerusalem, that numerous people took shelter in the channel and even lived in it for a period until they succeeded to flee the city through its southern end."
ZOA: OLMERT GOVERNMENT MUST STOP DESTRUCTION OF JEWISH ANTIQUITIES ON JERUSALEM'S TEMPLE MOUNT BY MUSLIM AUTHORITIES
New York -- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has written to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urging him to immediately take action to stop the wanton destruction of priceless Jewish antiquities on Jerusalem's Temple Mount by the Waqf, the Muslim religious authorities who control the Temple Mount area. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, but of lesser significance to Muslims than Mecca and Medina. Jerusalem is mentioned hundreds of times in the Bible, but not even once in Quran. When Jordan controlled the Temple Mount between 1948 and 1967, no Arab leader other than King Hussein of Jordan visited the mosques there; 58 synagogues, however, were destroyed. In recent days, reports indicate that the Islamic Waqf's desecration and destruction of the Temple Mount has intensified. The Waqf, which is digging a trench five feet deep and some 150 yards long for the laying of electrical cables and water pipes, is using a mechanical digger, cutting through the subsoil and piling it up beside the trench. Israeli archaeologists say such material should be carefully sifted and documented, as it would be even at sites of far lesser significance than this most sensitive Jewish religious and cultural location.
New photographs of the work zone show carved stones casually dumped in a pile that appear to be a section of the outer wall of the Second Temple, according to archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar. Mazar, a member of the faculty at Hebrew University and a member of the Public Committee for Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, says it is "crucial this wall is inspected." She explains that the current ground level of the Temple Mount is slightly above the original Temple Mount platform, "meaning anything found is likely from the Temple itself." Mazar insists that she must personally inspect the stones to confirm their status, and attempted to inspect the site last week. She was stopped by Israeli police who are protecting the construction.
The Israel Antiquities Authority approved the construction despite archaeologists' concern that precious artifacts are being destroyed. The Authority, which digs for religious artifacts across the State of Israel, has not inspected construction on Judaism's holiest site even once since the work began, despite continuous calls for the construction to be supervised and halted. English spokesman for the Israeli Police, Mickey Rosenfeld, asserts that the police stationed on the Temple Mount will not prevent the construction because the Antiquities Authority approved the dig. The Waqf denies any wrong-doing and says that the Temple Mount is in "occupied territory."
Dr. Gabriel Barkai, of the Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount calls it an act of barbarism. "They are digging in the most crucial and delicate point of the Temple Mount - of the whole country. They should be using a toothbrush, not a bulldozer." Dr Barkai identifies the area currently under excavation as the outer courts of the Second Temple, built by Herod the Great in the First Century BCE. He maintains it is where the best preservation of antiquities was anticipated, since other parts of the compound are built on exposed bedrock ( BBC News, August 28).
According to Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute, the Waqf is intentionally digging in areas where "undoubtedly the Temple once stood . For the first time since the Temple's destruction, a section of the Temple Wall itself has been exposed and the Waqf under the guise of laying down electrical pipes has dug a trench, destroying the most important holy artifact ever found to date" (One Jerusalem, September 2).
This is but the latest episode in archeological vandalism beneath Temple Mount committed by the Waqf:
In 1970, the Waqf excavated a pit without supervision that exposed a 16-foot-long, six-foot-thick wall that scholars believe may well be the eastern wall of the Herodian Temple complex. An inspector from the antiquities department saw it and composed a handwritten report (still unpublished) before the wall was dismantled, destroyed and covered up.
In 1993, Israel's Supreme Court found that the Waqf had violated Israel's antiquities laws on 35 occasions, many involving irreversible destruction of important archaeological remains. The court declined to enter an injunction, however, expressing its confidence that in the future Israeli authorities would correct their past errors.
In 1999, to accommodate a major expansion of an underground mosque into what is known popularly as Solomon's Stables in the southeastern part of the Temple Mount, the Waqf dug an enormous stairway down to the mosque. Hundreds of truckloads of archaeologically rich dirt were dug with mechanical equipment and then dumped into the adjacent Kidron Valley. When archaeology student Zachi Zweig began to explore the mounds of dirt for antiquities, he was arrested at the behest of the Israel Antiquities Authority -- for excavating without a permit. Since then, a major legal sifting operation of this dirt by Professor Gabriel Barkai of Bar Ilan University (together with Mr. Zweig) has uncovered thousands of artifacts from all periods going back more than 3,000 years. They include a seal impression of a probable brother of someone mentioned in the Bible, Babylonian arrowheads dating to the destruction of Jerusalem in the 6th century B.C. (as well as other arrowheads from battles on the Temple Mount), thousands of coins (many dating to the Great Revolt against Rome), beautiful jewelry and even an ancient Egyptian scarab.
The Palestinian Arabs, including the Palestinian Authority (PA), have a long record of desecrating and destroying Jewish religious sites and denying the Jewish historical and religious connection to Jerusalem and Israel.
Statement on Jewish holy sites by PA leaders:
Yasser Arafat: "That is not the Western Wall at all, but a Moslem shrine" (Ma'ariv, October. 11, 1996).
Then PA Minister of Religious Affairs, Hassan Tahboub, "The Western Wall is Muslim property. It is part of the al-Aqsa Mosque. Once we control it, Jews must remain six feet away from our holy wall" (November 23, 1997).
PA Ministry of Information: Thirty years of Israeli excavation has revealed Islamic holy places, Roman ruins, Armenian ruins, but no tangible evidence of anything Jewish was revealed in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Jews have implanted a biblical myth in the mind of the world," (December 12, 1997).
Walid M. Awad, Director of Foreign Publications for the PLO's Palestine Ministry of Information: " Jerusalem was never a Jewish city" (IMRA news agency, December. 25, 1996).
Jarid al-Kidwa, a Palestinian 'historian' broadcast in the PA media, has stated, "The stories of the Torah and the Bible did not take place in the Land of Israel - they occurred in the Arabian peninsula, primarily in Yemen" (Ha'aretz, July 6, 1997).
Jewish holy sites have been destroyed, vandalized or left in disrepair by the Palestinians whenever PA control has been extended, even temporarily, to localities containing them:
In September 1996, widespread Arab rioting broke out in response to false rumors circulated about alleged Jewish efforts to undermine the structure of the Dome of the Rock atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Palestinian rioters set upon and destroyed the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva at Joseph Tomb in Nablus, also killing Israeli soldiers trying to guard it. 500 Arabs also stormed Rachel's Tomb, the third holiest Jewish site, firing weapons and hurling Molotov cocktails and torching the scaffolding of new construction on the site, which was saved only due to determined efforts under fire by fire-fighting units.
October 2000: During the first days of the Palestinian terrorist campaign, Joseph's Tomb in Nablus was entirely destroyed by a Palestinian mob of 5,000 and its contents incinerated after the Israeli garrison guarding it was temporarily withdrawn during fighting. It has since been rebuilt by the PA - as a mosque supposedly honoring a Muslim figure. Muslims assert exclusive right to the site and Jews have been unable to re-enter it.
October 2000: The ancient Shalom Al Yisrael synagogue in Jericho, rediscovered only after the 1967 war, was completely and deliberately destroyed, though its Torah scrolls were saved. The Na'aran synagogue in Jericho, which is believed to have been built in the 5th or 6th century, and which contains a mosaic floor, is now abandoned and derelict.
Moreover, Jewish worshippers at Jerusalem's Western Wall have more than once been the target of stones and other projectiles from the Temple Mount in recent years, most recently in February 2007, when Palestinians rioted on the fabricated pretext that Israeli excavation work taking place nearly 100 yards from the mosques on Temple Mount for the purpose of replacing a bridge in danger of collapse were threatening the mosques. Also, sporadic gunfire is routinely directed today at Rachel's Tomb, where a special fortification with guard towers has had to be constructed around it for its protection. Several soldiers guarding the site have been killed over the years.
In its letter, signed by ZOA National President Morton A. Klein, Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt, Chairman of Executive Committee Dr. Alan Mazurek, and Treasurer Henry Schwartz, Executive Director Stanley Kessock and Director of the ZOA's Center for Middle East Policy Dr. Daniel Mandel, the ZOA said, "It is imperative for the preservation of literally the holiest site in the world to Judaism and of world significance to civilization, as well as for the long term interests of Israel, that the government put an immediate stop to the desecration and destruction of priceless Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount. No digging with heavy machinery should ever be taking place at such a site, which surely demands, at a minimum, the usual safeguards, care and archeological supervision that would be applied in excavating any other site of even minor archeological significance. It is an act of sacrilege and archeological vandalism that irreversible destruction is proceeding at this very moment at Judaism's holiest site. We urge you most earnestly to intervene while there is still time to prevent this historic loss to Israel, the Jewish people and indeed the world."
In addition, the ZOA has made the following public statement: "The ZOA urges every rabbis of every synagogue in America and around the world, and every Jewish organization, to speak out forcefully and repeatedly to urge Israel's Prime Minister and all Muslims of goodwill to stop this destruction of holy and priceless Jewish artifacts under the Temple Mount where Judaism's two holy temples once existed."
Jews urging Christians to save Jewish Temple - By Aaron Klein - www.worldnetdaily.com
Archaeologists kept out as Israel allows Muslims to pulverize antiquities at Judaism's holiest site
JERUSALEM - The Christian world and top U.S. Christian leaders are being urged to petition the Israeli government to immediately halt a massive dig Islamic authorities are conducting on the Temple Mount - Judaism's holiest site - that is said to be destroying antiquities and what archaeologists believe is a wall from the Second Jewish Temple.
The Israeli government has barred archaeologists from inspecting the Temple-era wall, believed to be from the outer courtyard of the Second Temple.
The wall reportedly has been pulverized by bulldozers operated by the Waqf, the Mount's Muslim custodians.
If verified, the wall would be the most significant Jewish Temple find in history.
"The Christian people must rise up and stand with their brethren in Israel and make their voices heard to stop this travesty," states an open letter from Israel's Temple Institute, an organization seeking to promote awareness of the Temple Mount. "We are asking Christians to do everything possible to petition the Israeli government to halt the Waqf destruction and have archaeologists immediately inspect the area."
The Temple Institute is asking concerned Christians to contact Olmert's office.
"As a result of destructive and wanton bulldozing by the Waqf - with Israeli permission - a section of the wall of the Holy Temple in the area universally recognized as the location of the Women's Court has been unearthed," the letter states. "This is the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple that actual physical evidence of the Temple has been revealed. But all of the antiquities of the Temple that have been uncovered are in danger of being destroyed if you don't help."
Leading Israeli archaeologists, speaking to WND, also urged the Christian world to act immediately:
"The Christian world and all those who care about safeguarding the Temple Mount must immediately join us in our efforts to protect the holy site and demand that the Israeli government stop the Waqf construction," prominent, third-generation Temple Mount archaeologist Eilat Mazar said.
"The Temple Mount is important to people of all religions. Now is the time to act before more antiquities are erased," said Mazar, a senior fellow at Israel's Shalem Center and member of the Public Committee for Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on Temple Mount.
Mazar's much-discussed discovery in the City of David, a neighborhood just south of Jerusalem's Old City Walls, is a massive building that dates to the 10th century BC is believed is the remains of the palace of the biblical King David, the second leader of a united Kingdom of Israel, who ruled from around 1005 to 965 B.C.
This weekend, Islamic authorities using heavy machinery to dig on the Temple Mount were caught red-handed by WND destroying Temple-era antiquities and the purported outer wall of the Second Jewish Temple.
Last month, they were given permission by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to use bulldozers and other heavy equipment to dig a massive trench they say is necessary to replace electrical cables outside mosques on the holy site. The dig, which extends to most of the periphery of the Mount, is being protected by the Israeli police and is supposed to be supervised by the Israeli government's Antiquities Authority.
Earlier this month, after bulldozers dug a trench 1,300 feet long and five feet deep, the Muslim diggers came across a wall Israeli archaeologists believe may be remains of an area of the Second Jewish Temple known as the woman's courtyard.
The Antiquities Authority has not halted the dig and has not inspected the site. The Waqf has continued using bulldozers to blast away at the trench containing the wall and has steadfastly denied it is destroying any antiquities.
But WND obtained a photograph of the massive Waqf trench. In view in the picture are concrete slabs broken by Waqf bulldozers and a chopped up carved stone believed to be of Jewish Temple-era antiquity.
Mazar analyzed the photo and said the damaged stone displays elements of the second Temple era and might be part of the Jewish Temple wall Israeli archaeologists charge the Waqf has been attempting to destroy. She said in order to certify the stone in the photo, she would need to personally inspect it.
But Israel is blocking leading archaeologists from surveying the massive damage Islamic authorities are accused of causing to what may be the outer wall of the Second Jewish Temple.
"The Antiquities Authority tells us to coordinate with the police. The police send us back to the Antiquities Authority," said Mazar.
The Antiquities Authority did not return repeated requests for comment.
"It's crucial this wall is inspected. The Temple Mount ground level is only slightly above the original Temple Mount platform, meaning anything found is likely from the Temple itself," the archaeologist said.
Fed up, Mazar and other top archaeologists last week ascended the Mount to hold a news conference and inspect the site without government permission, but they were blocked from the trench by the Israeli police.
"It is unconscionable that the Israeli government is permitting the Waqf to use heavy equipment to chop away at the most important archaeological site in the country without supervision," Mazar said.
"The Israeli government is actively blocking us from inspecting the site and what may be a monumental find and is doing nothing while the Waqf destroys artifacts at Judaism's holiest site," she said.
Mount destruction 'attempt to undermine God's sovereignty'
In his group's letter to the Christian world today, Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute, pointed out what he said was the significant of the Islamic dig on the Temple Mount.
To understand the Waqf destruction as merely an archaeological issue would be myopic. It would also be a mistake to consider these actions as nothing more than a heartless and cruel attack against another religion and culture. These atrocities are not being committed solely against the Jewish people and their traditions. This is an attack on humankind by enemies of the God of Israel
Aside from the political implications regarding the future of Jerusalem and the direct effect that this will have on the entire world, the spiritual implications of what is now transpiring are enormous. The Bible consistently emphasizes the centrality of the Holy Temple in the life of mankind; it is none other than the 'footstool' of God in the world.
The destruction of God's holy mountain is precisely what is taking place at this very moment under our very eyes. The purposeful destruction of remnants of the Holy Temple are an attempt to undermine God's sovereignty and to erase His name from the one place on earth that He has chosen to manifest His presence throughout the saga of human history.
Richman called the Temple Mount "central to humanity."
"Our sages teach us that Adam, the first man, was created from the spot of the altar in the Holy Temple. All of Adam's descendants - the family of man who are created in the Divine image - are therefore under attack."
Richman was among those on the Mount last week with Mazar. He told WND he attempted to take pictures of the damage the bulldozers are allegedly wrecking on the wall, but his digital camera was confiscated by Israeli police at the direction of Waqf officials.
"If Israel was building a shopping mall and they found what may be an ancient Buddhist structure, the government would stop the construction and have archaeologists go over the area with a fine tooth comb. Here, the holiest site in Judaism is being damaged, a Temple wall was found, and Israel is actively blocking experts from inspecting the site while allowing the destruction to continue," Richman said.
Richman charged the Waqf was "trying to erase Jewish vestiges from the Temple Mount."
The last time the Waqf conducted a large dig on the Temple Mount - during construction 10 years ago of a massive mosque at an area referred to as Solomon's Stables - the Wafq reportedly disposed truckloads of dirt containing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods.
After the media reported the disposals, Israeli authorities froze the construction permit given to the Wafq, and the dirt was transferred to Israeli archaeologists for analysis. The Israeli authorities found scores of Jewish Temple relics in the nearly disposed dirt, including coins with Hebrew writing referencing the Temple, part of a Hasmonean lamp, several other Second Temple lamps, Temple period pottery with Jewish markings, a marble pillar shaft and other Temple period artifacts. The Waqf was widely accused of attempting to hide evidence of the existence of the Jewish Temples.
Temples 'never existed'
Most Palestinian leaders routinely deny well-documented Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.
Speaking to WND in a recent interview, Waqf official and chief Palestinian Justice Taysir Tamimi claimed the Jewish Temples "never existed."
"About these so-called two Temples, they never existed, certainly not at the Haram Al- Sharif (Temple Mount)," said Tamimi, who is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.
"Israel started since 1967 making archaeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city, and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880s," said Tamimi.
The Palestinian cleric denied the validity of dozens of digs verified by experts worldwide revealing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temples, tunnels that snake under the Temple Mount and more than 100 ritual immersion pools believed to have been used by Jewish priests to cleanse themselves before services. The cleansing process is detailed in the Torah.
Asked about the Western Wall, Tamimi said the structure was a tying post for Muhammad's horse and that it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the wall predates the mosque by more than 1,000 years.
"The Western Wall is the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It's where Prophet Muhammad tied his animal which took him from Mecca to Jerusalem to receive the revelations of Allah."
The Palestinian media also regularly claim the Jewish Temples never existed.
Judaism's holiest site
While the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, Muslims say it is their third holiest site.
The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.
The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's "presence" dwelt. The Dome of the Rock now sits on the site and the Al Aqsa Mosque is adjacent.
The temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.
The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact.
The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven.
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" - believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia - to "the farthest mosque" and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque later became associated with Jerusalem.
Myths About Israel and Palestine
by Dr. Thomas Ice - www.pre-trib.org
The top story in the media has been the ongoing saga of the so-called "peace process" between Israel and the Arabs, popularly known as "Palestinians." This, of course, is not surprising to those of us who take a literal view of Bible prophecy, since Israel is at the center of imminent future events. However, I am constantly annoyed by the steady stream of myths and propaganda that streams from the global media, often misinforming the world about the modern land of Israel. This month I want to demythologize a number of popular notions about the Land of Israel, so that prophecy-loving believers may not be taken in by what they hear and see in today's media.
The Ancient Palestinians
Perhaps the most maddening term that I hear today is related to the term "Palestinian." Let me start by providing a history of that word. It was a term invented by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in a.d. 135 after he had destroyed Jerusalem during a campaign to put down a Jewish uprising known as the Bar Kokhba revolt. Hadrian was tired of the constant revolts by the Jews in the land of Israel so he set out to "de-Judaize" Israel. This he did by renaming Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina and he renamed the Land of Israel Palestine from the word Philistine, a reference to the ancient Canaanites. Palestine became the common term that many used to refer to the biblical land of Israel. During the early 1900s and before 1948, a Palestinian was always thought to be a Jew who lived in the land of Israel, of course, popularly known as Palestine. When Israel became a nation in 1948, the Jews took the biblical term Israel to refer to the reborn nation. Some time between 1948 and 1963, the Egyptian, Yasser Arafat took the term Palestine to refer to the Arab claim of the land of Israel. Thus, it was only around 1963 that the term Palestinian began to be used of Arabs. There is no such thing as the ancient land of Palestine. It is the ancient land of Israel.
Because of the contemporary use of the term "Palestine," I think it is best that Christians refrain from using it to refer to the land of Israel. This is how Israel is usually referred to, even in biblical maps from the time of Christ and before, when the term was not invented until 100 years after the time of Christ. This is why in our newly produced Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible we insisted upon using the term "Israel" when referencing the land of Israel. We did not call it Palestine. The only real Palestine I know of is a town in East Texas with that name.
The Palestinian Right of Return
In light of what I noted in the previous section, it follows that the so-called Palestinian "right of return" is a key element in Arafat's position in the Oslo Peace Process. This is one of the few issues that current Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has not caved in on, . . . at least not yet. Arafat claims that there are about four million Arabs and their descendants who were displaced by Israel in 1948. This is a most ridiculous claim. First of all, only about 200,000 Arabs left their homes in the land of Israel.[1] Few, if any, of these Arabs "refugees" were forced out by the Israelis. Instead, "The Arab refugees were not driven from Palestine by anyone," notes Samuel Katz. "The vast majority left, whether of their own free will or at the orders or exhortations of their leaders, always wit the same reassurance-that their departure would help in the war against Israel."[2]
After the 1948 war, Arab leaders refused to settle these refugees, even though hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from Arab lands with only the shirt on their backs.[3] In fact, based upon conservative estimates, at least two times more Jews were made refugees from the countries in which they lived and have now been settled in the land of Israel without the need for refugee camps that the Arabs are so famous for constructing for their people. Lately, Arafat has been demanding four to five billion dollars as reparations for the so-called "Palestinian refugees," while no one has brought up the fact that the Jews left behind in their country of origin billions of dollars worth of property. Where is the outcry for Jewish compensation?
Instead of settling Arabs who left Israel in 1948 in other Arab countries, Arab leaders have consistently insisted that they remain huddled together in the squalor of refugee camps in various locations throughout the Middle East. Joan Peters noted in 1984:
Over the last thirty-odd year, numerous projects have been proposed, international funds provided, studies undertaken, all indicating the benefits that could be derived by the Arab refugee from their absorption into the brethren cultures of the Arab host countries.[4]
Yet Arab leaders always reject any solution that might serve to solve the problem. Even though the Arab refugees number only in the hundreds of thousands, others have successfully exchanged many times that number. Peters notes that, "The exchange between India and Pakistan in the 1950s was overwhelming in magnitude: 8,500,000 Sikhs and Hindus from Pakistan fled to India, and roughly 6,500,000 Muslims moved from India to Pakistan."[5] The fact that "from 1933 to 1945, a total of 79,200,000 souls were displaced," is staggering. But all but the Arab refugees from Israel have not been able to find a place of settlement. Why? Because the long-term Arab goal is not peaceful co-existence with Israel, but a total annihilation of every Jew and the modern nation of Israel. This reality is why it is foolish for Israel to continue the Oslo Peace Process.
David and Goliath
During the so-called "Temple Mount Intifada" we have seen a blatant example of Arab manipulation of the media in the incident of the death of the twelve-year old Arab boy named Mohammed. The world's media captured the sad death of Mohammed in a crossfire between Arabs and Israelis. The video footage revealed the boy being shot and dying in his father's arms. The immediate outcry from the global media was how the evil Israelis (the bully Goliath) were picking on the poor defenseless Arabs (David). The media assumed and then reported that Mohammed was shot by the Israeli army. Few asked what the boy was doing there in the first place. Few noted that Mohammed's father had come to get him because he had gone to throw rocks at the Israeli army. But, most significantly, it was reported in the alternative media that there were questions about whether the Israelis were even in position to have shot the boy. A later investigation has proved that it was impossible for the Israeli soldiers to have shot him since they could not have hit him since they were not in position to have the right angle to get to him. It is now clear that the Arabs shot one of their own, apparently for propaganda purposes. They cared more about sending out to the global media a certain image than they did about the life of that twelve-year old boy. This kind of thing is all too common in the battle for truth in the propaganda wars coming out of Israel in our day. In fact, established reports have revealed that the Saudi Arabian government is paying $2,000.00 to the family members of each Arab killed in the current Intifada and $300.00 for each non-fatal wound. This is most revealing when one realizes that Muslims believe that they are guaranteed to go to heaven if they die during the current conflict. Boy are they in for an immediate surprise. This is probably the most blatant propaganda piece of the entire conflict.
The Temple Mount
Another classic instance of Arab lying that has come out in the media recently is their widely held belief that there has never been a Jewish Temple upon the Temple Mount (Arabs call it Al-Qods-Al-Sharif) in Jerusalem. Randall Price and I noted this in our book, Ready To Rebuild, in the early 1990s. This belief, coupled with the equally errant lie, that the place of Mohammed's supposed ascent into heaven occurred on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This was a later myth added to the lore of Islam as time went on and they became engaged in a rivalry with Christianity and Judaism, both of whom had a rich history of events that transpired in Jerusalem. Islam had none.
The question arises that if there never was a Jewish Temple upon the Temple Mount, then where did Jesus walk in New Testament times? What a crook! There is more historical and archaeological evidence supporting the historicity of the Bible's report that there were two Jewish Temples upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem than is needed to accept any fact of antiquity. Yet, this does not seem to phase the Muslim faithful. If there was no Temple upon the Temple Mount then what did Josephus write about when he records the destruction of the Jewish Temple in a.d. 70. This kind of outright lying is revealing about the whole Islamic religion: It does not care about the truth, only propaganda. Thus, we should not be surprised, I am not, at the lengths to which too many Arabs will go in our own day as they spin Middle Eastern events to the global media. But, as lovers of the truth, Christians should not fall for these Arab distortions.
Conclusion
As believers in God and His Word, we should not be surprised that Satan and the world system is anti-Israel. We should also not be surprised that in spite of the justness of Israel's cause that the international media echoes Satan's voice, instead of God's. Israel is God's elect nation and He works out a major aspect of His plan for history through them. Therefore, the least that believers should do is not be taken in by the myths and propaganda from the world's media. To help towards this end I want to recommend some excellent books that will provide an interested person with factual information.
In spite of all the current bias against Israel we know what the end of the matter will be. Yes, Israel will exist for all eternity, while he enemies will be judged at Armageddon. It helps in the present time to know the God who has told us the end from the beginning. Maranatha!
Endnotes:
[1] Samuel Katz, Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine, 4th edition (New York: Steimatzky and Shaplolsky, 1985), p. 14.
[2] Katz, Battleground, p. 13.
[3] Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine (New York: J. KAP Publishing, 1984), pp. 11-32,
[4] Peters, From Time Immemorial, p. 19.
[5] Peters, From Time Immemorial, p. 26.
Muslims desecrating Israel's Temple Mount - again
By Stan Goodenough
Jul 12, 2007
Jul 12, 2007
Muslim Arabs, with the blessing of the Israeli government, are digging a large tunnel between the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa mosque.
These two large structures straddle the Temple Mount - Israel's holiest site.
According to World Net Daily reporter Aaron Klein, the Arabs are bringing in heavy earth-moving equipment that could cause serious damage to the sacred site.
Klein says no-one is supervising what the Muslims are doing - despite the fact that Waqf (Islamic Trust) officials in recent years have desecrated the mount and destroyed untold quantities of archeological remains and artefacts dating from the periods of Israel's first and second temples.
Both temples stood on the site, identified in the Bible as Mount Moriah where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.
The first temple was built by Israel's King Solomon; the second by the Jewish exiles who returned from exile in Babylon. It was later beautified and expanded by Herod the Great.
Israel returned to the Mount in 1967, but failed to extend its authority over it, prefering - at the urging of leftist Defense Minister Moshe Dayan - to leave the Islamic structures intact and allow the Waqf to continue supervising the site.
The Waqf forbids Jews and Christians from praying and reading their Bibles on the Temple Mount. Israel's governments have for years helped reinforce that ban.
As cited in Klein's article, numerous Arab leaders and spokesmen reject outright the uncontestable evidence, and refute the fact that Israel's temples ever stood on the hill. --http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2041.
Olmert allows Muslims to dig on Temple Mount
Islamic custodians previously disposed of truckloads of Jewish artifacts
Islamic custodians previously disposed of truckloads of Jewish artifacts
By Aaron Klein
c2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Posted: July 11, 2007
c2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Posted: July 11, 2007
Temple Mount
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has quietly granted the Waqf - the Muslim custodians of the Temple Mount - permission to dig unsupervised on the sacred site, WND has learned.
The permission was granted in spite of longstanding fears from leading Israeli archeologists the Waqf might hide or dispose of Jewish Temple artifacts discovered during any Muslim digs.
The last time the Waqf conducted an unsupervised excavation on the Temple Mount, in 1997, the Muslim custodians ultimately were caught by Israeli authorities disposing truckloads of Mount dirt that contained Jewish Temple artifacts.
Most Palestinian leaders routinely deny well-documented Jewish ties to the Temple Mount - the holiest site in Judaism.
According to Palestinian sources, the Waqf last month requested permission from Israel to conduct what it said were needed excavations under the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount to install new electrical and telephone infrastructures in the mosque. Olmert's office at first turned down the Waqf request, but after petitioning by the Jordanian government, the prime minister acquiesced and has allowed the dig.
The Waqf this week quietly began digging a massive tunnel that snakes from the Al Aqsa Mosque to the nearby Dome of the Rock, bringing in heavy equipment for the work.
According to Israeli and Palestinian sources, the dig is not being supervised by any Jewish archeologist, including from the Israeli government's Antiquities Authority, which boasts a board of leading Israeli Temple Mount archeological authorities.
No supervision
Prominent Temple Mount archeologist Eilat Mazar, a professor of Hebrew University and a member of the Public Committee for Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on Temple Mount, slammed the Waqf dig.
Mazar said she was concerned the Muslims were excavating "without real, professional and careful archaeological supervision involving meticulous documentation."
Mazar, a third-generation Israeli Temple Mount archaeologist, is the discoverer and lead archaeologist of Israel's City of David, believed to be the palace of the biblical King David, the second leader of a united Kingdom of Israel, who ruled from around 1005 to 965 B.C.
The last time the Waqf conducted a large dig on the Temple Mount, during construction 10 years ago of a massive mosque at an area referred to as Solomon's Stables, the Wafq reportedly disposed truckloads of dirt containing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods.
After the media reported on the disposals, Israeli authorities froze the construction permit given to the Wafq, and the dirt was transferred to Israeli archeologists for analysis. The Israeli authorities found scores of Jewish Temple relics in the nearly disposed dirt, including coins with Hebrew writing referencing the Temple, part of a Hasmonean lamp, several other Second Temple lamps, Temple period pottery with Jewish markings, a marble pillar shaft and other Temple period artifacts. The Waqf was widely accused of attempting to hide evidence of the existence of the Jewish Temples.
Temples 'never existed'
Speaking to WND in a recent interview, Waqf official and chief Palestinian Justice Taysir Tamimi claimed the Jewish Temples "never existed."
"About these so-called two Temples, they never existed, certainly not at the Haram Al- Sharif (Temple Mount)," said Tamimi, who is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.
"Israel started since 1967 making archeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880s," said Tamimi.
The Palestinian cleric denied the validity of dozens of digs verified by experts worldwide revealing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temples, tunnels that snake under the Temple Mount and over 100 ritual immersion pools believed to have been used by Jewish priests to cleanse themselves before services. The cleansing process is detailed in the Torah.
Asked about the Western Wall, Tamimi said the structure was a tying post for Muhammad's horse and that it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though the Wall predates the mosque by more than 1,000 years.
"The Western wall is the western wall of the Al Aqsa Mosque. It's where Prophet Muhammad tied his animal which took him from Mecca to Jerusalem to receive the revelations of Allah."
The Palestinian media also regularly state the Jewish Temples never existed.
'We are fed up with this crap nonsense'
In a series of WND exclusive interviews, Palestinian terror leaders denied the existence of the Jewish Temples.
"We are fed up with this crap nonsense of the Temple Mount," said Nasser Abu Aziz, the deputy commander of Fata's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank.
"We do not know where this story came from. There is no historical or archeological proof that your legendary Temples existed. We are sick of this story. But Allah warned us that Jews will look for an excuse in order to corrupt life on earth, so we are not surprised from the fact that you keep raising this issue."
Muhammad Abdul-El, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization, said the Jewish Temples "existed only in your dreams.
"Go look for your stupid Temple elsewhere. And I am not saying this for political reasons. I say that the enemy invented this story in order to justify its occupation of Jerusalem."
Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' so-called military wing, accused all Jews of being pathological liars.
"Stop lying and believing your own lies. Even if there was such a thing (as a Jewish Temple) do you really believe that Solomon, who was a prophet, would have built a Temple in the place that Allah wanted for the Al Aqsa Mosque?"
Judaism's holiest site
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. Muslims say it is their third holiest site.
The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.
The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's "presence" dwelt. The Al Aqsa Mosque now sits on the site.
The temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.
The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact.
The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven.
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition states Mohammed took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" - believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia - to "the farthest mosque" and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque later became associated with Jerusalem.
Hamas's plans for Temple Mount foiled
Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST
Jul. 2, 2007
Jul. 2, 2007
Hamas attempts to gain control of the Temple Mount and recruit new Israeli-Arab operatives in east Jerusalem have been foiled by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), a senior security official announced on Monday.
According to the Shin Bet, Hamas, over the past few years, has invested millions of shekels in Jerusalem charities and religious institutions, as well as in construction on the Temple Mount, in an effort to bolster its presence and standing in the capital.
The official said that Hamas recently paid to enlarge a library and several prayer halls in Solomon's Stables, as well as for the renovation of a public restroom facility on the disputed holy site.
"Their goal is to gain full control over the Temple Mount," a high-ranking Shin Bet official said Monday. Hamas, he said, has also tried to infiltrate its members into the Temple Mount as part of the maintenance and religious staff who care for the site and preach, give tours and teach Koran classes there.
Hamas, the official said, had taken advantage of financial troubles in the Jordanian Wakf, which is responsible for the holy site, to bolster its presence there. The wakf has been suffering from financial constraints since 2000, when the Temple Mount mosques were closed to paying visitors.
Officials said the Hamas takeover of the Temple Mount was a "strategic" move and was aimed at bolstering the group's standing in the Palestinian territories and throughout the Muslim world.
The Shin Bet also focused its operations in curbing the flow of money into Hamas. A senior Hamas official, Yakub Abu Assab, was arrested for allegedly running a courier service that transferred funds from the West Bank and abroad to the Hamas headquarters in Jerusalem. Israeli efforts to stop Hamas also included the arrests of Hamas parliamentarians, including Khaled Abu Afa, former Hamas minister for Jerusalem affairs.
During a year-long operation, Shin Bet arrested 11 Hamas officials based in Jerusalem, 10 of whom hold Israeli identity cards. All 11 detainees were due to be indicted for membership in a terror group and for financing illegal terror activity.
The Jerusalem Hamas operations received their funding from the Union of Good - an umbrella charity organization based in Saudi Arabia that has been outlawed by Israel - which used money changers, bank accounts in the West Bank, and couriers to send the money to local charity organizations, which then transferred cash to the Hamas headquarters in Jerusalem. In the last 18 months, Hamas's Jerusalem headquarters received more than NIS 1 million in this fashion.
The Hamas activities on the Temple Mount were coordinated with the Islamic Movement, headed by Sheikh Ra'ad Salah. The activities also included organizing events during Ramadan such as large-scale post-fast meals, the purpose of which was to recruit support for Hamas and give the organization a foothold on the Temple Mount.
In addition to Hamas's efforts to take over the Temple Mount, in recent years the movement increased its activity in east Jerusalem, where it had set up religious institutions and used what seemed to be innocent festivities to brainwash Muslims with Hamas ideology.
To implement its goals, Hamas had also set up a number of institutions of a semi-religious nature to front illegal activities. According to security officials, there are no longer active Hamas institutions in Jerusalem.
Dome of the Rock: Target of Muslim Extremists?
by Emanuel A. Winston
by Emanuel A. Winston
Collapsing the Dome and Al-Aksa may trigger a war.
Concern has been raised in Israel that Islamic terrorists such as Hamas or Al-Qaeda may target the Muslim shrine of the Dome of the Rock or Al-Aksa Mosque, both of which sit atop the site of the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The Islamic terrorists would then blame Israel to arouse Muslim anger, in order to trigger a war in the Middle East. The subsequent loss of Muslim lives is of little concern to them. On the contrary, they even think this is the best way to get their fellow Muslims into their paradise, by making them shuhada (plural of shahid, martyr for Islam). We have already seen Shiite and Sunni Muslims target each others' mosques for demolition, and that both use their so-called "shrines" for the storage of weapons, explosives and safe houses for their terrorists. They do, however, expect Americans and Israelis to respect the self-proclaimed sanctity of their mosques and shrines.
Suspicions were raised in light of the frenzied reaction to Israel repairing a crumbling, earthquake-damaged earthen ramp that leads up to the site of the Temple Mount. Muslim leaders tried to assert that the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa Mosque were endangered by these repair measures - a rather ridiculous claim. It was also thought that Muslim terrorists were planning to collapse the shaky ramp on top of Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall. They may have intended to use this excuse to permanently close the Mughrabi Gate (the only gate up to the Mount open to non-Muslims) to the Temple Mount so no infidels (non-Muslims) could enter.
In this light, it is clear why Muslim leaders always opposed any infrastructure improvements in the area. With an anarchist agenda, they want people to get hurt and are happy to help the process along if it benefits their religious war against the Jews, Christians and all other non-Muslim infidels whom they must kill. It is clear why Muslim leaders always opposed any infrastructure improvements in the area.
In fact, the Muslim Wakf (religious administrative authority) has been carrying out secret excavations under the Temple Mount, to invent and reinforce their own religious claims while disposing of all Jewish artifacts - some from the First and Second Temple periods.
Israeli engineers warned the Wakf that they were weakening the supporting walls of the Temple Mount, including those of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa Mosque. A dangerous bulge was spotted on a major retaining wall of the Temple Mount. Yet, the Wakf has continued to undermine the foundations until today.
A moderately small earthquake in February 11, 2004, coupled with the effects of a major snowfall, damaged the Mughrabi Gate ramp leading up to the Temple Mount. Even a small earthquake could completely collapse the ancient stone walls. Many earthquakes have hit this region, which lies on a major fault along the Jordan River, called the Dead Sea Rift, running the length of Israel and creating a series of active faults throughout the country. The area underlying the entire region is a series of major and minor faults under constant pressure to slip or crack, producing major and minor tremblers. (If you wish to explore this further, then pull up the words "earthquake," "2004," "damage to Mughrabi ramp to Temple Mount" on Google.)
Even a small trembler could collapse the wall of Solomon's Temple Mount now that the Muslim Wakf has dug out the core of the Mount. It is merely an event waiting to happen. The other possibility is that Muslim Arab terrorists might be preparing to place high explosives on the remaining supports that hold up the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aksa Mosque.
Time will tell.
Emanuel A. Winston is a Middle East analyst and commentator with the Gamla and Freeman organizations.
Q&A on the Temple Mount with Dr. Eilat Mazar
THE JERUSALEM POST
Feb. 14, 2007
Feb. 14, 2007
Renowned archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University and the Shalem Center answers readers' questions about the Mughrabi Gate dispute and the status of the Temple Mount in recent years. Of the hundreds of questions received, here are 20 which encompass the major issues at hand.
John, Hong Kong: The Muslims claim the Mughrabi dig is within their holy site. Israel says it's nowhere near. Is it at all possible to answer this question with 100% reliability?
Dr. Mazar: The Mughrabi ramp is near the Western Wall of the compound, and it doesn't risk it's stability in any way. Moreover, it is of no risk whatsoever to the Al-Aksa Mosque, which stands about 100 meters to the east. There is no basis to the Muslims' claims. We should pay attention to their claims, which they have repeated many times in the past whenever they sought to raise a provocation. The same claim has been made with regards to my excavation in the City of David - 200 meters south of the Al-Aksa Mosque - declaring that the purpose of the excavation is to dig a tunnel under the mosque. At this very spot, the height of the original Second Temple-period wall is about 25 meters high, while the Mughrabi Gate is only 3.5 meters above the Herodian construction. In any case, the ramp only leads towards that gate.
Zachary Lubwama, Kampala, Uganda: Do you think that the findings will resolve the long standing dispute as to who the owner of this place is? Do you see Muslims accepting it if the findings reveal that this was a site for the Holy Jewish temple before a mosque was put in its place? Do you see Israel wishing to rebuild a third temple in this place, and would this be possible?
Dr. Mazar: We have learned about the history of the Temple Mount compound from archaeological and historical sources. These facts do not influence the Waqf and the Israeli Islamic Movement (especially its northern wing), as they completely ignore the history and ancientness of the site. They declare that the site was built as a mosque "since the time of Adam and Eve" - unfortunately, there are no grounds for a scholarly discussion with them. Returning to academic and scientific research, excavations around the compound near the Mughrabi ramp will show that the original compound built at this place was the most impressive and ingenious construction of the Second Temple period.
Rudy Reichstadt, Paris: What can you say about the declarations of archaeologist Meir Ben-Dov, who said that one could be satisfied with "a simpler and less expensive solution"?
Dr. Mazar: The Mughrabi ramp was in dire need of significant restoration. It was in a terrible state for many years and no simple work can be done there. This archeologist has declared in the past that we should thank the Waqf and the Islamic Movement for their destructive activities on the mount. In his words, they were "cleaning the place."
Brian Anderson, Jerusalem: In a desire for accuracy of information often lacking in news coverage, I would like to ask what efforts have been and are being made amidst the Mughrabi Gate project to 1) have necessary dialogue with Islamic officials regarding the impact of these efforts on the Temple Mount, its current condition and structures, and 2) plans/efforts in place on the part of the Antiquities Department (or other government agencies) to safeguard existing structures to help alleviate the concerns being expressed by many in the Islamic world?
Dr. Mazar: In recent years, the Waqf and the Israeli Islamic Movement were very active at the site, conducting a large-scale destruction of antiquities and continuing to do so without any dialogue. As far as I know, they were told and actually know the terrible condition of the Mughrabi ramp and how it needs a restoration, which is currently taking place. They also know that the Israeli Antiquities Authority is conducting a large excavation in order to document the antiquities as the ramp is strengthened to prepare for a more stable structure above it. The Antiquities Authority is conducting a regular archeological excavation at the this site, and the methods of excavation are well known and up to date, just as in any other excavation at such an important site.
Joseph Abraham, London: Is it true the Muslims built their Dome over the wrong rock? I understand that the Holy of Holies was built on a different rock on the Temple Mount.
Dr. Mazar: It's not the wrong rock, because at present it is on the highest spot on Mount Moriah, which is probably the same spot where the temple stood. Muslims believe that Mohammad went to a place that is called "extreme," and they relate this extreme place to be the location of the Al-Aksa Mosque, which was never claimed to be the spot of the temple itself.
Geoff Neilson, Cape Town, South Africa: Is there any specific location where the altar for sacrifices must be? Do we know the precise point of that location today?
Dr. Mazar: The location of the altar near the temple itself can be located in the most probable way - where we all locate the temple itself - but to pinpoint exactly where it stood is disputed. It's unlikely that this dispute will be resolved as long as excavations are prohibited inside the Temple Mount compound.
Yosef Zahav, Miami: Why isn't the Temple Mount symmetrical? It seems there are no two walls that are parallel. Isn't that surprising for a monumental architectural structure?
Dr. Mazar: You are correct. It's not really a square and not even a rectangle, but we need to understand that the compound as it appears today is an enlargement of a previous compound from the First Temple period. King Herod enlarged it by overcoming deep valleys that surrounded the ancient compound, which is very impressive and almost ingenious, but did not make it symmetrical.
Ezequiel Doiny, Buenos Aires: In 1996, Binyamin Netanyahu allowed the Muslims to build a third mosque in Solomon's Stables. By doing this, did Israel give the Muslims the opportunity to destroy important archeological remains?
Dr. Mazar: This was a huge mistake which took place without any archeological supervision. We are certain that a vast amount of important data was lost, especially when the Muslims dug the huge 2,000-square-meter pit in front of the stables and dumped the "garbage" along with ancient antiquities. They loaded hundreds of trucks - and I am not exaggerating - so you can imagine the scale of the data that was lost from all periods (Muslim, Byzantine, Roman and Jewish).
David Flug, Hillcrest, New York: How likely is it that the truckloads of material carted away by the Waqf in a previous construction project contained archaeologically significant material?
Dr. Mazar: We need to remember that the Temple Mount compound is very ancient and all the periods starting from the First Temple period were part of it. Although we know some remains were destroyed, others were left inside - maybe for secondary use, but nonetheless, they are there and can be revealed one day when proper excavations are allowed. Destruction took place mainly in the eastern part of the compound, and we should see to it that no further destruction is allowed there. Regrettably, there is no proper supervision. The east part is destroyed forever. Regarding the construction and restoration of the previous path of the Mughrabis, the excavations - as they are currently being conducted on a large scale - should continue in order to stabilize the pathway and allow the public to approach the Temple Mount compound. This is the only gate through which tourists can visit the compound, and there is urgent need for it to be stable and convenient. Inside the Temple Mount compound, excavations have been forbidden for centuries. Muslims do not allow anyone to excavate. It was tentatively agreed to leave the site as-is as long as no one made any changes. However, this is not the case. The Waqf and the Israeli Islamic Movement are conducting significant changes in order to convert the entire site into a built-up mosque.
Mary Ellen Marks, Highland Lakes: Is it true that the Ark of the Covenant is buried under the mount?
Dr. Mazar: There is a very high probability that the most important ancient remains are inside the compound in the massive underground halls. This includes the Ark of the Covenant.
Saul Mishaan, Brooklyn, New York: I know that digging on the Temple Mount is a non-starter, but is there any research involving the use of aerial infrared photography or sonar to assist in determining the layout of the Second Temple compound?
Dr. Mazar: I know that research using these methods had been conducted from outside of the compound in order to trace hollow spaces. There were very interesting results, such as the finding that the ancient walls of the compound are very thick, and that behind them are many massive underground halls.
Thomas Crispin, Phoenix, Arizona: What is the most exciting thing you've discovered in your career so far?
Dr. Mazar: My most exciting find was a personal seal impression one centimeter in diameter from the First Temple period that had the name of a minister who was part of the government of Zedekaya. I found it last year during my excavation in the City of David. His name is mentioned in the book of Jeremiah - he was the one who asked King Zedekaya to kill the prophet Jeremiah because he was telling the people of Jerusalem to surrender to the Babylonians. This is astonishing because it is a direct connection between an archeological find and a biblical document. It reinforces our understanding and appreciation of the bible as an historical source of great authenticity.
Abe Sender, Cambridge, MA: What do we know about the two chambers the Waqf claims are underneath the mount?
Dr. Mazar: These are chambers that were documented already in the 19th century. One of them served as a water cistern, and the other was used as a pathway during the Second Temple period and then most probably as a synagogue in the 11th century CE before finally being turned into a mosque in a later period.
Lee Safran, San Jose, California: What do you know about the construction/destruction at Solomon's Stables? Why wasn't Israel able to create an international outcry about this? It seems a much more significant destruction than the work at the Mughrabi Gate. Why didn't Israel petition the UN world heritage site committee or some other similar body? Or raise the issue with Jordan? Is this construction continuing as we speak, or has it finished?
Dr. Mazar: Israel made a big mistake by keeping mum about the illegal activities of destruction and conversion carried out inside the stables and around them. The Israeli government doesn't really understand that by turning a blind eye to the illegal actions undertaken by the Waqf and the Islamic Movement, it does not achieve the true quiet it seeks, since it only increases the appetite of the Muslim side, which notices that its acts go without punishment. This is still going on.
Dave Abernathy, Columbia: The JP published an article last week stating that a cistern was found recently that proves that the Second Temple existed, and that it's located more southwesterly than previously thought. Does this mean that a third Temple could be built without disrupting the current mosques on the Temple Mount?
Dr. Mazar: Prof. Joseph Patrich only suggested that he could locate the very spot where the altar stood near the Temple as he relates it to one of the underground cisterns at the site. It does twist the location of the temple a bit, and it is an interesting suggestion. I don't know how much it holds for the time being. Even if this is the case, there are no facts that will convince the Muslim side to allow any construction at the compound, except their own. As we are witnessing with the Mughrabi path row, the facts themselves mean nothing to them.
Dan Morman, Miami Beach: Since 1967, after custodial arrangements of the Temple Mount were implemented, who has performed more digging and construction work in the area - Israel or Muslims?
Dr. Mazar: On the Temple Mount itself, Israel has not conducted any work, since the Muslim side does not allow it. Around the mount, Israel has conducted large-scale excavations and cleared space for tourists and visitors to reach the Western Wall. Other areas in the northern and northwestern parts have been left as before [1967]. On the other hand, the Muslim side has never stopped digging and building inside the compound for its own purposes.
Donna Diorio, Dallas: I have been reading a lot about the Mughrabi ramp repairs, but not much about the announced new construction of a 5th minaret on the Temple Mount. When the plan was first announced in 2004, you are quoted as saying that archeological supervision must be resumed at the site before any changes. If this is a good thing for Israel to observe at the Mughrabi ramp, why isn't this call also being voiced regarding the Jordanian minaret plans?
Dr. Mazar: I was surprised to see that the Jordanians adopted the radical view that claims the construction of the Mughrabi ramp is destroying the Al-Aksa Mosque, despite the fact that they know all too well that there is no truth to this. Building a new structure like the minaret, the fifth one, is completely out of place in light of the status-quo situation of the site, which should have been maintained unless open options were submitted to all sides. Unfortunately, the Israeli government refrains from demanding that the site be under supervision so that its preservation is safeguarded. I want to remind you that the Jordanians did not once raise their voices regarding the destruction carried out by the Muslim side. The main thing to remember is that the mount is an extremely important historical site that needs to be preserved for the millions of people worldwide who are interested in it. It is sad to see how cheaply the site is treated.
Margaret, Sydney, Australia: Why is the site important to the Christians?
Dr. Mazar: The Temple Mount is of extreme value to the Christians as well, as it was the very spot where the Temple stood, at which Jesus himself arrived and became infuriated when he saw that it was being desecrated by so many people. He said that this was the holy place that the people must respect, and then he overturned the tables in fury. I see many Christians near the Temple Mount, standing on the stairs leading into one of its gates and praying. I urge the Christian world to raise its voice in order to help us preserve this magnificent site, which is part of Christian heritage, as well. As a member of the Public Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities for the past seven years, I feel that we do not have enough support from the millions of people all over the world who we assume care about the site. We need more support! People should write/call/email/fax the prime minister and the media, demanding to open the site.
Andrew, Boston: What can be seen at the site at present?
Dr. Mazar: The public is now allowed to enter site for a few hours only, but is not allowed to enter the mosques or any of the underground structures in which magnificent remains from the original Second Temple are located. These structures were converted in recent years to new mosques, after never being used as mosques before, and are now closed to the non-Muslim public.
The truth about the Temple Mount controversy - by David Gelernter - http://www.weeklystandard.com
Israeli government authorities are building a ramp to allow non-Muslims to reach the enormous platform atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The old access ramp was condemned as unsafe and torn down several years ago. The interim ramp that replaced it was designed for short-term service only. (Muslims control the Temple Mount and therefore have their own private access routes.) The new ramp is controversial. Some ramp must be built or non-Muslims will have no way to reach the Mount; but leading Israeli archaeologists say that the ramp under construction is badly placed and ought to be someplace else.
This dispute among Israelis is important but in itself would never have attracted much attention. However, by the nature of their reactions, Arab leaders have brought worldwide notoriety to the story--and made it a blood-curdling study in the power of lying in this credulous, ignorant global-media age.
Outraged Arab politicians describe the new ramp as an attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque -- although the mosque is on the Temple platform and the ramp stands outside the platform on pylons, and won't have any effect on the mosque at all. But those are mere facts. Prominent Arab agitators disdain even to notice them. Some have called for violence against Israel because of this imaginary assault on the mosque. And we know what "violence against Israel" means to the Jew-hating anti-Zionists among Arab statesmen: restaurants, sidewalk cafes, bus stops, and Passover Seders drenched in blood and scattered with smashed body parts as dying children cry quietly.
The leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Raed Salah, announced in response to the ramp project that "the danger in Jerusalem has increased. It is high time for the intifada of the Islamic people." The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Ismail Haniyeh, called the construction project "continued Israeli aggression on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem." An Egyptian MP, Mohamed el-Katatny, announced in parliament, "That cursed Israel is trying to destroy Al-Aqsa mosque. . . . Nothing will work with Israel except for a nuclear bomb that wipes it out of existence."
This hysterical Arab reaction must be understood in context. Why are Muslim religious authorities in charge of the Temple Mount anyway -- Judaism's holiest site, in the heart of Israel's capital city? And who built the Temple Mount in the first place, and what makes this site holy? When we answer these questions -- keeping in mind that the ramp story is likely to be reported nearly everywhere (outside the United States and Israel) from the Arab viewpoint -- the real question becomes not whether this ramp should be finished (probably not), but how to heal an insane planet. The ramp can be taken down; but how can the Arab world be cured of its blood-lust against the Jews of Israel?
Let's start with the situation on the ground. Prominent Israeli archaeologists object to the new ramp because several of its footings stand in an important archaeological garden outside the Mount. They agree that a new ramp is necessary, but insist that it be routed around the garden. Some Orthodox Jews are unhappy with the project on religious grounds.
The Israel Archaeology Association, which approved the project, responds that you can't please everyone, especially in Jerusalem, least of all near the Temple Mount. If the ramp is moved, other groups will object. Which is a weak-sounding response -- or perhaps no response at all, merely an excuse.
But Arab objections have nothing to do with the archaeological garden; Arab leaders are worried (they say) about the safety of the Al-Aqsa mosque. Yet the ramp poses "no risk whatsoever to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which stands about 100 meters to the east," says the eminent archaeologist Eilat Mazar of the Shalem Center and the Hebrew University. Mazar is one of the archaeologists who object to the ramp's current location and want it moved.
Is it possible that Arab leaders are more interested in attacking Israel than protecting religious and cultural monuments? How anxious are Arab statesmen to protect the treasures of the Temple Mount? Let's step back a few years and see.
The Temple Mount is ruled by the Islamic authority of Jerusalem, the Waqf. The Waqf is supposed to respect the status quo and ask Israeli approval before making changes. In 1996, the Israeli government approved a Muslim request to build a large new underground mosque on the Mount. Construction began, and a request to build an "emergency exit" for the new mosque followed, and was also approved.
Enormous excavations were carried out. Thousands of tons of soil and fill were scooped out and trucked away. Those trucks were filled with some of the most precious stuff in the world. The Temple Mount is potentially the most important, exciting place on earth for archaeological digs.
A huge platform is balanced atop the Mount, shored up by enormous earth-and-stone works. King Herod the Great of Judea built this platform in the first century B.C. as a base for an enlarged, rebuilt Temple. (The Temple was the focus of Jewish ritual and pilgrimage.) But Herod's magnificent Temple was burnt to the ground by Roman forces under Titus, later emperor of Rome, in 70 A.D. The Jews had rebelled against Roman overlordship -- Herod himself had been a Roman client; they fought hard and lost. Rome was the only superpower of the day. On Titus' arch of triumph in Rome you can still see carvings of the plunder that the Romans carted home from Jerusalem -- including the famous seven-branched Temple menorah, later destroyed accidentally by fire.
The Romans grabbed as much as they could, but left behind innumerable traces of the Temple and of life in the Second Jewish Commonwealth, in the age when Jesus preached and the Mishnah was composed. There must be other archaeological treasures up there too, fragments of Jewish, Roman, Byzantine, and Muslim life in the centuries following the Roman rampage. Infrared photographs and other survey techniques suggest the presence of vast underground halls beneath the platform's surface. Some ancient rabbinic sources assert that the Ark of the Covenant, lost since the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C., was buried on the Temple Mount; it might conceivably be standing in one of those underground chambers.
But the Waqf has a nice, simple policy regarding archaeological digs on the Mount. Don't bother applying; none are allowed. The world's most important archaeological site is off-limits to archaeology.
Under the circumstances, those underground excavations for the new mosque and its "emergency exit" looked like a stroke of qualified good luck. (The exit turned out to be a 2,000-square-meter pit that entailed the removal of over 6,000 tons of earth.) All that indescribably precious soil was scooped out, trucked away.
And trashed. Hundreds of truckloads were unloaded in municipal garbage dumps. Some drops were made late at night. This was vandalism on a breathtaking scale, and the vandals knew it. (In fact removing the soil was a crime in itself; archaeologists need to inspect soil in situ to understand the context and to know which layers were on top, what came next, and so forth.) All in all this was a sickening crime against the human spirit, a rape of the Mount. But radical Arab leaders routinely deny that a Temple ever existed in this place. They would love to annihilate every trace of Jewish history as they would love to destroy the Jews themselves. For would-be murderers, destroying truth is the next best thing to destroying life.
The precious soil was left unprotected, and garbage accumulated on top. Archaeologists managed to sift through certain portions that remained accessible. Important finds turned up. But "we are certain," Mazar said recently, "that a vast amount of important data was lost."
The Israeli government let it happen; ignored the outcry of Israelis and of archaeologists all over the world and allowed construction and dumping to continue. "The world's patrimony is being carried off in dump trucks," wrote Hershel Shanks (editor of Biblical Archaeology Review) in the Washington Post in July 2000. "All who care about the archaeological remains on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem . . . should be incensed at Israel's failure to stop the Waqf . . . from illegally destroying precious remnants of history important to Muslims as well as to Jews and Christians." An open letter to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, signed by dozens of prominent Israelis of all political colors, demanded that Barak stop "a serious act of irreparable archaeological vandalism and destruction." But he didn't. Many believe that the Barak government refused to act lest the "peace process" be interrupted or Arab violence break out. According to this (all-too-likely) explanation, a pathetically self-deluded Israeli government, conscious of the long, venomous history of Arab and world reactions to Israel, was too anxious and weak to stop this ugly crime.
The Islamic Authority of Jerusalem is no one's idea of a competent protector of one the world's most precious sites. How did it come to be in charge of this spot in the first place?
When the United Nations voted in 1947 to create twin states in British Palestine, a Jewish and an Arab state side-by-side, the city of Jerusalem was to be internationalized and belong to neither. The Zionists accepted this plan but the Arabs rejected it -- and in May 1948, the armies of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and the Arab Legions of Transjordan attacked the new Jewish state. They failed to destroy it but did capture half of Jerusalem--the important half, the Old City, where the Temple Mount stands. For the next 20 years the Kingdom of Jordan refused to allow Jews into the Old City, refused them access to the Western Wall--and systematically destroyed the city's synagogues, presumably as proxies for the Jews who got away.
Egypt provoked another war with Israel in 1967 (the Six Day War) by demanding that U.N. troops be withdrawn from the Sinai buffer zone and blockading the Straits of Tiran. During the fighting, Israeli soldiers recaptured the Temple Mount. They discovered that Jordanians had torn up Jewish tombstones from the Mount of Olives and used them to pave roads and build latrines. And yet soon afterward Israel unilaterally awarded control of the Mount to the Waqf. It was the same sort of pathetic, heartrending gesture that speaks of desperate longing for friendship and no more war that Barak made 30 years later, when he allowed the Waqf to pillage and violate the Mount.
That generous Israeli gesture of the late 1960s was met by universal gratitude throughout the Arab world, especially among the Palestinians of Jerusalem.
Just kidding.
Virtually all such Israeli gestures meet with the same response: redoubled hatred. (In one of the first Israeli digs in Jerusalem after the Six Day War, archaeologists found a previously unknown Muslim palace. "The finds from the early Muslim period are thrilling," said a high ranking official in the Jordanian Antiquities Department at the time, named Rafiq Dajani, "and frankly I am surprised that Israeli scholars have made them public." A few days later he was fired.)
How did it all come to be in the first place? Perhaps it is worth pointing out the obvious: Muslims revere this site in consequence of the Temple that once stood here.
Nowadays some cosmopolitan thinkers speak of the Temple as if it were a folk story or fairy tale or an "alleged" building. But it was as real as the World Trade Center. No sane historian doubts its existence. It is attested in many contemporary sources, Jewish and otherwise.
One report asserts that Titus did not intend to burn the Temple, and said that "the loss would be for Rome. Its continued existence will be a glory of the Empire." But the fighting raged out of control, and the Temple caught fire by accident. In any case, writes Simon Goldhill, professor of Greek at Cambridge University, the Temple "was the largest and most awe-inspiring religious monument in the world." Speaking of the extraordinarily refined and sophisticated engineering that went into Herod's project, Goldhill refers to the Platform's southern retaining wall--which "gives some sense," he writes, "of the [enormous] size of the stones and the brilliance of the wall's construction. There is nothing like this anywhere else in the ancient world."
Israelis created (long ago) the platform on the Temple Mount and the Temple itself, and the religious community that gave it all meaning--a gift to mankind that is valuable beyond measure. Thousands of years later, Israel turned over the keys to the Waqf in a peace offering, an act of friendship. Roughly 30 years after that, they allowed their Arab brethren to pillage and destroy invaluable records of ancient history rather than disturb the "peace process" or the Palestinian Arabs. And so today, Arab leaders demand (in violent outrage) that the world protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque -- their precious, sacred cultural treasure -- by stopping an Israeli construction project that won't go anywhere near it.
They are showing the world a rare combination of laughable hypocrisy and terrifying evil.
'Renew animal sacrifices on Mount' says radical rabbi - http://www.ynetnews.com
Member of Sanhedrin says sacrifices 'were not possible when the people of Israel were in the Diaspora, but now they are.' Adds: Jerusalem Temple should be rebuilt, Israeli government standing in our way
Animal sacrifices should be renewed on the Temple Mount, a member of the radical Sanhedrin organization told Ynetnews.
In ancient Israel and Judea, the Sanhedrin served as the highest court in the land, and was made up of 71 top judges. Now, a group of fringe rabbis say they have reformed the group, although the organization has received no recognition from Israel's official religious authorities.
"In the Torah there are around 200 commandments dealing with animal sacrifices," said Rabbi Dov Stein, of the Sanhedrin organization. "The Torah of Israel demands animal sacrifices. When the people of Israel were in the Diaspora, it couldn't be done. But now, there is the supreme institution, the Sanhedrin, made up of experts, and it can be done. The new Sanhedrin, like the old, will educate the people of Israel on how to keep and safeguard the Torah."
'Democracy was not invented today'
Stein vowed that "we will try to carry out animal sacrifices on the Temple Mount this Passover, as commanded by the Torah."
Asked if his organization sought to rebuild the third Temple, Stein's answer was unequivocal. "We want to establish the Temple again. Unfortunately, standing in our way is a hostile regime, the Israeli government, and rabbis who for political interest don't want this to happen."
Stein even suggested that Muslims would agree to the project, saying: "The Omar Mosque (the Dome of the Rock), built by Khalif Omar, was actually intended to safeguard the site for the Jews. Islam hasn't always been so hostile. Despite its hatred and massacres against us, Islam sees in Judaism a source and a guide. I think the moment will come that Muslims understand the need to build the Temple and go along with us."
Stein outlined his plan for Israel, calling for a king to be appointed democratically. "Democracy was not invented today, the king is elected from a list of candidates. A senior judge, as was done during the days of the judges, can also be appointed," he added.
However, such practices ended 2000 years ago, Rabbi Doniel Hartman was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
"Around that time, animal sacrifice, as a mode of religious worship, stopped for Jews, Christians and Muslims," said the rabbi from the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, according to AP. "Moving back in that direction is not progress," he added.
According to mainstream Jewish thought, animal sacrifices must not be carried out outside of Temple, which itself cannot be rebuilt by human endeavor, but will be rebuilt upon the arrival of the messiah.
Israel allows minaret over Temple Mount - By Aaron Klein http://www.WorldNetDaily.com
Olmert consents to Muslim prayer tower while denying Jewish plans for synagogue
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has given permission for Jordan to build a large minaret adjacent to a mosque on the Temple Mount to call Muslims to prayer at the holy site, WND has learned.
The minaret will stand at a site on the Mount where Jewish groups here had petitioned to build a synagogue.
A minaret is a tower usually attached to a mosque from which Muslims are called to the five Islamic daily prayers.
There are four minarets on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. The new minaret will be the largest one yet. It will be the first built on the Temple Mount in over 600 years and is slated to tower over the walls of Jerusalem's old city. It will reside next to the Al-Marwani Mosque, located at the site of Solomon's Stables.
Aryeh Eldad, a Knesset member from Israel's National Union party, last year drew up plans with Jewish groups to build a synagogue near the Marwani Mosque. The synagogue was to be built in accordance with rulings from several prominent rabbis, who said Jews can ascend the Mount at certain areas.
A top leader of the Waqf - the Islamic custodians of the Mount - told WND Olmert's granting of permission to build the minaret in the synagogue's place "confirms 100-percent the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) belongs to Muslims."
"This proves Jewish conspiracies for a synagogue will never succeed and solidifies our presence here. It will make Muslims worldwide more secure that the Jews will never take over the Haram al-Sharif," the Waqf official said.
Sources in the Jordanian monarchy and the Waqf told WND Olmert earlier this month gave Jordan's King Abdullah official permission to build the minaret. The sources said the minaret will rise 130 feet above the ancient walls of Jerusalem.
A senior Olmert adviser today confirmed to WND the Israeli prime minister told Abdullah he will allow the minaret's construction.
The adviser said he could not speak on the record because Israel has been waiting for an "opportune time" to officially announce permission for the new minaret.
In October, King Abdullah announced plans to build the fifth minaret, although at the time the Jordanians reportedly did not have Israel's permission to commence construction. Abdullah said the minaret would bear the symbol of the Jordanian monarchy.
The Temple Mount's first minaret was constructed on the southwest corner in 1278; the second was built in 1297 by order of a Mameluke king; the third by a governor of Jerusalem in 1329; and the last in 1367.
Prominent Israeli archeologist Gabi Barkai of Tel Aviv University blasted the new minaret plans.
"I am against any change in the status quo on the Temple Mount. If the status quo is being changed, then it should not just be the addition of Muslim structures at the site," Barkai said.
Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute , told WND Olmert's decision to allow the minaret "is repugnant to anyone who knows what it is to be a Jew."
"The decision and Israel's general attitude toward the Temple Mount is the manifestation of spiritual bankruptcy in the country's leadership. Olmert is turning his back on our Jewish heritage while the rest of the world looks at us with amazement at how we can be so insensitive to our own spiritual legacy."
Al Aqsa Mosque built by angels?
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism. For Muslims, it is Islam's third holiest site.
The First Jewish Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.
The Jewish Temple was the center of religious Jewish worship. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's "presence" dwelt. The Al Aqsa Mosque now sits on the site.
The temple served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and was the main gathering place in Israel during Jewish holidays.
The Temple Mount compound has remained a focal point for Jewish services over the millennia. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide pray facing toward the Western Wall, a portion of an outer courtyard of the Temple left intact.
The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed around A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark the place where Muslims came to believe Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven.
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night from "a sacred mosque" - believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia - to "the farthest mosque," and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque later became associated with Jerusalem.
Most Waqf officials deny the Jewish temples ever existed in spite of what many call overwhelming archaeological evidence, including the discovery of Temple-era artifacts linked to worship, tunnels that snake under the Temple Mount and over 100 ritual immersion pools believed to have been used by Jewish priests to cleanse themselves before services. The cleansing process is detailed in the Torah.
According to the website of the Palestinian Authority's Office for Religious Affairs, the Temple Mount is Muslim property. The site claims the Western Wall, which it refers to as the Al-Boraq Wall, previously was a docking station for horses. It states Muhammed tied his horse, named Boraq, to the wall before ascending to heaven.
In an interview with WND, Kamal Hatib, vice-chairman of the Islamic Movement, which will take part in the podium installation ceremonies, claimed the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built by angels and that a Jewish Temple may have existed, but not in Jerusalem. The Movement, which works closely with the Waqf, is the Muslim group in Israel most identified with the Temple Mount.
"When the First Temple was built by Solomon - God bless him - Al Aqsa was already built. We don't believe that a prophet like Solomon would have built the Temple at a place where a mosque existed," said Hatib.
"And all the historical and archaeological facts deny any relation between the temples and the location of Al Aqsa," he continued. "We must know that Jerusalem was occupied and that people left many things, coins and other things everywhere. This does not mean in any way that there is a link between the people who left these things and the place where these things were left."
Al Aqsa official: Jewish temples existed
Last June, in a widely circulated WND interview, a former senior leader of the Waqf contradicted his colleagues, saying he has come to believe the first and second Jewish Temples existed and stood at the current location of the Al Aqsa Mosque.
The leader, who was dismissed from his Waqf position after he quietly made his beliefs known, said Al Aqsa custodians passed down stories for centuries from generation to generation indicating the mosque was built at the site of the former Jewish temples.
He said the Muslim world's widespread denial of the existence of the Jewish temples is political in nature and is not rooted in facts.
"Prophet Solomon built his famous Temple at the same place that later the Al Aqsa Mosque was built. It cannot be a coincidence that these different holy sites were built at the same place. The Jewish Temple Mount existed," said the former senior Waqf leader, speaking to WND from an apartment in an obscure alley in Jerusalem's Old City.
The former leader, who is well known to Al Aqsa scholars and Waqf officials, spoke on condition his name be withheld, claiming an on-the-record interview would endanger his life.
He told WND "true" Islamic tradition relates the Jewish temples once stood at the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque.
"[The existence of the Jewish Temple at the site is obvious] according to studies, researches and archaeological signs that we were also exposed to. But especially according to the history that passed from one generation to another - we believe Al Aqsa was built on the same place were the Temple of the Jews - the first monotheistic religion - existed."
He cited samples of some stories he said were related orally by Islamic leaders:
"We learned that the Christians, especially those who believed that Jesus was crucified by the Jews, used to throw their garbage at the Temple Mount site. They used to throw the pieces of cotton and other material Christian women used in cleaning the blood of their monthly cycle. Doing so, they believed that they were humiliating, insulting and harming the Jews at their holiest site. This way they are hurting them like Jews hurt Christians when crucifying Jesus.
"It is known also that most of the first guards of Al Aqsa when it was built were Jews. The Muslims knew at that time that they could not find any more loyal and faithful than the Jews to guard the mosque and its compound. They knew that the Jews have a special relation with this place."
Temple Mount: No-prayer zone
Currently, even though the Jewish state controls Jerusalem, the Waqf serve as the custodians of the Temple Mount under a deal made with the Israeli government that restricts non-Muslim prayer at the site.
The Temple Mount was opened to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after then-candidate for prime minister Ariel Sharon visited the area.
Following the onset of violence, the new Sharon government closed the Mount to non-Muslims, using checkpoints to control all pedestrian traffic for fear of further clashes with the Palestinians.
The Temple Mount was reopened to non-Muslims in August 2003. It still is open but only Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf.
During "open" days, Jews and Christian are allowed to ascend the Mount, usually through organized tours and only if they conform first to a strict set of guidelines, which includes demands that they not pray or bring any "holy objects" to the site. Visitors are banned from entering any of the mosques without direct Waqf permission. Rules are enforced by Waqf agents, who watch tours closely and alert nearby Israeli police to any breaking of their guidelines.
ISRAELI SHEIKH: TEMPLE MOUNT IS ENTIRELY ISLAMIC
Responding to a plan to build a synagogue on Judaism's most sacred site, Sheikh Raad Salah warns that the entire complex is Moslem. Islam was founded 550 years after the Jewish Temple was destroyed.
Sheikh Raad Salah - head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a Hamas supporter, and an outspoken enemy of Israel - warns that Israeli plans to build a synagogue on the Temple Mount could lead to violence and bloodshed. "The day will never come when a Moslem or an Arab will have the right to cede even one foot of the Al-Aqsa Mosque or of Jerusalem," the Sheikh's Al-Aqsa movement announced.
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was the site of the two Jewish Holy Temples, the first of which was built by King Solomon in the year 832 BCE, close to 1,500 years before Islam was founded. For most of the next 1,000 years, Holy Temples stood on the site, until the Romans conquered the entire land and destroyed the Second Temple. Though the area came under the control of the Romans, Byzantines, Moslems, Christians, Turks, British and others over the coming centuries, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were always the focus of Jewish religious and national yearnings and continued to be the Jews' "capital in exile." In the Six Day War of 1967, the modern state of Israel liberated the Temple Mount area, placing all of Jerusalem under Jewish control once again after a hiatus of 1,900 years.
Israel, however, never actualized its sovereignty over the holy Temple Mount site, but rather granted the Moslem Waqf nearly total control. Jews, in fact, have not been allowed to pray there ever since then-Chief IDF Rabbi Shlomo Goren led a prayer service there on the first Tisha B'Av after the liberation.
As Arutz-7 reported nearly two months ago, MK Uri Ariel (National Union) is preparing a plan for the construction of a synagogue on the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The plan must be approved by the Jerusalem municipality's planning committee - an unlikely eventuality - and Ariel is set to meet with rabbis and public figures on the issue later this week.
MK Ariel notes that such a building would "rectify a historic injustice," and that every Supreme Court ruling on the issue has recognized the right of every Jew to pray on the Temple Mount.
"The synagogue will not interfere with believing Moslems who wish to pray at the Al-Aksa Mosque," Ariel said. "On the contrary, this is an opportunity for the Moslem world to demonstrate and prove that it is tolerant enough."
The "Moslem world" is not jumping at said opportunity. The announcement by Sheikh Salah's organization states, "We hereby warn aloud about the existence of a Jewish national consensus that is trying to build the Holy Temple at the expense of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We warn that similar plans were submitted to Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak and their publication led to violence, the ramifications of which have not ended to this day."
"The timing of the publication [of this plan] is not coincidental," the Islamic Movement states, "and it jibes with the increased calls for expulsion [of Arabs], the implementation of the policy of religious persecution and national discrimination, and the giving of a green light to the construction of the Third Temple."
"We remind, for the 1,000th time, that the entire Al-Aqsa mosque, including all of its area and alleys above the ground and under it, is exclusive and absolute Moslem property, and no one else has any rights to even one grain of earth in it."
"We remind the Israeli establishment, which stands behind these plans, that the problem of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem is not just a Palestinian problem, but a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic problem. The day the Al-Aqsa Mosque is harmed, Heaven forbid, all the Arab and Islamic nations will call to prevent this damage. Watch out! Beware of merely the thought of hurting or desecrating the mosque."
First Temple artifacts found in dirt removed from Temple Mount
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
The project of sifting layers of Temple Mount dirt has yielded thousands of new artifacts dating from the First Temple period to today. The dirt was removed in 1999 by the Islamic Religious Trust (Waqf) from the Solomon's Stables area to the Kidron Stream Valley. The sifting itself is taking place at Tzurim Valley National Park, at the foot of Mount Scopus, and being funded by the Ir David Foundation. Dr. Gabriel Barkai and Tzachi Zweig, the archaeologists directing the sifting project with the help of hundreds of volunteers, are publishing photographs and information about the new discoveries in the upcoming issue of Ariel, which comes out in a few days.
The bulk of the artifacts are small finds - the term used for artifacts that can be lifted and transported, rather than fixed features. The dirt was removed in the course of excavating the mammoth entrance to the underground mosque built seven years ago in the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The Waqf and Islamic Movement in Israel separated dirt from stones, then used the ancient building blocks for rebuilding, in case the police barred construction materials from being brought in.
Most of the finds predate the Middle Ages. The finds include 10,000-year-old flint tools; numerous potsherds; some 1,000 ancient coins; lots of jewelry (pendants, rings, bracelets, earrings and beads in a variety of colors and materials); clothing accessories and decorative pieces; talismans; dice and game pieces made of bone and ivory; ivory and mother of pearl inlay for furniture; figurines and statuettes; stone and metal weights; arrowheads and rifle bullets; stone and glass shards; remains of stone mosaic and glass wall mosaics; decorated tiles and parts of structures; stamps, seals and a host of other items.
The sifting project is precedent-setting: This is the first time dirt from any antiquities site is being sifted in full. Among the many volunteers are soldiers, tourists, high-school students and yeshiva boys. Visitors over the past few months have included ultra-Orthodox MKs and rabbis, who usually steer clear of archaeological digs.
When the dirt was originally trucked out, the late director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Amir Drori, termed it "an archaeological crime," and the attorney general at the time, Elyakim Rubinstein, said it was "a kick to the history of the Jewish people. Now it turns out that the dirt removed from the Temple Mount harbors thousands of small finds from diverse periods.
The oldest artifacts found are remnants of tools like a blade and scraper dating back 10,000 years. Some potsherds and shards of alabaster tools date from the Bronze Age - the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C.E. (the Canaanite and Jebusite eras). Only a handful of potsherds were found from the 10th century B.C.E. (the reigns of King David and King Solomon), but numerous artifacts date from the reigns of the later Judean kings (the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.E.), such as stone weights for weighing silver.
The most striking find from this period is a First Temple period bulla, or seal impression, containing ancient Hebrew writing, which may have belonged to a well-known family of priests mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.
Many other findings date from the Persian period (Return to Zion), Hasmonean, Ptolemaic and Herodian periods, as well as from Second Temple times. Second Temple finds include remains of buildings: plaster shards decorated a rust-red, which Barkai says was fashionable at the time; a stone measuring 10 centimeters and on it a sophisticated carving reminiscent of Herodian decorations; and a broken stone from a decorated part of the Temple Mount - still bearing signs of fire, which Barkai says are from the Temple's destruction in 70 C.E.
The project has also yielded artifacts from the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Early Arab periods. According to Barkai, the Byzantine finds radically alter the assessment that the Temple Mount was empty at that time.
Barkai and Zweig reject doubts cast by other archaeologists on the source of the dirt. They state that eyewitnesses monitored the trucks that removed the rubble, and that they have internal evidence that further confirms the dirt came from the Temple Mount. (from http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=776922).
Israeli Sheikh: Temple Mount is Entirely Islamic
IsraelNationalNews.com. Monday, November 6, 2006 / 15 Cheshvan 5767
Responding to a plan to build a synagogue on Judaism's most sacred site, Sheikh Raad Salah warns that the entire complex is Moslem. Islam was founded 550 years after the Jewish Temple was destroyed.
Sheikh Raad Salah - head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a Hamas supporter, and an outspoken enemy of Israel - warns that Israeli plans to build a synagogue on the Temple Mount could lead to violence and bloodshed. "The day will never come when a Moslem or an Arab will have the right to cede even one foot of the Al-Aqsa Mosque or of Jerusalem," the Sheikh's Al-Aqsa movement announced.
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was the site of the two Jewish Holy Temples, the first of which was built by King Solomon in the year 832 BCE, close to 1,500 years before Islam was founded. For most of the next 1,000 years, Holy Temples stood on the site, until the Romans conquered the entire land and destroyed the Second Temple. Though the area came under the control of the Romans, Byzantines, Moslems, Christians, Turks, British and others over the coming centuries, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount were always the focus of Jewish religious and national yearnings and continued to be the Jews' "capital in exile." In the Six Day War of 1967, the modern state of Israel liberated the Temple Mount area, placing all of Jerusalem under Jewish control once again after a hiatus of 1,900 years.
Israel, however, never actualized its sovereignty over the holy Temple Mount site, but rather granted the Moslem Waqf nearly total control. Jews, in fact, have not been allowed to pray there ever since then - Chief IDF Rabbi Shlomo Goren led a prayer service there on the first Tisha B'Av after the liberation.
As Arutz-7 reported nearly two months ago, MK Uri Ariel (National Union) is preparing a plan for the construction of a synagogue on the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The plan must be approved by the Jerusalem municipality's planning committee - an unlikely eventuality - and Ariel is set to meet with rabbis and public figures on the issue later this week.
MK Ariel notes that such a building would "rectify a historic injustice," and that every Supreme Court ruling on the issue has recognized the right of every Jew to pray on the Temple Mount.
"The synagogue will not interfere with believing Moslems who wish to pray at the Al-Aksa Mosque," Ariel said. "On the contrary, this is an opportunity for the Moslem world to demonstrate and prove that it is tolerant enough."
The "Moslem world" is not jumping at said opportunity. The announcement by Sheikh Salah's organization states, "We hereby warn aloud about the existence of a Jewish national consensus that is trying to build the Holy Temple at the expense of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We warn that similar plans were submitted to Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak and their publication led to violence, the ramifications of which have not ended to this day."
"The timing of the publication [of this plan] is not coincidental," the Islamic Movement states, "and it jibes with the increased calls for expulsion [of Arabs], the implementation of the policy of religious persecution and national discrimination, and the giving of a green light to the construction of the Third Temple."
"We remind, for the 1,000th time, that the entire Al-Aqsa mosque, including all of its area and alleys above the ground and under it, is exclusive and absolute Moslem property, and no one else has any rights to even one grain of earth in it."
"We remind the Israeli establishment, which stands behind these plans, that the problem of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem is not just a Palestinian problem, but a Palestinian, Arab and Islamic problem. The day the Al-Aqsa Mosque is harmed, Heaven forbid, all the Arab and Islamic nations will call to prevent this damage. Watch out! Beware of merely the thought of hurting or desecrating the mosque."
PA TV educational program:
Jews have no historical connection to Western Wall - It's an Islamic site named for Muhammad's horse
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
During the month of Ramadan, Palestinian Authority television programs focus on religious themes. But even within these programs, PA TV inserts political, hate and violence messages directed at Israel. PA TV is run by the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
One significant message that has been strongly emphasized by repeated broadcasting of the same programs is the denial of Israel's right to exist. One program, which recently appeared on PA TV three times in the course of a single week, features Dr. Hassan Khader, founder of the Al Quds Encyclopedia, who argues that the Jews have no ancient historical connection to the Western Wall of the Temple. He teaches:
"The first connection of the Jews to this site began in the 16th Century... The Jewish connection to this site is a recent connection, not ancient. like the roots of the Islamic connection. Who would have believed that the Israelis would arrive 1400 years [after the beginning of Islam], conquer Jerusalem and would make this wall into their special place of worship, where they worship and pray?"
The true name of the Western Wall of the Temple, according to the PA academic, is really the Al Buraq Wall - named after Muhammad's horse which was tied to the wall - according to an Islamic tradition that attempts to honor Jerusalem.
Finally, Khader praises all the violence and death the Palestinians have initiated to prevent Jews' access to the Western Wall and Temple Mount, from the beginning of the 20th century until now, and indicates that it will continue if Jews insist on the right to the Western Wall.
The following are excepts from his interview:
Khader: "The issue of the Al-Buraq Wall [Western Wall - renamed by Muslims "Buraq Wall" after Muhammad's horse] is one of the wonders which we don't know why it happened in this order [of historical events]. Who would have believed, back then, when Islam began in the time of the prophet, who would have believed that the Israelis would arrive 1400 years later, conquer Jerusalem and would make this wall into their special place of worship, where they worship and pray? It's incredible! We did not invent this place, the Al-Buraq Wall. Know that this wall is the only one of the four walls of the Al-Aqsa Mosque - the Mosque has four sides - this wall is the only one that carries an Islamic name since the beginning of Islam. Allah, praise Him, gave Al-Aqsa its name, and the Al-Buraq Wall was named by the Prophet. The Al-Buraq Wall is the station, similar to a space station, where Al-Buraq [Muhammad's horse] landed. This is the place where Al-Buraq landed and the prophet tied Al-Buraq [to the wall].
[PMW note: The Quran (Sura 17) writes that Muhammad took a Night Journey from the Mosque in Mecca to "The Farthest Mosque" (Al-Aqsa in Arabic) initially understood to indicate heaven. After the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem, Muslims, trying to honor Jerusalem, gave a new interpretation to this words "Al-Aqsa" - meaning it was a Mosque in Jerusalem. -- From Studies in the History of the Arabs and Islam, Prof. Hava Lazarus-Yafeh]
"... This is the place from which the prophet entered and exited Al-Aqsa. I always say that from an Islamic perspective, this is the holy gate of Al-Aqsa. This is the only wall that carries an Islamic name since the dawn of Islam...
"This is the single wall from among the Al-Aqsa walls for which a revolution took place in the past century. Everyone knows the Al-Buraq revolution that took place on August 23, 1929. [Editor - Arabs rioted and killed many Jews] This revolution, that took place for this holy site for the Muslims, and we know, all of you know, oh brothers, that the Al-Buraq revolution was a 'wave' revolution, all Palestinian people took part in it..."
"The first connection of the Jews to this site began in the 16th Century [and cites a "Hebrew Encyclopedia" as a source]. The Hebrew Encyclopedia says that the Jewish connection is a coincidental connection that began in the Ottoman era. If so, the Jewish connection to this site is a recent connection, not ancient, its roots are not like the roots of the Islamic connection...
"The Jewish connection to this site is a fabricated connection, a coincidental connection... "
"[Some may argue:] The Al-Buraq Wall is simply a small wall, a few meters long, a number of bricks, what is it worth? What we are interested in is the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and we can give it [the Wall] to the Jews, they have no [other] religious sites. This is a highly significant matter! This site currently represents the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This is the most essential point in the Arab-Israeli conflict. No one can ignore it anymore. As we said, revolutions took place for the sake of [Al-Buraq], and for its sake revolutions are still taking place today. The first revolution in the past century was named after Al-Buraq and Al-Aqsa, and the last revolution, the last Intifada, the Al-Aqsa Intifada, we are still living it until today."
Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin - Oct. 19, 2006
http://pmw.org.il
http://pmw.org.il
Opening the Eastern Gate
Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east, but it was shut. And the LORD said to me, "This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. (Ezekiel 44:1-2)
And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. And the glory of the LORD came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple. (Ezekiel 43:2, 4-5)
You could have trouble believing this report.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 dawned like a fairly ordinary day here in Jerusalem (if there is such a thing as an ordinary Jerusalem day). But for at least 40 of the thousands of Christians in the city of the great King, here to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles before Him, an unprecedented experience lay just ahead.
The 40 were part of a group of about 100 who had ascended to the Temple Mount to "put their feet" on what the Bible calls the holiest site in the world. They came to pray for its cleansing and its restoration to Israel, that the Third Temple could be built to welcome the Messiah.
Situated on the sides of the north of the ancient City of David, on the eastern flank of today's Old City, it is the mountain Abraham climbed in order to sacrifice his son Isaac. It was the location of Israel's First Temple, which was filled with the Shekinah glory of God (1 Kings 8:11). And on it stood Israel's Second Temple, the one Jesus called "My Father's house" (John 2:16).
The Bible identifies the mountain as Moriah (Genesis 22;2; 2 Chronicles 3:1). God calls it: "My holy hill" (Psalm 2:6). Undeterred by the raging of the nations and the declarations of Islam, He emphatically states His intention to install His King upon it (Psalm 2:6). The future Temple that will stand there will be the place of His throne; there He will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. (Ezekiel 43:7).
The Islamic Trust (Waqf) forbids Jews and Christians from praying on the Temple Mount. Israel's governments shamefully uphold that ban and cooperate with the Muslims in enforcing it. This writer has been ejected from that site for simply praying quietly in a secluded place up there.
On previous visits the police at the security checkpoint have been brusque, suspicious, unfriendly. They have searched visitors' bags for weapons, and for Bibles (perhaps they know it is called the Sword of the Spirit), preventing believers from taking the Scriptures up with them. The atmosphere on top of the Mount is usually tense and unwelcoming. Waqf officials are arrogant, watching visitors like hawks for any sign of "unlawful" prayer.
This time, every thing was different. Smiling policemen welcomed the group, ushering them through with barely a cursory glance at their bags. No-one was asked whether they had a Bible. We made our way up the ramp and in through the so-called Mughrabi Gate.
It was hard to believe that just the day before, Israeli news sources reported, a multitude greater in size than any seen since the Jews' first return to their Western Wall after the 1967 Six Day War, spilled out of the plaza in front of the Temple Mount and flowed up into the streets of the Old City, as tens of thousands of Jews had come up to the city to receive the traditional blessing from the Cohens - descendants of the biblical priests.
It was also hard to believe that we were in the middle of the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, and that more than 100,000 Muslims had been gathering on the mountain in the days preceding this visit.
Inside enclosure all was sunny, tranquil, still. Small groups of God-fearing Jews followed us in, kippot on their heads, tsitsit and side-curls waving gently in the breeze. Israeli policemen in ones and twos were assigned to tail them, steadily, if at a distance, determined to ensure that these - their fellow Jews - refrained from praying anywhere on the mount. High overhead a police chopper beat at the early morning air.
But we were ignored as we spread out, walking to the four corners of the area, past the lead-grey Al-Aqsa Mosque and around the gold-covered Dome of the Rock.
Making my way to the eastern edge of the Mount, I walked towards the gate known to Jews as the Sha'ar Harachamim (Gate of Mercy), and which Christians call the Golden Gate or the Gate Beautiful.
It stood silently sealed, as it has since the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman bricked it up in 1541. Both Jews and Evangelical Christians believe the gate will be opened to let Messiah enter Jerusalem when He comes.
As usual, Israeli policemen were stationed on top of that gate. The vantage point afforded them a spectacular view of the Temple Mount platform on the one side, and the deep drop into the Kidron Valley, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives on the other.
I had wanted on a number of previous occasions to climb up there, but the policemen had always prevented me. This time I did not even think to try.
But wait! Suddenly the police were gone. The iron gate blocking the steps mounting the structure stood open, swinging slowly on its hinges. A few members of the Christian group were already making their way up. No officials barred their way. No shouts stopped them.
Forty of us quickly assembled in that normally inaccessible place. Suddenly, wondrously, the joy of the Lord flooded our hearts, and we sensed the presence of His Holy Spirit.
For 15 glorious, uninterrupted minutes we sang and prayed, all laughing, some weeping, worshiping God and proclaiming His prophetic Word, our hands and faces raised towards heaven, right on top of the Temple Mount!
Walking purposefully in a line from the eastern side of the roof to its western side, a number of women decreed the opening of the Gate for the soon-coming Lion of Judah. Opening a vial of perfumed oil, they poured it out upon the Gate, symbolically anointing it for His return.
The songs and prayers continued for a short space of time. Then the moment ended as Muslim guards appeared from the nearby olive groves, shouting and commanding us to come down.
We left the Gate and, a few minutes later, quietly descended from the Temple Mount. We were awed by what had happened, and rejoiced that we had been given the opportunity to, in this special and amazing way, prepare the way of the Lord.
As the nations continue to gather around Jerusalem, their hostility and their determination to take half the land and half of the city away from the Jews and give them to the Arabs, we pray into God's prophetic promises. We remind God of "the word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:"
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.
Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths."
For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:1-4)
And we declare and look forward to the day when:
The moon will be disgraced and the sun ashamed; for the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before His elders, gloriously. (Isaiah 24:23)
First Temple artifacts found in dirt removed from Temple Mount
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
The project of sifting layers of Temple Mount dirt has yielded thousands of new artifacts dating from the First Temple period to today. The dirt was removed in 1999 by the Islamic Religious Trust (Waqf) from the Solomon's Stables area to the Kidron Stream Valley. The sifting itself is taking place at Tzurim Valley National Park, at the foot of Mount Scopus, and being funded by the Ir David Foundation. Dr. Gabriel Barkai and Tzachi Zweig, the archaeologists directing the sifting project with the help of hundreds of volunteers, are publishing photographs and information about the new discoveries in the upcoming issue of Ariel, which comes out in a few days.
The bulk of the artifacts are small finds - the term used for artifacts that can be lifted and transported, rather than fixed features. The dirt was removed in the course of excavating the mammoth entrance to the underground mosque built seven years ago in the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The Waqf and Islamic Movement in Israel separated dirt from stones, then used the ancient building blocks for rebuilding, in case the police barred construction materials from being brought in.
Most of the finds predate the Middle Ages. The finds include 10,000-year-old flint tools; numerous potsherds; some 1,000 ancient coins; lots of jewelry (pendants, rings, bracelets, earrings and beads in a variety of colors and materials); clothing accessories and decorative pieces; talismans; dice and game pieces made of bone and ivory; ivory and mother of pearl inlay for furniture; figurines and statuettes; stone and metal weights; arrowheads and rifle bullets; stone and glass shards; remains of stone mosaic and glass wall mosaics; decorated tiles and parts of structures; stamps, seals and a host of other items.
The sifting project is precedent-setting: This is the first time dirt from any antiquities site is being sifted in full. Among the many volunteers are soldiers, tourists, high-school students and yeshiva boys. Visitors over the past few months have included ultra-Orthodox MKs and rabbis, who usually steer clear of archaeological digs.
When the dirt was originally trucked out, the late director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Amir Drori, termed it "an archaeological crime," and the attorney general at the time, Elyakim Rubinstein, said it was "a kick to the history of the Jewish people. Now it turns out that the dirt removed from the Temple Mount harbors thousands of small finds from diverse periods.
The oldest artifacts found are remnants of tools like a blade and scraper dating back 10,000 years. Some potsherds and shards of alabaster tools date from the Bronze Age - the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C.E. (the Canaanite and Jebusite eras). Only a handful of potsherds were found from the 10th century B.C.E. (the reigns of King David and King Solomon), but numerous artifacts date from the reigns of the later Judean kings (the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.E.), such as stone weights for weighing silver.
The most striking find from this period is a First Temple period bulla, or seal impression, containing ancient Hebrew writing, which may have belonged to a well-known family of priests mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.
Many other findings date from the Persian period (Return to Zion), Hasmonean, Ptolemaic and Herodian periods, as well as from Second Temple times. Second Temple finds include remains of buildings: plaster shards decorated a rust-red, which Barkai says was fashionable at the time; a stone measuring 10 centimeters and on it a sophisticated carving reminiscent of Herodian decorations; and a broken stone from a decorated part of the Temple Mount - still bearing signs of fire, which Barkai says are from the Temple's destruction in 70 C.E.
The project has also yielded artifacts from the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Early Arab periods. According to Barkai, the Byzantine finds radically alter the assessment that the Temple Mount was empty at that time.
Barkai and Zweig reject doubts cast by other archaeologists on the source of the dirt. They state that eyewitnesses monitored the trucks that removed the rubble, and that they have internal evidence that further confirms the dirt came from the Temple Mount. (10/19/06)
by Ezra HaLevi
MK Uri Ariel (National Union) is drawing up plans to construct a synagogue on the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. Jordan's King plans to build a fifth minaret on the site as well.�
The synagogue would be build upon the Temple Mount, but in an area that is indisputably not within the areas that require immersion and other preparations, according to Jewish law.
Ariel says that the synagogue would not change the Muslim status quo on the mount, which is home to the Al-Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
"This is not a new idea," Ariel stressed, "it has been brought up and considered countless times since the [1967] Six Day War [during which the Temple Mount was liberated from Jordanian occupation -ed.]."
The plan will be submitted to the Jerusalem municipality and the Committee for Design and Construction for approval. Ariel says that every aspect of the plan will be submitted to leading Torah scholars for approval.
The National Union MK, who visited the Temple Mount himself Monday, said that such a plan was an opportunity for the Muslim world to prove it is capable of rising above the violence and intolerance that have surfaced in the past year as a result of papal remarks and political cartoon portraying Islam's founder Muhammad. Referring to Ariel's visit to the holy site, MK Talab el-Sana (Ta'al) said the "provocation" would bring nothing but "war and bloodshed."
MK Ariel points out that every ruling by Israel's Supreme Court regarding the matter of the Temple Mount has recognized the right of every Jew to pray on the Temple Mount. "This is rectification of a historic injustice, much more than the transport to Israel of [Theodore] Herzl's children's bones [as was done recently, in accordance with his wishes ed.].
"Since the destruction of the Holy Temple, the loss of our independence and the start of our exile and oppression during the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish presence at the site of our temple has always been an unmistakable symbol. The Romans, Byzantines and Crusaders expelled us and prevented Jews from entering Jerusalem, because they couldn't stand to allow the Jewish nation to serve its G-d at this holy site. This synagogue will not interfere with believing Moslems who wish to pray at the Al-Aksa Mosque. On the contrary, this is an opportunity for the Moslem world to demonstrate and prove that it is tolerant enough."
Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah II has donated a huge carpet to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and has announced a contest to design a fifth minaret for the mosque. The existing minarets have been affixed with green neon lights in recent years, dominating the Jerusalem skyline. The planned minaret would be constructed along the eastern wall of the Temple Mount and would be clearly visible towering above the Western Wall.
The project requires approval by the Israeli government before it can begin.
New carpet for the Dome of the Rock Mosque
www.petra.gov.jo/nepras/2006/Oct/17/28000.htm
www.petra.gov.jo/nepras/2006/Oct/17/28000.htm
AMMAN, October 17 (Petra - Jordan news agency) -- New carpet for the Dome of the Rock Mosque will be laid today in implementation of His Majesty King Abdullah It's recent initiative to renovate the mosque's interior.
The new carpeting covers approximately 2,000m sq and was chosen with extra care in terms of color and specifications to concur with the nature and sanctity of the mosque.
During a visit last week to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, King Abdullah announced the construction of a fifth minaret at Al Aqsa Mosque along with other restoration, preservation and maintenance work. The work is being undertaken as part of the Hashemites' responsibilities as custodians of the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem since 1924.
The King also announced the creation of a special waqf fund to support the holy places and ensure the continuity of maintenance and protection of Islamic shrines, foremost of which is Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. The restoration projects as well as plans pertaining to the building of a fifth minaret at Al Aqsa and the new furniture are estimated to cost around JD5 million.
Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Abdel Fattah Salah said the King's move stems from his keenness to follow up on all issues pertaining to religious sites in Jerusalem and their preservation. He commended the Hashemites for their special and continued care for the mosques over the past decades. "His Majesty's continued offering is part of his love for and commitment to his great grandfather the Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h) and the sacred place where the Prophet ascended to heavens," Salah said.
Hashemite custodianship of holy Islamic places in Jerusalem has been ongoing since 1924 when Sherif Hussein Ben Ali contributed 50,000 gold lira to the restoration of Al Aqsa and other mosques in Palestine. King Abdullah I initiated the call for the renovation the Mihrab Zakariyah and the restoration of the surrounding structures that were damaged during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
During the era of His Majesty the late King Hussein, the Jordanian government in 1952 undertook the first restoration of the Dome of the Rock and the second restoration from 1959-1964. In 1969, the government restored the Minbar Salaheddine (the pulpit of Salaheddine) of Al Aqsa after it was damaged in a fire.
In the late 1980s, King Hussein gave instructions that the Dome of the Rock's golden dome be recovered with 5,000 gold pieces and that its ceiling and infrastructure be reinforced, with special attention to the renovation of Minbar Salaheddine.
King Abdullah II placed the first ornament on a replica of the minbar on 27 Ramadan 2002 at the Balqa Applied Sciences University Islamic Arts College where staff and professors completed the replica. On July 25, 2006, King Abdullah unveiled at Balqa University the completed minbar, marking the beginning of the minbar's return to Al Aqsa Mosque as a testament to the Hashemites' commitment to the renovation and construction of Muslim holy sites.
In the beginning was Al-Aqsa
By Nadav Shragai Haaretz
27 November 2005
By Nadav Shragai Haaretz
27 November 2005
A few years ago, an article appeared on the Web site of the northern branch of Israel's Islamic Movement by the Egyptian archaeologist Abed al-Rahim Rihan Barakat, the director of antiquities in the Dahab area of Sinai. Barakat wrote, "The legend about the Jewish temple is the greatest historic crime of forgery."
Barakat went on to explain that David and Solomon had small houses of prayer and had no connection to a temple. He is not alone. A Saudi Arabian historian named Mohammed Hassen Sharab alleges that the Temple of Solomon was built on the site on which the Tower of David now stands. A fatwa on the Web site of the Muslim religious trust (Waqf) in Jerusalem contends that Solomon and Herod did not build the Temple, but only renovated an earlier structure, dating to the time of Adam.
Another claim, made by the Palestinian Authority mufti for Jerusalem, Ikrama Sabri, is that the Temple has been built three times, and that Herod built the third construction. Following this line of logic, the Third Temple has already been destroyed, and therefore the Jewish traditions regarding its future reconstruction are groundless. According to another Muslim version, which has found favor in the past few years, the Temple of the Jews was in Yemen, of all places.
The historian Dr. Yitzhak Reiter, who is now publishing a book entitled "From Jerusalem to Mecca and Back -- the Muslim Rallying Around Jerusalem," has been collating for years thousands of publications, religious legal rulings, statements and pronouncements of Muslim clergymen, historians, public figures and statesmen on the subject of Jerusalem. His book draws in great detail a portrait of the great Muslim denial, a denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and to the Temple. This argument has strengthened in intensity since the Six-Day War.
The book is being published by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, a policy studies institution established at the initiative of Teddy Kollek in 1978 and has since published hundreds of studies related to the city and its future. The institute is funded mainly by contributions and is not dependent on municipal or state institutions. It releases an annual statistical yearbook of Jerusalem, and prior to the Camp David Summit in 2000, drafted the options of the repartitioning of Jerusalem and the surrounding area between Jews and Palestinians. Its scholars are now conducting studies in collaboration with Palestinian think tanks.
The Muslim site
Several chapters in Reiter's study describe the parallel rise in the sanctity (!) of Al-Aqsa and Al-Quds (the Muslim name of Jerusalem). For instance, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which according to modern research was built approximately 1,400 years ago, is now being described as a mosque that was built at the time of the world's creation, during the days of Adam, or of Abraham. For example, Abdus-Salam al-Abbadi, a former Jordanian minister of Muslim trusts, has invoked these traditions. So has Sheik Ikrama Sabri, who cited these traditions in a legal ruling he wrote a few years ago, in which he attributed the construction of the Holy Mosque in Mecca and of the Al-Aqsa compound to Adam, and the renewed construction of the Kaaba to Abraham and the renewed construction of Al-Aqsa to Solomon. The Saudi historian Mohammed Hassen Sharab has also written that Al-Aqsa was built by Adam, and another Saudi historian claims that Al-Aqsa Mosque existed even before Jesus and Moses. Another tradition, which is quoted by some present-day Muslim writers, attributes the construction of Al-Aqsa to Abraham. This tradition contends that Abraham built Al-Aqsa 40 years after he built the Kaaba together with his son Ishmael.
Reiter reveals hundreds and thousands of legal rulings, publications and sources that demonstrate the extent to which the denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and to the holy places has grown in the Muslim world. Various Islamic sources are now trying to refute the Jewish conception of Jerusalem's centrality in Judaism, and deny the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem, and contend that the Western Wall is not an authentic remnant of the outer retaining wall of the Temple compound, but rather the western wall of the Al-Aqsa compound, the place that Muslims now identify with Al-Buraq, the Prophet Mohammed's wondrous beast of burden, which according to legend was tethered by the prophet to the wall.
The Islamic texts that relate to denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the holy places were found by Reiter at the annual Arab Book Fair held in Cairo, and in bookshops in Islamic communities in Europe, America and Asia. A large percentage of the texts are also accessible to readers of Arabic on the Internet. They gradually seep in and are becoming truth in the eyes of a large Muslim public around the world.
The new Islamic writing, which clashes with the Jewish writing on Jerusalem, poses three fundamental claims: the Jewish presence in Jerusalem was brief (extending only 60-70 years) and does not justify Jewish sovereignty over the holy city; the Temple never existed and the Temple of Solomon, who is solely an Islamic figure from antiquity, was at most a personal prayer room; and the Western Wall is a holy Muslim site whose Jewish connection was invented in the 19th and 20th centuries for political purposes.
Misquoting Kenyon
Many Muslim legal scholars now attach the word "Al Hekhal" (the temple) to the word "Al Mazum," the literal meaning of which is "the purported" or "the supposed," in order to sharpen their position, namely that it is a Jewish invention that has no factual basis. Abed al-Tuwab Mustafa, for instance, who is a lecturer in political science at the University of Cairo and a former host of religious program on Egyptian television, writes in his book that the Jews' belief in the Temple is a specious allegation, and that the supposed research of the Jews is not scientific, but should be regarded as no more than assumptions and hypotheses.
According to Mustafa's analysis, the Temple was a structure that was the size of a spacious apartment and nothing more, and that many other places of worship were referred to as "Hekhal" (temple). He misquotes the report of the British commission of inquiry in the matter of the Western Wall, which was set up in the wake of the 1929 riots in Palestine, and tells his readers that the committee found that the Jews' contention that the Western Wall is one of the walls of Solomon's Temple is incorrect. (In fact, the committee report states the opposite).
Mustafa partly bases his statement on the research of the archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who determined that the city of Jebus was outside the walls of Haram al-Sharif, in the direction of the Kidron Valley. In other words, if there was a Temple there, it did not occupy the site on which the Mosque of Al-Aqsa now stands. Here, too, it should be noted that the famous archaeologist, who excavated the City of David during the rule of King Hussein, did not have any doubt about the location of the Holy Temple.
A similar distortion appears on the Web site of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Mohammed Halayka seemingly bases his beliefs on Israeli archaeologists when he states that there is no trace of the Jewish Temple. Halayka writes that since 1967 the Jews have carried out 65 archaeological digs on the Temple Mount. He quotes the archaeologist Eilat Mazar, as having said: "We did not reach a temple, and we have no idea where it was." In fact, in her book Mazar presents findings that support the scriptural sources regarding the Temple, and notes that the reason why there are no original artifacts from the structure of the Temple itself is that it is not possible to carry out excavations beneath the Temple Mount compound, the place in which archaeologists believe the Holy Temple stood.
Senior officials of the Waqf in Jerusalem say it is inconceivable that an archaeological excavation might be permitted in the holy site, and note that none of the excavations around the Temple Mount can corroborate the existence of the Jewish Temple, which is merely a legend. They refer to a statement made by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, and to statements made by his predecessor, the late Mufti Sheikh Saad E-Din al-Almi. Both men stressed the preeminence and supremacy of Islam over Judaism in Jerusalem. Sheikh Sabri has said in the past: "It is not possible that Allah sent the Muslims a house of prayer and asked them to watch over it, when it belongs to another group."
Reiter relates that before publishing his study, he presented its main findings to a well-known Palestinian academic who is a signatory to the Ayalon-Nusseibeh initiative [known as the People's Voice]. "His response was that the discourse that I am presenting, whether it is disseminated by Arafat or by Arab academics, is not acceptable to the wider public. He claimed that nobody buys the stories of the denial of the holiness of Jerusalem to Jews, as spread by Arafat and others. He said that most of the people writing these texts are opportunistic academics wishing to appease their rulers, and that the public at large, and especially the educated public, does not believe them."
Reiter does not agree with his colleague. He estimates that the effect of the widespread barrage of denial cannot be minimized, and notes that politicians and journalists from a variety of Arab states use a significant share of these messages, turning them into part of their political endeavor, thereby intensifying their dissemination.
Until 1967 they spoke differently
For centuries until 1967, the story of the Jewish Holy Temple - details about its construction, traditions surrounding its existence, and even details of the destruction of the First Temple by Nebuchadnezzar - was a deeply rooted and undenied motif found in Muslim Arabic literature.
Moreover, Reiter notes that classical Arab sources identify the place where Al-Aqsa stands with where the Temple of Solomon stood. An 11th-century geographer and historian from Jerusalem, Al-Mukadasi, and the 14th-century Iranian legal scholar Al-Mastufi both identify the Al-Aqsa Mosque with the Temple of Solomon. In the poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi of the 13th century, the construction of the Mosque of Solomon is equated with the construction of the Mosque of Al-Aqsa. The rock inside the compound is usually the touchstone Arab identification of the Temple of Solomon and the heart of the Al-Aqsa compound. Abu Bachar al-Wasti, who was a preacher at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the early 11th century, presents a variety of other traditions in his book of Jerusalem's praises, which present the Jewish past of the Holy Temple.
Even in the 20th century, the Palestinian historian Araf al-Araf wrote (before 1967) that the site of the Haram al-Sharif is that of Mount Moriah, which is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, on which was the threshing floor of Aravna (Ornan) the Jebusite, which David purchased in order to build the Temple on it, and that his son Solomon built the Temple in the year 1007 BCE. Al-Araf even added that the remains of the structures underneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque date to the period of Solomon. Nevertheless, these statements were written at a time when the Old City of Jerusalem was part of the Kingdom of Jordan, and they barely echo in the Arab history books written since 1967 or in contemporary discourse.
10/24/05: Israeli dig to spark Temple Mount violence? - By Aaron Klein - WorldNetDaily.com
JERUSALEM - A senior Al Aqsa leader whose group has been accused of associations with Hamas told WorldNetDaily yesterday recent Israeli digs near the Temple Mount and a plan to construct an underground visitors center near the Western Wall are really Jewish designs to destroy the mosque, potentially sparking deadly riots.
The group, which has previously been involved with Temple Mount violence, has been sending buses the past few weeks to Israeli Arab neighborhoods asking Muslims to "swarm" the Al Aqsa Mosque to protect it from "Jewish attacks," WND has learned.
"The truth is these digs and plans are political in character and goal. It is part of the Israeli occupation and of the Israeli big plan to hurt Al Aqsa," Sheik Kamal Hatib, vice-chairman of the Islamic Movement, told WND. "These diggings endanger the basis of the mosque. The Israelis want and hope that these works will contribute and hasten the destruction of the mosque. In that way they think they will not be accused that they have directly destroyed Al Aqsa."
Hatib was responding to a new archeological site near the Mount recently unveiled by Israel, and Israeli plans announced last month to open an underground tourist center that will snake around pathways under the Western Wall.
Discoveries at the new site include a ritual bath from the period of the second Jewish Temple, destroyed in 70 A.D., and a wall archaeologists say dates to the first Jewish Temple, destroyed in 586 B.C. The findings were widely reported by the media as strengthening Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.
The visitors center, which opens next month, is built around the new findings and includes large glass windows that look into recently excavated sections of the Western Wall. Israel hopes the center, which also features a music and light show, will become a major tourist attraction.
But Hatib blasted the center and dig, warning, "The plans endanger the mosque. Al Aqsa is close to the hearts and is important to all the Palestinians, the Arabs and the Muslims all over the world and even to those who are not religious and are not members of Islamic movements. Every attack or any try to hurt the mosque [will result in] 1.5 billion Arabs and Muslims rushing to defend Al Aqsa."
And Hatib is not just talking. The Islamic Movement the past few weeks has been sending buses to Jaffa and other Israeli Arab neighborhoods offering free trips to the Al Aqsa Mosque to "defend" the structure from "Jewish attacks," Jaffa residents told WND.
"Oh holy Muslims swarm to Al Aqsa to defend it from the evil Jews who are attacking our holy mosque," said a voice yesterday being blasted from a loudspeaker attached to a private bus in Jaffa, a witness said. "The Jews are trying to destroy our Al Aqsa."
"The buses have been coming to our neighborhood almost daily," a Jaffa resident said. "This is the [Islamic] Movement clearly trying to work up the Muslims against Israel."
The bus yesterday was parked outside Jaffa's Hassen Bek Mosque, which has previously been the scene of Arab-Israeli violence.
The Islamic Movement has been directly involved with violence connected to the Temple Mount. In 1996, the Movement was involved in riots in which 80 people were killed, erupting after Israel opened an archaeological tunnel alongside the Mount compound. The Movement was also reportedly involved in inciting Palestinians to throw stones at Jewish worshipers after then-prime ministerial candidate Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in 2000.
Hatib told WND the recent Israeli archeological findings are "nonsense. Finding pieces of one centimeter is nothing near our historical right that counts thousands of years before Israel and before Moses. I suggest to the Israeli and Jewish fanatics and to the Christian groups in America who support them to think about how to support peace and not war."
In an interview with WND this weekend, Hatib said Jews have no historic connection to the Temple Mount.
"We absolutely believe that Al Aqsa, all its different parts, all its walls, all its courts, and everything down the mosque or up it, all these fully belong to the Muslims. Only to them. No one other than the Muslims has any right over Al Aqsa, or even over any grain of its sand."
"About the Kotel (the Western Wall), we deny any relation between the Temple and the Al Aqsa Mosque. We believe that the Western Wall is part of the mosque and not the Wall of Lamentation, as the Jews say. ... The Western wall is an inseparable part of the mosque.
Warned Hatib: "Any attack or any try to hurt the mosque will create an extraordinary situation in the Arab and the Muslim states. I believe that this will change the map of the whole Middle East, and the Israeli side will be the one to lose."
10/24/05 Muslim leader: Messiah not coming to Israel - By Ryan Jones - JNW HEADLINE NEWS
A prominent Israeli-Arab Muslim leader at the weekend blasted Evangelical Christian support for Israel as a misguided effort to hasten the return of the Messiah.
Speaking to WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein, Islamic Movement Vice-Chairman Sheikh Kamal Hatib said the "crazy" Christian support "is based on their faith that the return of the Messiah...would be in Israel."
[Ed. Note - Muslims in general accept that Jesus is the "messiah," but do not regard him as mankind's savior. Nor do they accept that he was a Jew, but rather a "Palestinian" adherent of Islam.]
"Therefore," Hatib continued, "[the Christians] support Israel, because they believe that the continuation of Israel to exist hastens the arrival of the Messiah."
"Allah forbid!" the sheikh exclaimed.
He surmised that this belief has led these Christians to desire "a war of civilizations" between themselves and Islam, which George W. Bush, a born again Christian, is currently leading.
Ignoring that the Bush-led war on terror began as a direct result of unprecedented Islamic attacks on the United States, Hatib condemned what he saw as the true Christian rationale for the conflict.
"The Messiah can never be the reason for war," he stated.
Readers of the Bible know that the Book of Revelation tells of a time when Messiah himself will engage in unparalleled acts of warfare prior to establishing his rule from Jerusalem. (Revelation 19:21)
The Bible also indicates Messiah will only return following the rebuilding of Israel's temple to the Almighty (Malachi 3:1, Ezekiel 43:2-5), something Hatib insists the Jews have no right to do atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
The sheikh echoed discredited Muslim claims that the mosques currently occupying the Temple Mount have been in existence since the time of Adam, and that the children of Israel never had a temple atop Mount Moriah.
"We the Muslims believe that Al Aqsa was built since the time of Adam - Allah bless him," Hatib said. "There is a very clear historical event mentioned in the Koran concerning the mosque that was built by Adam and where all our prophets prayed."
The Koran in fact does not once mention Jerusalem, where, at the time of the Koran's writing, the Temple Mount was occupied by a Byzantine Christian trash dump rather than a mosque.
That did not stop Hatib from insisting the "Al Aqsa [literally 'the furthest mosque'] of the Koran is the same Al Aqsa of our days, not any other mosque."
As for the Jewish temples, "we believe that [they] existed, but we deny they were built near Al Aqsa" - in other words, on Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
"When the First Temple was built by Solomon - Allah bless him - Al Aqsa was already built," said Hatib. "We don't believe that a prophet like Solomon would have built the Temple at a place where a mosque existed."
Islam, of course, had its beginnings some 1,500 years after the time of Solomon.
Klein noted that what the sheikh was saying "contradicts reality. There is no serious scholar or archeologist in the world who argues Al Aqsa was built before the Jewish Temples."
Hatib's Islamic Movement is the largest Muslim organization in Israel. It's top leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, has spent time in an Israeli prison for using the organization to fund raise for Hamas.
New 'Sanhedrin' plans rebuilding of Temple - World New Daily June 9, 2005.
Israeli rabbinical body calls for architectural blueprint
The Israeli rabbinical council involved with re-establishing the Sanhedrin, is calling upon all groups involved in Temple Mount research to prepare detailed architectural plans for the reconstruction of the Jewish Holy Temple.
The Sanhedrin was a 71-man assembly of rabbis that convened adjacent to the Holy Temple before its destruction in 70 AD and outside Jerusalem until about 400 AD.
The move followed the election earlier this week of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz as temporary president of a group aspiring to become Judaism's highest-ranking legal-religious tribunal.
However, although Steinsaltz's involvement with the endeavor adds important rabbinic legitimacy, other major halachic authorities, including Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the leading haredi Ashkenazi spiritual leader, and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the premier Sephardi halachic opinion, have refused repeated requests to offer their support.
Nevertheless, the group will establish a forum of architects and engineers to begin plans for rebuilding the Temple - a move fraught with religious and political volatility.
The group, which calls itself the Sanhedrin, is calling on the Jewish people to contribute toward the acquisition of materials for the purpose of rebuilding the Temple - including the gathering and preparation of prefabricated, disassembled portions to be stored and ready for rapid assembly, "in the manner of King David."
Rabbi Hillel Weiss, spokesman for the burgeoning Sanhedrin, said in an official statement that because of "concerns that external pressure would be brought to bear upon individuals not to take part in the establishment of a Sanhedrin, the names of most participants have been withheld up to this point."
"The increasingly anti-Jewish decisions handed down by the Supreme Court prove the need for an alternative legal system based on Jewish sources," said Weiss. "More and more people, including Torah scholars, are beginning to understand this."
In addition to the election of Steinsaltz, the rabbis present also chose a seven-man committee, headed by him, to campaign for the acceptance of the idea of a Sanhedrin.
Those chosen include Rabbi Nachman Kahane, brother of murdered Jewish Defense League and Kach leader Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane is the rabbi of the Young Israel of Jerusalem's Old City and heads an organized study of Temple rituals and ceremonies, as well as cataloging all known kohanim (priests) in Israel.
Others on the committee are Rabbi Dov Levanoni, an 83-year-old Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi and expert on the Holy Temple; Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem; and Rabbi Yoel Shwartz, founder and rabbi of the "Nahal Haredi" Israeli Defense Forces unit specifically designed to enable the haredi public to join the IDF, and teacher at Yeshivat Dvar Yerushalayim who has authored about 200 books on a wide variety of subjects in Jewish law and theology.
Steinsaltz is best known for his translation and commentary on the Talmud, but he has also served as resident scholar at Princeton and Yale Universities. He heads a network of Israeli educational institutions called Mekor Chaim and outreach programs in the U.S., the former Soviet Union, Great Britain and Australia. He is also a past recipient of the Israel Prize.
The Sanhedrin was reestablished last October in Tiberias, the place of its last meeting 1,600 years ago. Since then, it has met in Jerusalem on a monthly basis.
Temple Mount destruction stirred archaeologist to action
Feb 8, 2005
By Michael McCormack
Feb 8, 2005
By Michael McCormack
NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Gabriel Barkay's excitement over new discoveries at the Temple Mount -- the Jerusalem site that carries great significance to the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths -- is tempered by the destructive events that led to them.
Barkay, professor of archaeology at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, visited to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary for a Jan. 27 lecture sponsored by the seminary's Center for Archaeological Research.
"In November 1999, the Islamic authorities carried out a huge excavation of [the part of the Temple Mount known as Solomon's Stable]," Barkay said. "They built a modern entrance to the building instead of the existing entrance, and they dug a huge pit with the help of bulldozers and 300 [dump trucks] that removed the dirt from the earthen fills of this spot."
Barkay showed pictures of tractors demolishing structures dating to the Twelfth Century Crusades. The demolition went on without any regulation or archaeological supervision, he said. Builders at the Temple Mount took many of the ancient stones from earlier Jewish buildings and cut them down to make modern stones.
"Who knows how many inscriptions we lost in this way?" Barkay said. "Who knows how many decorated stones were defaced in this manner? The earth was saturated with ancient materials, and it was dumped in the Kidron Valley to the east of the Temple Mount."
Many of the Jewish and Christian artifacts dating to the Crusades and to the first and second temples were covered up, destroyed or removed. In view of these developments, Barkay began to act.
"We formed a committee for monitoring what goes on at the Temple Mount," he said. "We take weekly aerial photos of it. Today there is much less activity. We're doing our best to protect every grain of dirt."
Just two months ago, Barkay put his archaeological know-how into action; he got a license to excavate the dumping grounds in the Kidron Valley.
"We began a project of collecting the dirt from the dumping areas. We moved the piles of dirt to a well-protected area," he recounted. "We covered them with plastic sheets. Each pile was marked with the exact place of origin and exact depth we could estimate from which it came."
His team used sifting machines to separate stones from more delicate items. Then they began searching through the material by hand.
"This effort already yielded some scores of coins," he said. "We have coins from the 12th century, the 19th century, up to the first century B.C. We have some second-century B.C. Antonian coins. We have some Herodian coins."
Among the other things, the team found a Christian charm bearing the image of John the Baptist with an infant Jesus and the Jordan River in the background. They found an alabaster dish from the Persian Period and an ivory comb from the Second Temple period. Though much had already been lost, the substance of what they are finding is encouraging amid the delicate and unfortunate situation.
What occurs at the Temple Mount is not merely an Israeli affair or a Jewish issue, noted Steven Ortiz, director of the Center for Archaeological Research. Christians have a connection to the situation as well. "Christianity is a religion based on a God who acts," Ortiz said. "Because of that [the Temple Mount] takes on a sacredness, not because of the space it occupies but because it provides tangible evidence for the historical events associated with the life of Jesus."
Barkay prefaced his account of current events at the Temple Mount with an overview of its historical and religious significance.
"The Temple Mount is the most important part of Jerusalem," Barkay said. "No doubt the Temple Mount is the most delicate, the most disputed, the most fragile point of the current conflict between Palestinians and Israelis."
After a pause, he continued: "Actually, the Temple Mount represents the whole conflict in a nutshell."
Similar to the clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, the tension surrounding the Temple Mount springs from a question of ownership. Which group's account of its history takes precedence?
Muslims believe the Temple Mount is the place where Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, ascended to heaven. On the other hand, for Jews and Christians, the Temple Mount is the place where the Jewish temple once stood and is the "center of spiritual and religious national aspirations of the Jews in Israel," Barkay said. In addition, the Temple Mount was where Jesus taught and overturned the moneychangers' tables.
Jewish tradition holds that rock at the summit of the Temple Mount was the first rock laid down as the foundation of the rest of creation, Barkay said. The tradition holds that creation of the world began there. It is also at the summit of the Temple Mount where Jews believe Abraham, by faith, bound Isaac when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son.
On that same bedrock, Solomon built the First Temple in the 10 century B.C. That temple stood 400 years before it was burned by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (2 Kings 25).
"After several decades, the decree of King Cyrus brought the [Jews] back from Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem, and in 515 B.C., the Second Temple was inaugurated on the same spot," Barkay said.
About 400 years later, King Herod the Great initiated the next major building project on the Temple Mount. The present-day size and shape of the Temple Mount is a result of Herod's decades-long building plan.
"Herod took the huge dome-shaped hill and put it in a large box," Barkay said. "The gap between the walls of the box and the slopes of the mountain [were] filled in with an artificial fill, thus more than doubling the area of the Temple Mount."
The Islamic claim to the Temple Mount originated in 638 A.D. when Omar, leader of the armies of Islam, entered Jerusalem. Omar built a wooden mosque on the Temple Mount, and the present-day Dome of the Rock is considered to be the third most holy site for Muslims, behind Mecca and Medina.
While all three religions -- Christianity, Islam and Judaism -- have ties to the Temple Mount, Barkay said unfortunately the remains of Jewish, and thus Christian, structures on the Temple Mount are being destroyed and removed.
A year ago, Barkay spoke at NOBTS on his historic 1979 discovery of two tiny, silver amulets containing the earliest fragments of Scripture found to date. The miniature scrolls, uncovered just outside the Old City of Jerusalem, bore the blessing from Numbers 6:24-26. Source: http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=20094
Members of Reestablished Sanhedrin Ascend Temple Mount
A Contentious Battle for the Temple Mount's Survival
10/7/04 CBN.com - Gabriel Barkay is a professor of Biblical archaeology at Bar Ilan University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His academic areas of interest include the archaeology of Jerusalem, burials and burial customs, and art, epigraphy, and glyptics in the Iron Age. Professor Barkay's most famous discoveries are small silver plaques containing the priestly benediction from the Book of Numbers. These plaques are believed to contain the oldest biblically-related inscription. Recently he spoke with Pat Robertson in Israel about the concerns over the collapse of the Temple Mount.
PAT ROBERTSON: I am here in Jerusalem, and yesterday I was on the Temple Mount, and went over extensively what is being done there. You cannot believe what the Muslims have done in violation of a treaty. They have carved underneath the floor of the land adjoining the al-Aqsa mosque, a mosque that will hold 10,000 people -- huge steps leading down to it. And in the process, they have excavated enough fill material to imperil the wall structure. The wall is bulging out, and the people of Israel are warning that during Ramadan, if thousands and thousands of people come in there, that the entire structure could collapse. It is very serious. I learned something else I will tell you about after this interview, that was moving to me as I was there on that site. I had an interview with a man who is a leading archeologist here in Israel, to tell about a cultural Intifada. The word 'Intifada' means shaking. It is not just an Intifada that deals with military action in Gaza and other parts of the West Bank; there is a cultural Intifada that is even more devastating. Here is that interview taken up on the Mount of Olives yesterday.
I am here overlooking the Temple Mount with a leading archaeologist, Gabriel Barkay in Israel, who is with the Bar-Ilan University. We want to find out what is going on in the Temple Mount. It is nice to have you with us on The 700 Club. Could you tell me, we heard there is a possibility of a collapse of the al-Aqsa mosque from all of the pilgrims who will come here in Ramadan, because of excavations. Can you tell us the situation there?
GABRIEL BARKAY: Actually, the Temple Mount is a huge enclosure that is larger even than the City of David. That huge enclosure was created by King Herod the Great who, instead of a mountain, created a flat platform. He surrounded the mountain with a large shoebox-shaped arrangement of tall and heavy walls. These walls are retaining walls, behind which there is artificial fill, between the retaining wall and the natural slope of the mountain. So, instead of the mountain, we have now a flat platform. With the activities of the religious authorities of the Muslims upon the Temple Mount since the 1990s, with the construction of the al-Marwani mosque within the subterranean structure, including also paving of much of the area next to the al-Aqsa mosque, the very delicate equilibrium that existed there for many centuries was disturbed. Today the runoff of rain water does not penetrate the ground, but it penetrates the walls. The eastern wall of the Temple Mount got cracked. The south wall of the Temple Mount has a huge bulge developing on it, and the matter is, that the last earthquake, which took place in February of 2004, did not help too much. And with large crowds gathering upon the paved areas of the Temple Mount, we see a very, very dangerous situation.
ROBERTSON: The bulge of the wall, I understand the Jordanians have moved in to try to reinforce it. Are they doing that? Is anybody doing that, to reinforce the wall?
BARKAY: We can see from this point, that next to the southern wall of the Temple Mount there are scaffoldings against the wall. Along the -- or on the face of the eastern wall -- you can see scaffolding as well. This is the work of an Egyptian team. They work there. They carry out their repairs, which were achieved in a kind of a secret agreement between the Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and Egyptians. In 1996, the mosque, which was built into that place, that is a mosque that houses today up to 10,000 people. It is a huge subterranean mosque. It was added as part of the illicit construction activity by the Wakfa authorities since the 1990's.
ROBERTSON: What agreement was it that allowed the Palestinians to do this kind of work?
BARKAY: Actually, there was no such agreement reached between the parties. In the Camp David talks in 2000, President Clinton and others brought up the idea that in the future, there will be a division of sovereignty on the Temple Mount. Whatever is above ground will be for the Palestinians. That will include the mosques. And whatever is underground, which includes the remnants of the temples of the Jews and anything else, that would be Israeli sovereignty. And so the Muslims got the message and began to dig down and they began to fill in every subterranean hollow and every space which was there, to occupy it, in order to avoid any possible presence of Israelis later on, if and when a future solution is reached. Actually what we see is that the Temple Mount is regarded as a political matter, rather than a place to be cherished by all nations.
ROBERTSON: This is Solomon's Temple and the place where Jesus walked. How does it get to be a Muslim holy site?
BARKAY: Upon this rock, on top of the Temple Mount, which is now under the golden Dome of the Rock, upon that rock Abraham, according to Genesis 22, tried to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. The father-son sacrifice in Jerusalem go together, not only in the case of Abraham, but also with Jesus. In any case, that took place on the Temple Mount. Later on, David built upon that same rock, built an altar in the threshing floor of the Araunah the Jebusite, to stop the plague. His son Solomon built the first temple that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian. Then later on, the second temple was built. In any case, the place of the temple is the foundation stone of the Judeo-Christian common tradition. When the Muslims conquered Jerusalem, that was in 1638 of the Christian era, and the army of the prophet a short time after the prophet's death, was led by Omar. And Omar had in his army several Jews from Arabia who served in his forces. Among them there was a man named Cobb. This man told him about the significance of the Temple Mount, and Omar immediately built a wooden mosque on the Temple Mount, which was the first mosque built there. And this is regarded as the third in its importance for Muslims, after Mecca and Medina.
ROBERTSON: Is there any possibility that the Jews will take back sovereignty over the Temple Mount, which is their heritage, and prevent this desecration from going on?
BARKAY: Following the Six Days War, the government of Israel declared Jerusalem a united city and the capital of the state of Israel. So Israeli sovereignty is all -- is upon all of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount. On the other hand, it was clear that there would be much Arab and Muslim opposition to any activity of the Israelis upon the Temple Mount, so the day-to-day care of the Temple Mount was left in the hands of the Muslim religious authorities, the Wakfa. This was the situation until the 1990s. In the 1990s, that very fragile continuous situation got broken when a new mosque was built, and as for the future, you know that it is dangerous to be a prophet in Jerusalem. I am a Jerusalemite, but I am no prophet, so I cannot tell.
ROBERTSON: Thank you for being with us.
BARKAY: Thank you very much.
ROBERTSON: Ladies and gentlemen, as I am here in Jerusalem, I am simply appalled at the desecration of holy sites that are holy to Jews and Christians. What is happening here, as I said before, is a cultural Intifada, an attempt to erase all knowledge that the Jews were in the holy land, and to try to make believe that they had no right to be here at all. There is a desecration of the tomb of Joseph, and the tombs of Abraham and Sarah, etc. The whole situation is terribly fragile. It is impossible to get into Bethlehem without the right kind of tour with Muslim plates. Jericho is completely closed off. It is a mess from the way it used to be.
Tisha B'Av News
JEWS BARRED FROM TEMPLE MOUNT WHILE MOURNING DESTRUCTION OF TEMPLES
The Temple Mount - Judaism's holiest site - was closed to Jews today in response to Muslim threats of violence if Jews were allowed to visit. The decision was made by Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Franco, citing the threat of Arab violence toward Jews who would enter the holy site.
The closure is particularly painful for many Jews, as today is the Fast of Tisha B'Av - the 9th of the Jewish month of Av - marking the destruction of both the first and second Temples. Several other Jewish tragedies also took place on this date in history.
The decision to close the holy site to Jewish visitors came as a surprise to hundreds of people from across the country who had planned on ascending the Mount today.
The Supreme Court, hearing a petition by the Temple Mount Faithful yesterday, heard testimony from Franco himself to the effect that there appeared to be no necessity to close the Mount "unless an unusual security event occurs." Gershon Solomon, head of the Temple Mount Faithful organization, later summed up,
"Based on this, the Court ruled that this would be the policy. Unfortunately, however, I have to say that Franco lied, in that he knew he was not planning to open the Mount; we see that there was no 'unusual security event,' and yet he still did not allow us to enter. This has been the policy ever since I remember on Tisha B'Av, and on many other holidays as well - not to allow the Temple Mount Faithful to enter the holy site, and consequently other Jews as well."�
Solomon said that Franco's decision has "devastating political and security ramifications, including increased Islamic violence and destruction surrounding Temple Mount issues, as once again, threats of Islamic violence have achieved their desired result."
Members of the Temple Mount Faithful marched instead around the outside of the Temple Mount to signal their desire to ascend the Mount. The group had hoped for a change in police attitudes following Franco's assumption of the Commissionership, but the group says he seems to have adopted the approach of his predecessors in banning Jews from the Temple Mount whenever Muslims threaten violence against them.
Solomon said that the recent comments by Minister of Public Security Tzachi HaNegbi (Likud) did not seem to have an effect on the decision today, "as this has been the policy all along. But there is no question that he caused damage to the People of Israel in giving ammunition to our enemies and in 'letting the blood' of Jews who ascent to the Mount." Minister HaNegbi said three nights ago that he is certain that Jews are planning to carry out an attack on the Temple Mount. His disclaimer that he has no concrete evidence to support his claim was ignored by the Arab League and the Muslim Waqf, which turned to international bodies to "prevent Jewish extremists from endangering the Moslem holy sites on the Temple Mount."
Temple Mount supporters held a spontaneous protest demonstration in front of Minister HaNegbi's home in Mevaseret Tzion today. Among the protesters were Jews who had intended to visit the holy site this morning.
Health Minister Danny Naveh (Likud) said this morning that decisions made under the threat of Arab violence are "intolerable." He expressed the desire that decisions regarding Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount should be transferred from the authority of the police to a ministerial level. "The Temple Mount is the only place in the world where Jews cannot pray," Naveh said, "even though it is the holiest site to Judaism. Although there are differences of opinion amongst today's rabbis whether Jews should ascend the Mount, there are those who wish to, and it is their right. We cannot live under the [Arab] threat that if we let Jews pray there, [violence] will occur. Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is a Jewish right that must be realized."
RABBI GOREN AND THE MOUNT
At last night's traditional silent march around the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem (see below), Women in Green's Nadia Matar described the modern history of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount:
"On Tisha B'Av in 1967, 1,897 years after the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbi Shlomo Goren [IDF Chief Rabbi and Maj.-General, who later became Chief Rabbi of Israel], may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, entered the Temple Mount plaza with several dozen other Jews, to an area where Jewish Law permitted them to be. They brought with them a shofar [ram's horn] and a Torah Ark with a Torah scroll, and they conducted the afternoon prayer service. This prayer service on the Temple Mount aroused a public storm in Israel and abroad. The media launched unbridled agitation against Rabbi Goren's initiative to renew Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, and his request to conduct a mass prayer service on the Sabbath following Tisha B'Av was categorically rejected. The government told Rabbi Goren in no uncertain terms: If Jewish worshipers ascend the Temple Mount, they would be evacuated by security forces.
"In response to this terrible decree, Rabbi Goren wrote a letter to the Ministerial Committee for the Safeguarding of the Holy Places. His words could have been written today, almost forty years after we liberated the place of our Temple, while, to our shame, the Temple Mount is still closed to Jewish prayer. The following are a few passages from his letter:
'Honored Ministers! Your decision by which you forbid me, as an individual, and the Jews as a whole, from praying on the Temple Mount shocked me to the depths of my soul. Your decision means that the only place in the world in which an express and specific ban has been placed on the Jew, as a Jew, to pray, is Mount Moriah, the mount of the L-rd to which all of Israel's prayers are directed, the location of the nation's Holy of Holies...
'From the destruction of the Second Temple until three hundred years ago, the prayers of Jews on the Temple Mount did not cease... The uniqueness of the Kotel (Western Wall) as a place of prayer is a historical innovation, and is not more than three hundred years old. It began after the decrees and limitations placed by the Muslim rulers on the Jews, and the abrogation of the 'synagogue' ... that had existed for centuries on the Temple Mount... In no manner or form is the Western Wall entitled to be a substitute for the Mount of the Lord. The prayers at the Wall symbolize the exile of the people and its expulsion from the Temple Mount, while our prayers on the Temple Mount represent the return of the people to its land and the place of its Temple.
'Who could conceive that Israel's security forces would be compelled to obstruct Jews from praying before the Lord, when the Temple Mount is under the government of Israel? And is this our situation now, after our dazzling victory? Is this what we waited for - that the government of Israel would discriminate between Jew and Muslim, and place guards lest, Heaven forbid, Jewish prayer would be uttered on the Temple Mount, about which the Prophets prophesied, 'For My House shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples' [Isaiah 56:7]? Jewish history shall not forgive us for this.
'My request is to open wide the gates of the Temple Mount to all Jews and for everyone in the world. Save the Holy of Holies of the nation, do not hand over the Temple Mount to those who defile it.�
'Signed in grief, in hope, and in blessing, Shlomo Goren, General, Chief Rabbi of Israel.'"
10TH ANNUAL TISHA BAV MARCH ENCIRCLES JERUSALEMS OLD CITY WALLS
Last night marked the 10th anniversary of the revival the ancient custom of encircling the walls of Jerusalem's Old City on the eve of Tisha B'Av - the 9th day of the Jewish month of Av, the day the first and second Temples were destroyed.
The revival of the ancient custom was initiated by the Women In Green organization, headed by Nadia and Ruth Matar. They first requested a permit from the Jerusalem Police in 1994 to allow the march, but were turned down on the grounds that such a march through eastern Jerusalem would constitute a provocation. Women in Green then turned to Israel's High Court, which ruled that the march could take place, but only with 500 women wearing identifiable green hats. Whoever marched in addition to those 500 would have to march as an individual, the Court ruled.
The march has grown steadily over the past decade, and last night's encirclement of the walls attracted more than 10,000 participants. The silent march was preceded by the traditional reading of Eichah (the Book of Lamentations) in the large plaza that abuts Jerusalem's City Hall.
Knesset members "still loyal to the Land of Israel," in Nadia Matar's words, as well as rabbis took part in the march. They addressed the crowd opposite Lions Gate, where IDF Paratroopers entered the Old City in 1967 to liberate the Temple Mount.
"We stand here on the 9th of Av not only to mourn the destruction of our first and second Temples," said former Cabinet Minister Rabbi Benny Elon (National Union). "The Fast of the 9th of Av also marks the day when the twelve spies sent to scout out the Land of Israel returned, with ten of them saying that the Land was unconquerable, and two of them insisting the opposite: 'Arise, let us conquer it, for God is with us.'"
"We see from this biblical episode that what is right is not decided by the majority," said Elon. "On Tisha B'Av we are prohibited from greeting one another, in order to set each person apart with only himself and the Creator. This is so that each Jew can look beyond the loud slogans of the tired majority, break away from the flock and decide on his own what is right for the eternal Nation of Israel."
Other speakers included MK Dr. Aryeh Eldad (National Union) and Har Nof's Rabbi Shalom Gold of the Aloh Naaleh organization, which encourages North American rabbis to make Aliyah (immigrate to Israel) together with their congregations.
Women in Green's co-founder Nadia Matar delivered a stirring speech that echoed through the City of David, below the Old City. She said,
"On June 7, 1967, our paratroopers broke through the Lions Gate, and liberated the entire Old City. At 10 AM, three paratroopers, following General Motta Gur's orders, climbed to the top of the Dome of the Rock and unfurled an Israeli flag over it. Four hours later, at 2 PM, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan arrived, surrounded by his entourage. Nadav Shragai writes in his book The Contested Mount:�
'Dayan was immersed in his thoughts when IDF Chief Prosecutor Meir Shamgar drew his attention to the fact that the Israeli flag had been raised over the Temple Mount since the morning. Dayan ordered that it immediately be lowered. Then Dayan spotted a paratrooper company that was preparing for permanent deployment in the northern part of the Temple Mount, and he ordered that they, too, be removed from the Mount.
'Central Region Commander Uzi Narkiss sought to persuade Dayan, reminding him that Jordan, as well, had kept a military unit on the Mount to maintain order. Dayan was not convinced. He told Narkiss that it seemed to him that the place had to be entrusted to the Muslims.'
"Several days later, Dayan decided finally that the place and its administration were to be entrusted to the Muslim Waqf. At the same time, he decided to insist that Jews be allowed to visit the Temple Mount, but not pray there. Later on, Dayan gave an explanation for his scandalous decision - a decision that proved to all just how much Dayan was an assimilated Jew and an ignoramus. He explained that, 'since for the Muslims the Temple Mount is a Muslim mosque for prayer, while for Jews it is merely a historical site recalling the past, the Arabs are not to be disturbed in acting there as they do now, and the right of the Muslims to control it must be recognized.'
"My friends, the State of Israel exists for 56 years. Of these, we were truly, in the words of the HaTikvah, Israel's national anthem, a 'free people in its land' only for four hours. Those four hours were those in which the Israeli flag waved above the Temple Mount. [It is] as the poet Uri Tzvi Greenberg knew, that whoever controls the Temple Mount controls all of the Land of Israel.
"The order to lower the Israeli flag from the Temple Mount in '67 constituted the beginning of the continued withdrawal and collapse by Israel's governments to the Arab enemy. There is a clear and direct connection between the removal of the Israeli flag from the Temple Mount in '67 and the retreat from Yamit, from there to the criminal Oslo accords, from there to the Wye agreements, and from there to Ariel Sharon's ethnic cleansing plan to deport Jews and hand over vast portions of our homeland to the enemy. Obviously, anyone who abandons the Temple Mount, the very heart of the Jewish people, will eventually hand over the rest of the homeland to that same Arab foe.
"But there is also good news. We, the people, are capable of changing the situation. Admittedly, we have many weak and tired political leaders, who are no different from the ten spies who slandered the Land of Israel. Those scouts were afraid. They did not believe or have the faith that we could conquer our Land. As is common knowledge, it was specifically for the sin of the spies that we were punished. G-d turned the day on which the Land was besmirched by these messengers, which fell on the ninth of Av, into a day of destruction and mourning. Today, we must correct this sin. Today, the People of Israel rejects the way our people reacted in the wilderness. Then, the response of the people was to believe the ten spies, to weep, to complain, and to tearfully implore Moses to return to Egypt.�
"Yesterday we had a magnificent human chain, with more than 200,000 participants, from Gush Katif to the Temple Mount. Today, we have tens of thousands participants in the Walk, who encircle the Temple Mount as a bride encircles her groom under the wedding canopy. This Walk has been held for ten years in succession now, and just grows from year to year. All of this demonstrates that the majority of the people received the genes of Caleb ben Yefuneh and Joshua ben Nun, who believed in the justness of our Cause, and who did not fear to say, 'We will certainly go up, and we shall gain possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it' (Numbers 13:30).
"We must deliver an unequivocal message to all the politicians today who, once again, slander the Land and are willing to surrender parts of it: This shall not come to pass. The people shall not allow you, even if you cook up a majority in the Knesset and the government. The majority of the people of Israel, throughout the ages, clearly say: 'The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, in accordance with the Torah of Israel, and no one has the right to cede it.' Don't delude yourselves: Yesterday we stood in the human chain like nice and very disciplined children, and today we are holding a quiet and respectable march - but you should know that for us the Land of Israel is like our child, and if, Heaven forbid, the patently illegal order should come to take our child from us, the masses that we saw yesterday in the human chain, and today in this Walk, will be forced to react as a lioness defending her cubs against criminal and murderous hunters.
"With G-d's help, we will not have to face such harsh situations. With G-d's help, in the coming months we will succeed in sending home, to early retirement, all the political leaders who today are betraying Zionism and Judaism, and thereby bury their plan of destruction. In their place we shall find true, proud Jewish leaders, leaders who shall fearlessly proclaim throughout the whole world: 'The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, in accordance with the Torah of Israel.'"
Psalm 137 about Jerusalem was read aloud, a shofar was blown, and the marchers then continued to the Kotel, the western wall of the Temple Mount. Well over 100,000 people visited the Wall last night and today, reciting the liturgical Kinnot lamenting the destruction, exile, and other catastrophes Israel has undergone. (News Editors: Hillel Fendel and Ezra HaLevi) July 27, 2004.
Research Paper: The Location of the First and Second Jewish Temples
http://templemount.org/sagiv2/
Eastern Temple wall in danger of immediate collapse
Etgar Lefkovits, Jerusalem Post International, May. 19, 2004
The eastern wall of Jerusalem's Temple Mount is in danger of immediate collapse, which could cause a 'domino effect' and bring down other sections of ancient compound, the head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Shuka Dorfman said Tuesday.
The rare public warning, made at a meeting of the Knesset's Interior Committee, came one month after a team of senior Egyptian and Jordanian engineers began to carry out tests to determine the stability of the eastern wall.
Dorfman's first public comments on the issue Tuesday followed a classified report issued by the Israel Antiquities Authority earlier this year, which stated that the 2,000- year-old wall was in danger of immediate collapse as a result of a February earthquake that rattled the region. The report says that the February 11 earthquake damaged the eastern wall of the Temple Mount to such an extent that sections of the wall are liable to cave in on the underground architectural support of the mount, known as Solomon's Stables.
New cracks and movements in the already fragile wall were discerned by archaeologists following the earthquake, the report states.
The six-person team who conducted a survey last month, which included four Egyptian engineers and geologists and two architects from Jordan, was summoned to Jerusalem at the behest of the Jordanian government,
The Jordanians, who have been charged with the ongoing repair of a bulge on the southern wall over the last year, have become increasingly involved in Temple Mount issues after nearly a decade when they were sidelined at the site by the Palestinian Authority.
A representative from the prime minister's office told the Knesset committee that staff work was underway on the matter.
Dorfman's public warnings over the danger to the eastern wall mirrored concern among Israeli archaeologists over the possible collapse of the southern wall in the fall of 2002 following months of bickering between Israel and the Wakf over who would repair the bulge, a dispute which was resolved with the Jordanian involvement.
Israel maintains overall security of the site, while the Wakf, or Islamic Trust, is charged with day-to-day maintenance at the compound. The Wakf director, Adnan Husseini, has previously asserted that there is "no problem" at the eastern wall.
Israeli archaeologists from the Antiquities Authority have not been carrying out routine supervision at the site for more than three years, despite the reopening of the ancient compound to non-Muslims last year, due to concern over renewed Palestinian violence at the site.
"Our ongoing demand for the renewal of full archaeological supervision of the site is needed now more than ever after it has been proven yet again that the direct result of the lack of such inspection on the Temple Mount is further antiquities damage as well as physical danger," said Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, a leading mount expert and a senior member of the non-partisan Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount.
At the Knesset meeting Tuesday, committee head Yuri Shtern (National Union) called on the prime minister to have an authorized Israeli team carry out the needed repair work at the mount's eastern wall, as opposed to the foreign team at work on the southern wall.
Archaeologist: Major inspection of Temple Mount stability essential
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
A comprehensive inspection of the stability of the Temple Mount compound and the surrounding walls is urgently required, archaeologist Eilat Mazar said Sunday after visiting the site where an embankment near the Western Wall collapsed Saturday night.
"A major collapse at the site, which would cause a major disaster, is only a matter of time," she warned.
Mazar, who runs a Hebrew University project to publish the findings of archaeological digs on the Mount, is also a member of the Committee for Preventing the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount and a senior fellow at the Shalem Center.
She said state agencies are perpetually engaged in "putting out fires" when it comes to the stability of the Mount and its walls, but have avoided comprehensive inspection, supervision and preservation of the site.
On Saturday night, during a heavy snowfall, a 10-meter-wide section of the embankment's supporting wall collapsed. The embankment, which leads to the Mughrabim Gate - one of the main entrances to the Temple Mount - runs between the prayer area in front of the Western Wall and the archaeological excavations at the foot of the wall, to the south of the prayer area. Pieces of the collapsed embankment slid into the women's section of the prayer area, but nobody was hurt as they were all on the far side of the area, near the demarcation with the men's section. Until the embankment is repaired, the men's section will be divided in two and part of it turned over to the women.
The latest collapse is not the first such event in recent years. A few months ago, the western wall of the Temple Mount's Museum of Islam, which also lies near the Wall, collapsed. For the past two years, Antiquities Authority experts and a delegation from Jordan have been working to fix a growing bulge in the southern wall of the Temple Mount compound, a job that has still not been completed.
Recently, the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and Holy Places announced that it also intends to fix an older bulge in the compound's eastern wall. This bulge has been there for decades, but recently fears have grown that it is no longer stable.
According to the archaeologists of the Committee for Preventing the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, the underground work done by the Muslim waqf and the Israeli Islamic Movement in the area of Solomon's Stables and the ancient Al-Aqsa over the last few years has altered the land and increased the danger of a collapse. The waqf rejects this, saying it employed authorized engineers to supervise all the work.
On Sunday, the waqf charged that the archaeological excavations Israel is conducting at the foot of the Western Wall caused the collapse of the embankment Saturday night. But the Antiquities Authority said the most likely explanation is that the collapse was brought on by a combination of last Wednesday's earthquake and Saturday's heavy snowfall. Mazar also thinks the earthquake was the main cause of the collapse.
Feb-01-04 9 Shevat 5764
Thousands Visit Temple Mount in Five Months
(IsraelNN.com) Over 10,000 Jews have ascended the Temple Mount in the past five months, since the site was reopened to non-Muslim visitors.
The site had been off-limits to non-Muslims for nearly three years due to security concerns and because it is under Arab control. The daily administration of the Temple Mount is in the hands of two Waqfs � one appointed by Jordan and one appointed by Yasser Arafat. They are at odds with each other and both are at odds with the Jews. Over the past several years, there has been a campaign by Islam to utterly destroy -- erase and eradicate -- any vestige of Jewish presence on the Temple Mount.
"It is an effort to re-write history," said Assistant Director of The Temple Center Rabbi Hayim Richman in an interview published on the Israel Hasbara Committee website (www.infoisrael.net). "The official position of Islam is that there never was a Temple on the Temple Mount." The Arabs, under the auspices of the Waqf, have destroyed much of the archeological evidence that there was a Temple; the Arabs have even used bulldozers.
The Temple Mount is the Jews' holiest site; the world Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran even once. It is mentioned over 700 times in the Jewish canon.
A Christian's Lament
By Elwood McQuaid
By currently invoked, politically correct reckoning, when the Palestinians finally achieve statehood, Jerusalem will be lopped in half and become the capital of two nations "living side by side in peace." That's the dream.
But dreams rarely reflect reality. And nocturnal pleasantries inevitably vaporize when exposed to the harsh light of morning. Such will be the case when foreign interlopers, dreamers, and wishful thinkers impose their concepts for the "new Middle East" on the citizens of the State of Israel.
I say "on the State of Israel" because Israelis will be doing all of the giving, and Palestinians all of the taking while complaining that their portion still is not enough.
Already the Palestinian Authority and its commissars have staked out police-state-like positions on what they will create and enforce in Jerusalem if they have their way.
For proof, listen to the words of Yasser Arafat's appointed mufti of Jerusalem. In a recent sermon delivered at the Temple Mount's Al-Aksa mosque and broadcast by PA radio, the mufti asserted that 70 years ago, the Committee of the League of Nations issued a statement giving Arabs the rights to the "Burak Wall" (Western Wall). Translation: No reference to the Western, or Wailing, Wall is legitimate because the wall is the exclusive province of the Muslim Wakf.
In a 1997 interview with Aaron Lerner, director of the Independent Media Review & Analysis (IMRA), the late Palestinian minister of wakf and religious affairs, Hassan Tahboob explained the practical implications of that claim.
Jewish worshipers, he said, would be allowed to pray toward the Wall, but be kept at least two meters away from it. They would not be permitted to touch the sacred stones and the practice of inserting prayers into the wall's crevices would be no more.
Presumably, some sort of barrier would restrict access. Under those circumstances Muslim guards would probably be posted between worshipers (both Jewish and Christian) and the "AI-Burak Wall to enforce its Islamic sanctity.
What Western masters of appeasement in the name of peace do not choose to consider is the fact that conceding the Old City, Temple Mount, and possibly the Western Wall to absolute Muslim authority literally excises the heart and soul from the anatomy of Judaism and the Jewish people.
In June 1967, Moshe Dayan voiced the desire pent up in the hearts of Diaspora Jewry for two millennia when, referring to the Old City, Temple Mount, and Western Wall, he declared that the Jewish people had returned to Jerusalem, "never to part from her again."
By no stretch of the imagination Is it incorrect or imperialistic for Jewish people to claim as their heritage the place King David lawfully purchased from Aurunah the Jebusite.
On Mount Moriah the Jewish people built and maintained their magnificent Temples and made sacred pilgrimages from the far reaches of the known world to worship there. And all this transpired many centuries before Islam sprung from the birthing chamber.
To dignify the illegitimate Muslim claims of exclusivity to the places where the Jewish Temples stood and Jesus worshiped and ministered is no less than an act of international thievery of indescribable proportions.
Anyone deluded into thinking the Palestinian Authority would be a respectful and considerate custodian of areas sacred to Jewish people and Christians should think again.
Article 6 of the Palestinian Constitution states, "Islam shall be the official religion of the state."
Article 7: 'The principles of the Islamic Shari'a are a primary source for legislation."
Article 8: "Jerusalem shall be the capital of Palestine and its seat of government."
Article 25: "Palestinian citizenship is secure and permanent for any Arab who lived in Palestine before May 1948. It Is transmitted from father to child."
Article 32: 'The right of the Palestinian refugee to return to his home and the original home of his ancestors is a natural right which cannot expire. Its exercise may not be delegated nor surrendered."
Edward B. Miller, in a January 15, 2003, guest editorial titled "A Constitutional Milestone?" which ran in the National Review Online, aptly commented:
"Furthermore, a constitution that enshrines a right pf return to Israel for all Palestinians, claims exclusive sovereignty over Jerusalem's Old City, or codifies the PLO's role... as sole representative of the Palestinian people will hardly create an atmosphere in which talks with Israel over final status issues can be restarted... For the PA to attempt to legitimize such unreasonable expectations in a constitution will only subject Israel to further suicide bombings and the region to further turmoil."
An old spiritual expresses the desire to be "Walking in Jerusalem, just like John," one glorious day. If these seemingly intransigent Palestinian demands continue to generate a colossal, Western diplomatic cave-in, it Is unlikely that either the apostle John or the singers of spirituals will be welcomed or even allowed to set foot on the holy ground confiscated by the sons of Ishmael.
Nor will they be allowed within two meters of the Western Wall. Guess they'll have to wait for a tour of the "New Jerusalem-- the one waiting for us just over the horizon.
The writer is a prominent Christian author and syndicated radio broadcaster in the US.
THE INTERNATIONAL JERUSALEM POST JANUARY 23. 2004
The Muslim tradition puts the Temples on Mount Moriah.
The Temples of Jerusalem in Islam
The political status of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the subject of final status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. According to press reports, at one moment in the Camp David negotiations last July, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat asked his Israeli counterpart: "How do you know that your Holy Temple was located there?" A Jerusalem Report cover story (September 11, 2000) placed this in the context of a growing Palestinian denial of the existence of the First and Second Temples. "It's self-evident that the First Temple is a fiction," one Palestinian archaeologist at Bir Zeit University is quoted as saying. "The Second also remains in the realm of fantasy."
Archaeologists will have their debates, and their place is in the academy. (There, the biblical account of the First Temple is contested, while the existence of the Second Temple, and its general location on the Temple Mount, are regarded as well-attested facts.) But at the negotiating table, the subjective sanctity of any site is a concrete reality which must be respected in its own terms. This is all the more so in the case of the existence and location of the First and Second Temples: both are attested by precisely the same Islamic sources which render the Haram al-Sharif (including the Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock) holy to Islam.
(The Qur'anic passages below are quoted from what is widely considered to be the most orthodox Sunni translation and commentary, prepared by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, vetted and corrected by four committees commissioned by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and published at the King Fahd Holy Qur'an Printing Complex in Medina, Saudi Arabia, by royal decree.)
Did the Temples Exist?
The Qur'an refers to the existence of both temples in verse 17:7. In this passage, the Qur'an deals with God's punishment of the Children of Israel for their transgressions:
(We permitted your enemies)
To disfigure your faces,
And to enter your Temple
As they had entered it before,
And to visit with destruction
All that fell into their power.
The word translated as "Temple" by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (and by the influential translator Marmaduke Pickthall before him) is masjid. This word, which is usually translated as mosque, has the meaning of a sanctuary wherever it appears in a pre-Islamic context. The usual Muslim exegesis of this verse (including that of Abdullah Yusuf Ali) holds that it refers to the destruction of the First and Second Temples.
Muslim tradition is especially adamant about the existence of the First Temple, built by Solomon, who appears in the Qur'an as a prophet and a paragon of wisdom. Verse 34:13 is an account of how Solomon summoned jinn (spirits) to build the Temple:
They worked for him
As he desired, (making) Arches,
Images, Basons
As large as wells, And (cooking) Cauldrons fixed
(In their places)
Early Muslims regarded the building and destruction of the Temple of Solomon as a major historical and religious event, and accounts of the Temple are offered by many of the early Muslim historians and geographers (including Ibn Qutayba, Ibn al-Faqih, Mas'udi, Muhallabi, and Biruni). Fantastic tales of Solomon's construction of the Temple also appear in the Qisas al-anbiya', the medieval compendia of Muslim legends about the pre-Islamic prophets. As the historian Rashid Khalidi wrote in 1998 (albeit in a footnote), while there is no "scientific evidence" that Solomon's Temple existed, "all believers in any of the Abrahamic faiths perforce must accept that it did."(1) This is so for Muslims, no less than for Christians and Jews.
The Location of the Temples
So much for the existence of the Temples. But what of their location? The Islamic sanctity of the Haram al-Sharif is based upon verse 17:1:
Glory to (Allah)
Who did take His Servant
For a Journey by night
From the Sacred Mosque
To the Farthest Mosque
This is the textual proof of the isra', the earthly segment of the Night Journey of the Prophet Muhammad: overnight, Muhammad was miraculously transported, round-trip, from "the Sacred Mosque" (al-Masjid al-Haram)�that is, the Ka'ba (or its vicinity) in Mecca�to "the Farthest Mosque" (al-Masjid al-Aqsa). Later Muslim tradition came to identify "the Farthest Mosque" with Jerusalem. But during Muhammad's lifetime, no mosque stood in Jerusalem; the Muslims conquered the city only several years after his death. Abdullah Yusuf Ali's commentary on this verse summarizes the traditional explanation: "The Farthest Mosque," he writes, "must refer to the site of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem on the hill of Moriah."
When Muslims did build a mosque on this hill, Muslim tradition holds that it was built deliberately on the verified site of earlier sanctuaries. According to Muslim tradition, when the Caliph Umar visited Jerusalem after its conquest, he searched for David's sanctuary or prayer niche (mihrab Dawud), which is mentioned in the Qur'an (38:21). (David was believed to have chosen the site on which Solomon built.) When Umar was satisfied he had located it, he ordered a place of prayer (musalla) to be established there. This evolved into a mosque-precursor of the later Aqsa Mosque. Thus began the Islamization of the complex that later came to be known as the Haram al-Sharif. It became the tradition of Islam that Muslims restored the site to its earlier function as a place of supplication venerated by all the prophets, including Abraham, David and Solomon.
Sari Nuseibeh, president of Al-Quds University, has emphasized this original meaning of the site for Muslims: the mosque is the last and final in a series of sanctuaries erected there. "The mosque was itself a revivication of the old Jewish temple," writes Nuseibeh, "an instantiation of the unity with the Abrahamic message, an embodiment of the new temple yearned for and forecasted. And why should this seem strange when Muhammad himself, according to the Qur'an, was the very prophet expected and described in the 'true' Jewish literature?"(2)
Whether it is called the Temple Mount or al-Haram al-Sharif, this corner of Jerusalem is the physical overlap between Judaism and Islam. Verse 17 of the Qur'an, quoted above, is entitled Bani Isra'il, the Children of Israel. The present-day State of Israel has acknowledged the sanctity of the site for present-day Muslims, in the interest of peace. For Muslims to question or even deny the existence of the Temples, in disregard of the Qur'an and Muslim tradition, is to cast doubt upon the very sources which underpin their own claim.
� Martin Kramer
(1) Rashid Khalidi, "Transforming the Face of the Holy City: Political Messages in the Built Topography of Jerusalem," paper presented to the conference on "Landscape Perspectives on Palestine," Bir Zeit University, November 12-15, 1998, http://www.jqf-jerusalem.org/journal/1999/jqf3/khalidi.html
(2) Sari Nuseibeh, "Islam's Jerusalem," http://www.passia.org/jerusalem/publications/religiousaspectstext.htm#Islam's%20Jerusalem
Israel to Dig New Tunnel under Aqsa Mosque
From the Official website of the PA
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, January 3 (IslamOnline.net)-- Israel is planning to dig a new tunnel under Al-Aqsa mosque - Islam's third holiest site - with eight million dollars donated by a Jewish American millionaire, a Palestinian organization revealed Friday, January 2.
The tunnel is designed to tighten the grip of the Israeli occupation forces on the sacred compound, protect Jews who visit it and Judaize the Old City, said Al-Aqsa Foundation for Reconstruction.
"I warn against taking such a transgression on the Islamic holy place, and call on Muslims - governments and people - to heed this dangerous situation," Ikrima Sabri, Mufti of occupied Jerusalem, told IslamOnline.net.
"Al-Aqsa mosque and its surroundings, including Buraq Wall, is a Muslim legitimate right", he averred.
Snaking under the whole mosque up to the courtyard of Buraq Wall, called by Jews Wailing Wall, the tunnel is an extension to an earlier one built in 1996.
The tunnel will run all the way under the compound reaching to Al-Selwan area which is inhabited by Palestinians, an Israeli architect was quoted by Israeli newspapers as saying.
Although no licenses were granted or details drawn for the plan to begin, finances are already on hand.
A well-heeled Jewish American donated eight million dollars for the project to come into reality, a source in Western Jerusalem Development Company said.
The wall and much of the area around it are Waqf property (a religiously and legally protected endowment), owned by Muslims since centuries ago.
The Buraq Wall forms the base of Al-Haram Al-Sharif, encompassing the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosque.
Israeli occupation forces had been digging under the holy Islamic compound in search for Solomon Temple which Jews claim had been demolished by the Babylonians in 586 BC and should be built again.
Huge Process
The plot includes a large digging process under the main courtyard where Muslim worshippers pray. The floor of the mosque - then standing under a large hole - is to be pinned to columns.
The Israeli architect said the project is to be implemented on three stages that would end with the tunnel under the Buraq Wall.
Although no agreements were reached with the Islamic Waqfs authority, this would not hinder efforts to begin the digging, he said.
Residents of occupied Jerusalem maintain that the aim of the new tunnel is only to protect Jews.
"It would save the Jewish worshippers if disturbances erupted in Haram Al-Sharif," said one of the local inhabitant.
Some 65 Palestinians and 15 Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes which flared up after the inauguration of the first tunnel in 1996.
Early in August, three right-wing Israeli MPs tried to use their parliamentary privilege to enter the compound but police prevented them.
Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out on September 28, 2000, in the wake of a provocative visit to the mosque by the then opposition leader Ariel Sharon.
'Historic' Dream
The Western Jerusalem Development Company said the project is a realization of an all-time historic dream for Jews.
It is also an attempt to increase the number of Jewish tourists which plunged down after turbulence triggered by the inauguration of the first tunnel in 1996. The Israeli Ministry of Religions attaches a major religious and national
significance to the project.
As it is now banned from entering Al-Haram Al-Sharif for excavations, the tunnel will allow this to be carried out of the Buraq Wall, said rabbi Shamwael Rubeinbich of Wailing Wall Legacy Fund.
Established in 1988, the Fund is now taking over the maintenance of the wall and is behind the project, said Yediot Ahronot newspaper.
The fund's members do not conceal their intentions for Israel to have sovereignty over Al-Haram Al-Sharif and destroying the Islamic district in the Old City.
In May, Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition, submitted every year by the extremist Temple Mount Faithful group, seeking permission to symbolically place a foundation stone for a new Solomon Temple. (Posted January 3, 2004).
Christian leader expelled from Temple Mount for praying
By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Jerusalem - October 14, 2003
Jerusalem (http://www.jnewwire.com) - Israeli police escorted one of the top leaders of the Jerusalem-headquartered international Christian Zionist movement off the Temple Mount Tuesday, on the grounds that he had been silently praying in the area.
While Christians and Jews are forbidden from praying on the hill the Bible designates as a site holy to the God of Israel, Muslims are free to worship and preach incitement against Israel from the four mosques straddling the Mount.
Accosted while silently praying
Jan Willem van der Hoeven, founder of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem and currently director of the International Christian Zionist Center, said he had been walking alone and "speaking to the Lord in his heart," when a policeman demanded to know whether he was praying.
"I could have lied and said no," Van der Hoeven told Jerusalem Newswire, "but of course I did not want to and so said yes."
According to several eyewitnesses, three policemen had then escorted Van der Hoeven to the police station at the nearby Western Wall Plaza.
Police log prayer
Van der Hoeven said when he arrived at the police station the officer in charge asked what he had been praying. He replied that he had been praying for the Messiah to come and bring peace to Israel and to the world.
"The police noted my prayer down in their official report," Van der Hoeven said.
He had been allowed to leave a short while later.
Putting their feet down
The incident took place after Van Der Hoeven led a group of about 40 visiting Christian Zionists onto the Temple Mount, a highlight of their weeklong celebration of the biblical Feast of Tabernacles.
Before ascending the hill, which the Bible describes as the place of Messiah's future throne, Van der Hoeven had advised the pilgrims to separate into small groups and walk quietly around inside the walled compound, praying silently.
Reminding them of past instances of intolerance shown by the Muslim authorities on the Mount towards Jews and Christians, he urged the group to be "as wise as serpents and harmless as doves," quoting the words of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament.
"Every place where your feet tread, pray that it will be given back to Israel," he added.
On the Mount
Before climbing the ramp to the compound, the pilgrims were instructed to leave all Bibles, Israeli flags and any other apparently provocative items at the security checkpoint.
The group entered at the so-called Mughrabi Gate, before spreading out and walking in twos and threes around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Golden Gate.
Apart from Van der Hoeven's expulsion, the group reported no other incidents and departed the area after about an hour.
Unbridled Islamic incitement
While Christian and Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is not tolerated by the Islamic Authorities, Muslim clerics are free to foment hatred of the Jewish people and the State of Israel in weekly sermons in the mosques on the hill.
The Palestinian Authority-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrema Sabri, whose offices are situated inside the compound, has issued rulings upholding the longstanding practice banning the worship of any god other than Allah, the ancient Arabian moon god.
"It is forbidden for Muslims to permit non-Muslims to supervise, conduct services or pray in any part of the mosques or underneath them," he has said.
Sabri regularly stokes up rage against Israel and the United States while conducting Muslim Friday prayers for the thousands of Arabs freely permitted by Israel to attend the services.
Speaking in the Al Aqsa Mosque, Sabri has been recorded saying: "Oh Allah, destroy America! For she is ruled by Zionist Jews!! Allah shall take revenge on behalf of his prophet against the colonialist settlers who are sons of monkeys and pigs!! Forgive us, Mohammad, for the acts of these sons of monkeys and pigs, who sought to harm your sanctity!!"
Earlier this year, the official PA Radio broadcast live sermons from the Al Aqsa Mosque in which Sabri denounced the "criminal United States" and "rancorous Britain."
Sabri has appealed to Muslims everywhere "to stand as one rank, stop the aggression, and cleanse their territories of US military occupation�
"O Allah, make the plots of the aggressors backfire on them. O Allah, annihilate them to the last man. O Allah, protect Al-Aqsa Mosque from every evil. O Allah, protect Iraq and its people."
While Sabri's instatement as Mufti was in violation of the Oslo Accords, Israel has chosen not to make an issue of it.
Special Dispatch - Egypt
October 3, 2003
No. 583
Egyptian Ministry of Culture Publication: The Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock were Built to Divert the Pilgrimage from Mecca; Jerusalem was Not the Center of Worship for the Followers of the Prophet Muhammad
On August 5, 2003 Ahmad Muhammad 'Arafa, a columnist for the Egyptian weekly Al-Qahira, which is published by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, wrote an article rejecting the established Islamic doctrine that the Prophet Muhammad's celebrated "Night Journey" (Koran 17:1) took him from Mecca to Jerusalem. 'Arafa, presenting a new analysis of the Koranic text, asserts that the Night Journey in Surat Al-Isra' (that is, "the Sura of the Night Journey") in the Koran does not refer to a miraculous journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, but to the Prophet's emigration (Hijra) from Mecca to Medina.(1)
Two weeks later 'Arafa published another article(2) in the same weekly questioning the sanctity of Jerusalem in Islam. The following are excerpts from this article:
The Change in 'Qibla' Means Jerusalem Lost its Former Priority in Islam
"...Palestine was conquered [by the Muslims] in the year 17 A.H. [638 A. D.] in the time of 'Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, and in his day, the people [of Palestine] were beginning to adopt Islam. Hence, how could there have existed in Palestine, at the time of the Prophet [i.e. before Palestine was conquered by Islam], a mosque, be it called 'the most distant' [Arabic: al-aqsa] or not...
"Therefore, the mosque known today as the Al-Aqsa Mosque is not the one referred to by the Koranic words: 'From the Al-Haram Mosque [in Mecca] to the most distant mosque (al-aqsa).' It is true that the Prophet did direct himself in prayer, according to Allah's instructions, toward Iliya [i. e., Aelia] - the name of Jerusalem in that period - for 17 months, and then, instructed by Allah, he redirected himself to the Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca. Aelia was the center of worship for the Jews, as it continues to be. This means that, for a while, the Prophet shared with them their direction of prayer (qibla), and then he turned away from it toward another qibla...
"The change of qibla from Jerusalem to the Al-Haram Mosque [in Mecca] meant that Jerusalem was no longer the center of worship for the followers of Muhammad and that it no longer deserved to be respected by Muslims beyond what any historical city in their domain deserved. If this is not understood in this way [namely, that the change of qibla signifies that Jerusalem lost its previous religious status], then the change of qibla has no meaning..."
The Al-Aqsa Mosque was Built and Promoted in the Context of Political Rivalry
"When 'Abd Al-Malik Ibn Marwan became caliph and [his rival] Ibn Al-Zubayr held control of Hijaz, he [Caliph 'Abd Al-Malik] feared that the people would be inclined towards him [Ibn Al-Zubayr] when they made pilgrimage [to Mecca], because the only way they could enter Mecca and Medina was with Ibn Al-Zubayr's permission and under his control. And if he [Ibn Al-Zubayr] received them hospitably... then he would win the allegiance of many of them.... Therefore, 'Abd Al-Malik prevented people from making pilgrimage until [Ibn Al-Zubayr was defeated and] the war ended. He [Abd Al-Malik] began to build a large mosque in Jerusalem, which had been the first qibla. It is from this point in time that some transmitters of traditions started to promote the religious significance of this mosque and turn it into the 'third to the two holy mosques [of Mecca and Medina]'(3)....
"The new mosque [in Jerusalem] was first called 'the Mosque of Aelia,' and prophetic traditions were invented mentioning this name [so as to invest it with Islamic significance]. Then the name 'Al-Aqsa' was stolen for it [from the mosque in Medina], because it [i.e. the mosque of Aelia] was the most distant from Mecca and Medina. It was claimed that the Koranic expression 'the most distant mosque' referred to it [i.e. the mosque of Aelia] because the mosque of the Prophet [in Medina] was neither 'distant' nor 'most distant' for the people of Medina...(4)
"In sum, the mosque of Jerusalem, known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque, began to be built in the year 66 A.H. at the time of 'Abd Al-Malik Ibn Marwan, and construction was completed in the year 73 A. H. The religious connection of Muslims to Jerusalem ended with the change of the qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca. When 'Abd Al-Malik Ibn Marwan prevented the people of Syria and Iraq from performing pilgrimage for a number of years, so they should not be inclined towards Ibn Al-Zubayr, and began to build a large mosque in Aelia, religious traditions appeared glorifying this mosque and the Dome of the Rock. And it was called at first the Mosque of Aelia, and then the name of the mosque Al-Aqsa was stolen for it from the mosque of Medina. And what facilitated this [transfer of the name 'Al-Aqsa'] is that the people of Medina did not call [their mosque] 'distant' or 'most distant,' because it is a geographical term [which was not relevant to them].... We inherited these [traditions promoting the sanctity of Jerusalem] as if they were part of [the Islamic] religion."
Endnotes:
(1) For the previous article by 'Arafa, see http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP56403
(2) Al-Qahira (Egypt), August 19, 2003.
(3) The author is repeating a particular theory, expounded by I. Goldziher in 1890 (See Muhammedanische Studien, II, pp. 35-37; English translation: Muslim Studies II, pp. 44-45), that in building the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque 'Abd al-Malik was motivated by his desire to divert the Pilgrimage from Mecca to Jerusalem, as part of his campaign against Ibn al-Zubayr. This theory, which had been widely accepted, found its way into textbooks on Islamic history. It should, however, be noted that this theory was reexamined and refuted by S. D. Goitein (see "The Sanctity of Jerusalem and Palestine in Early Islam," in his Studies in Islamic History and Institutions, Leiden, 1966, pp. 135-137) and is no longer accepted in modern scholarship. Arafa begins this article with a quotation from Al-Uns al-jalil bi-ta'rikh al-quds wa'l-khalil, by Mujir al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman al-'Ulaymi al-Hanbali al-Maqdisi (810/1456-928/1522), stating that the Ummayad Caliph 'Abd Al-Malik Ibn Marwan decided to build the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to divert the pilgrimage away from Mecca - at that time controlled by his rival Ibn al-Zubayr - to Jerusalem, which was under his control and close to Damascus, his own capital. 'Arafa notes that he borrowed this quotation from an article by Ahmad 'Uthman on the dispute over Jerusalem's holy sites 'Awda ila 'l-khilaf 'ala muqaddasat al-aqsa, al-ha'it wa'l-masjid, published in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, November 19, 2000.
(4) The author explains that once the name Al-Aqsa was appropriated for the mosque in Jerusalem, this new name was incorporated into the various traditions that were disseminated in order to promote the Islamic significance of Jerusalem.
*********************
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.
MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with proper attribution.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: (202) 955-9070
Fax: (202) 955-9077
E-Mail: memri@memri.org
Structural collapse on Temple Mount
Muslims blame Israel for failure of interior wall in Al-Aqsa Mosque
Muslims blame Israel for failure of interior wall in Al-Aqsa Mosque
Posted: September 24, 2003, 9:17 p.m. Eastern, �2003 WorldNetDaily.com
An interior wall has collapsed at a hotly contested Jerusalem holy site, setting off fears of religious violence between Muslims and Jews.
The Islamic Waqf, which administers the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock shrines atop the Temple Mount, accused Israeli authorities of instigating the failure of the wall by preventing engineers from maintaining it.
The collapsed wall is situated near the Islamic Museum.
Adnan al-Husseini of the Waqf said the failure was the result of "the Israeli intervention in our work and preventing us from maintaining it after we stated it was in urgent need for a rapid action to prevent its collapse," according to multiple news reports from Israel.
"It looks terrible," said Eliat Mazar, an Israeli archaeologist and Temple Mount expert and a leader of the committee for preventing the destruction of antiquities at the site. "This collapse might cause a terrific series of collapses."
She charged the Waqf with directing "unsupervised" work in and around the Temple Mount resulting in the loss of archaeological treasures.
Last December, WorldNetDaily reported a huge bulge had developed in an outer southern wall on the 37-acre Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Israel waited for Jordanian engineers to repair it.
The Temple Mount is the foundation of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans. Because it is the only remnant of the foundation, it is considered the holiest site for observant Jews - perhaps the only true holy site. Muslims claim it is the third holiest in their faith because two mosques were constructed on the site hundreds of years later.
Despite the fact the Temple Mount is the only real estate in the world revered by Jews, Israel has turned over day-to-day administration of the area to the Waqf, an Islamic trust with close ties to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
A year-long dispute between Israel and the Waqf over who will fix the bulge was solved in October with a decision to involve the Jordanian engineers, who inspected and took a sampling of the protruding wall.
A report the engineers subsequently issued recommended replacing some of the eroding stones in the 2,000-year-old wall to prevent it from future collapse.
Israeli archeologists believe the bulge and the new wall collapse are due to unauthorized Waqf construction at an underground area known as Solomon's Stables, located on the other side of the wall. Reports say Muslim authorities are constructing yet another mosque at the Jewish holy site.
Faulty drainage was cited by the Antiquities Authority as the probable cause for the bulge in its report, issued last year.
Prior to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, Jordan was in charge of maintenance at the Temple Mount. In the years since, the PA, seeking to gain a foothold in Jerusalem, ousted both the Jordanian-appointed Waqf director and the Jerusalem mufti - both of whom had for years quietly cooperated with Israel - and replaced them with its own people.
Fearing renewed Palestinian violence, police barred non-Muslims from entering the Temple Mount for nearly two years after Ariel Sharon's controversial visit in September 2000, leaving the area without any archeological supervision. In recent weeks, non-Muslim tourists have been permitted back with police or military escorts.
Newsweek has called the southern wall "The Armageddon wall," because the old rocks help support an enormous stone platform that holds the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, among Islam's most sacred shrines.
Should it collapse, some archeologists fear a doomsday effect - dead worshippers, perhaps in the thousands, riots throughout the Middle East and charges that Israel is responsible. Fromhttp://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34776
THOUSANDS VISIT TEMPLE MOUNT SINCE ITS PEACEFUL REOPENING
In the two weeks since Jerusalem's Temple Mount has been reopened to non-Muslim visitors, thousands of Jews and Christians have peacefully passed through the ancient compound for the first time in nearly three years, in a hopeful sign of coexistence that was virtually unimaginable just months ago. Despite concerns over renewed Palestinian violence at the site, the weekday morning visits by a mix of Israelis and tourists have passed almost without incident since Israel reopened the compound to non-Muslim visits.
"We are thrilled to be able to come back here and visit, especially after the long closure," said American tourist Jeff Johns, who was leading a group of 33 members of his Indiana church on a visit to the Mount on Thursday.
After periods of sporadic, and at times, intense violence in and around the 35-acre plaza, the scene on the morning of September 4, as scores of Jews and Christians walked alongside Muslims on the stone-paved compound, was one of tranquility.
"It's essential to show how important this area is for us, and the best way of doing so is coming here in person," said Yosef Main, 26, of Kochav Hashahar in Samaria, as he toured the site and took photographs with a friend. The Cleveland-born Main said this was his second visit in as many weeks.
As a cooling breeze swept through the olive trees and cypresses, dozens of visitors walked the grounds including a low-profile visit by Likud MK Inbal Gavrieli. While small groups of Israeli policemen traversed the compound, guards from the Wakf (Moslem religious trust), which administers the site, stood at the entrances to the Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock ensuring that only Muslims enter.
The Wakf used to let tourists enter the mosque and shrine for a US $9 fee, but, for now, these areas remain closed to non-Muslims. During the height of tourism to Israel in the late 1990s, the Wakf would earn millions of dollars every year from the admission fees to Islam's third-holiest site.
But as Judaism's holiest site, observant Jews who visit the Temple Mount, which is now open to visitors free of charge Sunday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. would not enter these areas anyway, since it is not known precisely where the Holy of Holies stood.
On Thursday, an observant Jew wearing a name tag reading "The Temple Guard," was stationed at the entrance to the Temple Mount. He was informing religious Jews about what areas are off limits according to Halacha. "We tell people that they should immerse themselves in a mikve [ritual bath] before entry, not to walk inside with leather shoes, and to stay away from the area of the Holy of Holies," said Hillel Ben-Shlomo, the volunteer on duty.
After passing through a police metal detector on the ramp leading up to the Mugrabi Gate, the entry point for non-Muslims, visitors get a quick briefing by police about the rules: not to pray at the site (a right reserved for Muslims); not to enter the mosques; and not to stare at or enter into an altercation with any Islamic officials. After that preparatory explanation, visitors are allowed inside the green Mugrabi Gate, which stood barred since September 2000.
"This is the first time I have been up here in these past three years," said New York-born Nancy Bergin, as she walked into the compound.
Michael Covalin, 26, from Mexico, said he was not even aware the site had been closed off to non-Muslims and expressed disappointment that the Aksa Mosque he visited on his last trip was now shut. Covert contacts with the Wakf over the reopening of the site to non-Muslims apparently have borne fruit with only several isolated incidents of violence reported during the three-hour weekday morning visits.
Their public protestations notwithstanding, Wakf officials have reportedly received the backing of moderate Arab regimes such as Jordan, and the support of a key Saudi prince to reopen the site in the face of virulent opposition to the move by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
At 11 a.m. policemen approached visitors on the mount and notified them in English that visiting hours were drawing to a close. Non-Muslims were told to exit via the Chain Gate. (Excerpted from an article by Etgar Lefkovits, The Jerusalem Post, September 4, 2003)
YESHA RABBIS: A "MITZVAH" TO VISIT TEMPLE MOUNT
The Yesha Rabbis Council issued a Halakhic ruling today not only permitting Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount, but even mandating it, contingent upon proper precautions. Excerpts from the announcement of the ruling:
"...One of the rabbis commented that by refraining from ascending, we are thereby declaring to the world as if we, G-d forbid, have no part in the Mountain of G-d - and we thus strengthen the Arabs' feeling that the Temple Mount is theirs.
"The public is not aware that many rabbis are of the opinion that we currently have the information necessary to enable one to ascend without transgressing, and that therefore those who permit it are not being 'lenient' and are not disputing those who came before them - but are rather clearly relying on that which is now known.
"We therefore call on every rabbi who [agrees with this] to actually visit the Temple Mount, and to guide his congregants in doing so according to Halakhah [Jewish law]. It is a disgrace for us that the Arabs - 'who say let us seize for ourselves the pastures of G-d' [Psalms 88] - ascend to the site by the tens of thousands, while barely any Jews do so...
"All those who continue to feel that it is forbidden did not check the matter sufficiently, and forbade it only because of uncertainty [as to the permitted locations] - but this doubt has been cleared up, and it can be clearly delineated where on the Mount we are permitted to walk.
"It is our tradition that 'we do not add decrees.' In order to forbid something, the Sanhedrin, or all the generation's Torah leaders, would have to convene and make this decision - but that has not occurred, and therefore the Law remains as it was, namely, permitting ascent to the Temple Mount, as Maimonides himself did and as the Meiri testified that it is a 'common-place custom' to do so. Even a prophet cannot uproot a commandment except as a temporary measure.�
"Those who wish to be extra careful [should know that] their stringency is leading to a leniency, in that many people who would be happy to follow the Halakhah actually transgress it out of ignorance - simply because the proper laws are not publicized."
The Yesha Rabbis' announcement, which quotes Maimonides' ruling [Biat HaMikdash 3,4], states that one who ascends to the Mount while adhering to three conditions - immersion in a mikveh; keeping the laws of Awe of the Temple (no leather shoes, etc.); and knowledge of the precise permitted areas - is fulfilling a "great mitzvah [Torah commandment]."
The rabbis also praise Public Security Minister Tzachi HaNegbi for his efforts in opening the site to Jews.
MOSLEM CLAIM TO JERUSALEM RESTS ON WOBBLY VERSE
A commentator in the official Egyptian government weekly, of all places, writes this week (see below) that the entire Moslem claim on Jerusalem and El-Aksa is based on a mistaken reading of one chapter of the Quran. Ahmed Mahmad Oufa wrote that the verse that mentions a night journey by Muhammed to a mosque has nothing to do with Jerusalem, as is generally claimed, but with a mosque near the holy Moslem city of Medina.
Prof. Moshe Sharon, Middle Eastern expert in the Hebrew University, expressed great surprise at the fact that such an article would be published in Arabic and in an Arabic-speaking country. Speaking with Arutz-7 today, he said, "All in all, this is not a new claim. We must remember that Jerusalem is not mentioned at all in the Quran [though it is mentioned hundreds of time in the Bible - ed. note]. The verse in question is in Sura [chapter] 17, which states that Muhammad was brought at night from one mosque to a "more distant" - aktsa, in Arabic - mosque. The first Moslem commentators did not explain this as referring to Jerusalem at all, of course, but rather as a miraculous night journey or night vision or some such. In the beginning of the 8th century, however, they began associating this with Jerusalem, because they had a need to start giving sanctity to Jerusalem, and so they started connecting this verse with Jerusalem... Originally, however, the Moslems recognized the area of the Dome of the Rock as holy because of the Jewish Temple of King Solomon."
This last point may be borne out, Nissan Ratzlav-Katz notes, by the fact that the modern Arabic name for Jerusalem, Al-Quds, is adapted from the original Arabic name for the Temple Mount: Bayt al-Maqdis - or Beit HaMikdash [Hebrew for Holy Temple].
It should further be noted that the Al Aksa mosque was built on the Temple Mount 621 years after Mohammed's death.
THOUSANDS CIRCLE JERUSALEM GATES
Thousands of Jews once again took part last night in the monthly Jerusalem Gates March - "Sivuv She'arim" - inside and just outside of the Old City. Participant Yocheved Golani reports that the air was filled with "the ascending hopes of the proud Jews who celebrated the holiness and history of the precious location." Other sounds heard intermittently were drums, shofar-blasts, Psalms, music, singing, and public invitations to come and visit the Temple Mount in accordance with Jewish Law.
Among the sights, reports Golani, were "card-playing shopkeepers [and Arab] store vendors shutting their metal gates [trying] to appear nonchalant as the crowds passed them by," as well as "white, blue and black flags depicting the rebuilt Temple" and strategically-placed flags indicating the names of the various gates for the marchers' edification.
Rewriting History: Official Egyptian Government Website Denies Existence of Second Temple on Temple Mount
Introduction: Jerusalem in history
All along human history, Jerusalem has always been an Arab Palestinian city. There is no clearer evidence than the events and incidents of history that prove this Arab right with documents and scientific facts. Thus, all relevant UN resolutions, especially Resolutions no. 181/1947 and no. 194/1949, which called for preserving Jerusalem and its international status under the UN Mandate Council have recently came to memory. The UN Mandate Council succeeded in setting up then Statute of the international government of the Jerusalem.
Yet, Israel has always turned blind eye to the international community. It usurped West Jerusalem in 1948. Then it occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. Moreover, it declared in 1980 Jerusalem as its eternal unified capital.
In its famous Resolution 242/1967, the UN Security Council (UNSC) announced the illegitimacy of Israeli usurping of lands by means of war. The UNSC also confirmed in its Resolution 252 issued on May 12, 1968 that seizing lands by means of military invasion is an unacceptable matter. It called upon Israel to cancel all measures it took to change the status of the City.
Moreover, the UNSC reaffirmed in its Resolutions 267/1969, 298/1971, 478/1980, 592/1986, 672, 673, 681/1990 and 904/1994 that the measures taken by Israel to change the legal status of Jerusalem are illegitimate. It called upon Israel to refrain from taking any such measures.
However, Israel is still challenging the will of the international community by proceeding in Judaizing Jerusalem and creating a new status quo in the Holy City.
Historical facts prove that Jerusalem has witnessed Arab urban and human stability since the year 3000 BC. In 2500 BC, Arab Jebusites, descendants of the Jebusite Ben Canaan, made the City their capital and called it Orsalem, from which the Europeans derived Jerusalem, which means the City of Light.
In 1479 BC, the City came under the Pharaohs, in the era of Thutmose III. Pharaos used to govern Palestine through one of its citizens. In 1006 BC, the City came under the rule of kings David and Solomon consecutively. During the rule of King Solomon, a wall around the City, in addition to the Temple, were built. After the death of King Solomon, the City was divided into two kingdoms, Judea in Jerusalem and Israel in Samarrah. The Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar expelled the Jews from the two kingdoms. In 580 BC, he destroyed the City, burned the Temple and expatriated the Jews to Babylon in Iraq.
Since then, namely 600 years BC, the political history of the Jews had ended in Palestine. In 539 BC, the Persians invaded Palestine and annexed it to their kingdom. Subsequently, Judea tribe came back from Babylon to Jerusalem.
In 232 BC., Alexander the Great invaded Palestine and annexed it to the Greek Empire. Afterwards, Mark Antonio reinvaded it in 189 BC. Then came the Nabataean Arabs to invade it in 90 BC as was annexed to their capital till the Roman invasion in the 1st. Century AD.
Under the Roman reign, the Jews informed the Roman ruler about Jesus Christ in 27 AD and accused him of atheism. Consequently, the Roman ruler crushed them all and destroyed the City and established a new one where the Jews were inhibited to enter.
Then came the Arabs who opened Palestine In 636 AD. during the rule of Caliph Omar Ibn El Khattab. They entered Jerusalem and preserved all its holy places intact.
Since then and for 1361 years, Jerusalem remained a pure Arab city in population and language. It was under a continuous Islamic rule whether Arab, Mamelukes or Ottoman, except from 1096 to 1291 when it was occupied by the Crusaders.
In 1930, a sub-committee of the League of Nations issued a historic resolution stipulating the international recognition of the Arab right in Jerusalem. That resolution stressed that:
1- The Muslims are the sole owners of the West Wall of Al Aqsa Mosque.
2- The Muslims are the owners of the pavement beside the Wall.
3- Worship-related instruments used by the Jews near the Wall do not give the Jews any right in the Wall or the pavement.
That was an important international document proving that Jerusalem belongs solely to the Arabs. It refutes the Israeli allegations that unified Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel.
In violation of all international conventions and agreements, Israel has carried out many excavations under Al Aqsa Mosque in an attempt to find historical scripts to prove its alleged right in Jerusalem. On the contrary, those excavations have proven the following:
1- Excavations under the western wall (the base of the so-called Wailing Wall) proved nothing related to the Israelis. All What they found were only two sentences on some rocks about Isaiah engraved in type of writing that makes attributing them to Kings David or Solomon impossible.
2- Excavations proved that the Jewish temple had been totally ruined thousands of years ago. This was clearly cited in the relevant Jewish references. Dr. Cathleen Cabinpus, Director of Excavations in the Jerusalem-based School for Monuments, affirmed that there was no trace of the Temple of Solomon.
3- Al Aqsa Mosque was built on a site far from that of the Temple of Solomon. Al Aqsa is directed towards Al Ka'aba, in Mecca, while the Temple was a rectangular building directed from west to east. (See "The Covenant with Omar," http://www.sis.gov.eg/jerusalem/html/omar.htm)
4- There is no historical evidence that Al Bouraq Wall, the so-called Wailing Wall, was part of the Temple of Solomon. Besides, the real name of this wall is Al Bouraq Wall as mentioned by Prophet Mohammed, PBUH in his Hadith (speech) about his journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and his Ascension to seventh heavens.
According to this solid ground, the League of Nations admitted the Muslim ownership of the Wall. On its part, Israel has, since its occupation of Jerusalem, taken monolateral measures to Judaize the City, a matter that is considered a flagrant violation of all relevant international norms. These measures included the following:
1- Dissolving the City's municipality,
2- Closing down civil and Arab courts and imposing Israeli laws on the City,
3- Imposing Israeli education curricula in schools and institutes,
4- Closing down Arab banks in addition to levying Israeli taxes on the Palestinians and making of the Shekel the official currency,
5- The Palestinians are not allowed entry to Jerusalem without a prior permit. Thus the City became isolated from the West Bank,
6- Forcing the Palestinians to leave the City by applying oppressive laws that allow demolition of Arab houses, confiscation of Arab lands,
7- Usurping the properties of the Palestinian refugees,
8- Imposing the Israeli nationality on Palestinians,
9- Prohibiting goods, vegetables and fruits imports from the West Bank to
Jerusalem a matter that has negative impact on the Palestinian economy,
10- Depending on Jewish extremists in establishing the settlements,
11- Completing Judaizing of the City by issuing the Knesset Law in 1980, stipulating the unification of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel.
That Law was rejected by all international bodies concerned, especially the UNSC, which issued its Resolution no. 178/1980 rejecting that Israeli Law.
In another aggression, the Israeli government decided in 17, June 1998 to expand Jerusalem to include lands from the occupied Arab lands to the east and south of Jerusalem. In response, the UNSC described that Decision as dangerous and harmful. The UNSC issued a statement in July 13, 1998, in which it called upon the Israeli government to cancel that decision. The UNSC stressed the importance of avoiding such acts taken before the final status negotiations come to results.
However, Israel has always trodden down all resolutions of the international legitimacy. It is usurping Arab lands, demolishing Arab houses, and nullifying Arab identity in the City and expanding Jewish settlements with a view to judaizing Jerusalem. (Egypt State Information Service, http://www.us.sis.gov.eg/
Organized Religious Tours On Temple Mount
11:45 Aug 24, '03 / 26 Av 5763
For the first time since shortly after the Six-Day War - according to Temple Mount Faithful members - large organized groups of religious Jews visited the Temple Mount this morning. Three groups totaling over 100 people, all of whom immersed in a mikveh (ritual bath) prior to the visit, entered the Temple Mount compound, and circled the compound from within accompanied by a professional guide.
One of the participants, a member of the Temple Mount Faithful, enthusiastically told Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson today, "This is most definitely a turning point in terms of our efforts on behalf of this holy site. We had a feeling of freedom. The police specifically did not tell us that we were not allowed to pray, and I would even say that they turned a blind eye when they saw some of us saying Psalms in groups of 2 and 3. Some of our group even bowed down on the ground..."
"Until now," he continued, "when religious Jews were allowed up, it was only in small groups of two or three or four, closely guarded by a policeman on one side and a Waqf official on the other. We were not even allowed to talk too much, and certainly not to recite Psalms. This time, we were free to walk around for over an hour, and our guide, Yoel Elitzur, even took us to places on the eastern half of the compound. We of course avoided all places that according to some rabbinic opinions are forbidden halakhically."
The Temple Mount loyalist gave a "pat on the back" to Public Security Minister Tzachi HaNegbi, "who was instrumental not only for the visit itself, but was also apparently responsible for the police's benign approach."
Another participant noted that not everything was roses, however. Fifty people waiting to enter were not allowed to do so, "because the Waqf people act as if the site belongs to them, and they close the gates at 11:00. It was heart-breaking to see people who came from all over the country, including a bridegroom whose wedding is tonight, being sent away without being let in... In addition, one person who insisted on wearing only socks [Jewish Law forbids leather shoes on the Mount, and he hadn't brought slippers] was thrown out and is not allowed to visit the site for 15 days... It's a disgrace."
The first-quoted visitor said, "We see this as a great turning point, and praise the police for 'ignoring' our prayers today - but we want Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount to be truly free... From now on, until further notice, groups of this type will be allowed up every morning until 11 AM - and so the ball is now in our court."
Yoel Elitzur, the first group's guide, later told Arutz-7, "Until now, when we were allowed up [long ago], it was a humiliating process, with identity cards and phone checks, etc. - but this time it was much different. Early this morning, I went with my 11-year-old son to the Wall, after having gone to the mikveh and making sure to complete the morning prayers by 8 AM, when the Temple Mount gate opened. It was very exciting. We waited around for a short while until a group gathered, in accordance with a police request. The basic feeling was that even though there were limitations, we were basically free... The ruins that the Arabs made there with their recent construction work were not visible to us; they are basically underground. What they destroyed is already in the garbage dumps of Jerusalem."
Elitzur made a special call to Arutz-7's listeners:
"I would like to say that I see as one of the greatest moment in world history the announcement during the Six-Day War that 'the Temple Mount is in our hands.' There was great excitement, followed by a great disappointment with what could be called a national treachery there, and we were thrown out of the Temple Mount in a humiliating way - and it could be that we deserved it, because the number of visitors was so meager that simply was not honor to G-d... I take part every month in the march around the Temple Mount gates. I feel that this is an event that has much 'siyata dishmaya' [Divine Providence], in that it has grown from a few dozen to a few thousand participants in a matter of months. I ask myself, 'Are we allowed to let this 'siyata dishmaya' go to waste?' I am sure that the great strength of these thousands can be used - and I call upon them, as well as those who did not take part, to fulfill the Halakhah [Jewish law], immerse in the mikveh as required, and come to the Temple Mount, and take advantage of this new situation. Let us change this degrading situation in which this most holy spot on earth has been Judenrein, and let's have Jews once again be regulars on the 'Mount of the House of our G-d.'" (http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com/news.php3?id=48570).
More News: The report below is very important. As is stated in the report, this is the first time in over 35 years that more than 3-4 Jews were allowed on the Temple Mount all at once. In this case some of the groups numbered 30 and 40!
This Wednesday, at 6:00 PM Israel Time (U.S.: 11:00 AM ET/8:00 AM PT - other times listed at end of report) the Temple Mount Faithful, Women in Green, and thousands of others will be marching around (perhaps on?) the Temple Mount for the new moon festival. Please join us in prayer as we seek the L-rd's intervention for the Temple to be rebuilt. Pray for strength for Israel to re-take complete control of the Temple Mount and remove the pagan shrines that desecrate the holy place.
.....................................................................
ORGANIZED RELIGIOUS TOURS ON TEMPLE MOUNT
For the first time since shortly after the Six-Day War - according to Temple Mount Faithful members - large organized groups of religious Jews visited the Temple Mount this morning. Three groups totaling over 100 people, all of whom immersed in a mikveh (ritual bath) prior to the visit, entered the Temple Mount compound, and circled the compound from within accompanied by a professional guide.
One of the participants, a member of the Temple Mount Faithful, enthusiastically told Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson today, "This is most definitely a turning point in terms of our efforts on behalf of this holy site. We had a feeling of freedom. The police specifically did not tell us that we were not allowed to pray, and I would even say that they turned a blind eye when they saw some of us saying Psalms in groups of 2 and 3. Some of our group even bowed down on the ground..."
"Until now," he continued, "when religious Jews were allowed up, it was only in small groups of two or three or four, closely guarded by a policeman on one side and a Waqf official on the other. We were not even allowed to talk too much, and certainly not to recite Psalms. This time, we were free to walk around for over an hour, and our guide, Yoel Elitzur, even took us to places on the eastern half of the compound. We of course avoided all places that according to some rabbinic opinions are forbidden halakhically."
The Temple Mount loyalist gave a "pat on the back" to Public Security Minister Tzachi HaNegbi, "who was instrumental not only for the visit itself, but was also apparently responsible for the police's benign approach."
Another participant noted that not everything was roses, however. Fifty people waiting to enter were not allowed to do so, "because the Waqf people act as if the site belongs to them, and they close the gates at 11:00. It was heart-breaking to see people who came from all over the country, including a bridegroom whose wedding is tonight, being sent away without being let in... In addition, one person who insisted on wearing only socks [Jewish Law forbids leather shoes on the Mount, and he hadn't brought slippers] was thrown out and is not allowed to visit the site for 15 days... It's a disgrace."
The first-quoted visitor said, "We see this as a great turning point, and praise the police for 'ignoring' our prayers today - but we want Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount to be truly free... From now on, until further notice, groups of this type will be allowed up every morning until 11 AM - and so the ball is now in our court."
Yoel Elitzur, the first group's guide, later told Arutz-7, "Until now, when we were allowed up [long ago], it was a humiliating process, with identity cards and phone checks, etc. - but this time it was much different. Early this morning, I went with my 11-year-old son to the Wall, after having gone to the mikveh and making sure to complete the morning prayers by 8 AM, when the Temple Mount gate opened. It was very exciting. We waited around for a short while until a group gathered, in accordance with a police request. The basic feeling was that even though there were limitations, we were basically free... The ruins that the Arabs made there with their recent construction work were not visible to us; they are basically underground. What they destroyed is already in the garbage dumps of Jerusalem."
Elitzur made a special call to Arutz-7's listeners: "I would like to say that I see as one of the greatest moment in world history the announcement during the Six-Day War that 'the Temple Mount is in our hands.' There was great excitement, followed by a great disappointment with what could be called a national treachery there, and we were thrown out of the Temple Mount in a humiliating way - and it could be that we deserved it, because the number of visitors was so meager that simply was not honor to G-d... I take part every month in the march around the Temple Mount gates. I feel that this is an event that has much 'siyata dishmaya' [Divine Providence], in that it has grown from a few dozen to a few thousand participants in a matter of months. I ask myself, 'Are we allowed to let this 'siyata dishmaya' go to waste?' I am sure that the great strength of these thousands can be used - and I call upon them, as well as those who did not take part, to fulfill t he Ha lakhah [Jewish law], immerse in the mikveh as required, and come to the Temple Mount, and take advantage of this new situation. Let us change this degrading situation in which this most holy spot on earth has been Judenrein, and let's have Jews once again be regulars on the 'Mount of the House of our G-d.'"
TEMPLE MOUNT CLOSED EARLY; WHAT DOES JEWISH LAW SAY?
Another group of some 40 religious Jews ascended to the Temple Mount today, but a group of Moslems caused a disturbance, and in the end, the holy site was closed to Jewish visitors earlier than planned.�
The Temple Mount has been opened and closed several times of late: it was closed almost totally after the outbreak of the Oslo War in September 2000, and re-opened to religious Jews for the first time last month - but only, as in the past, to small groups of 2-4 people.
During the week of Tisha B'Av - when Jews mourn over the destruction of the Temples that stood on the Mount - the site was abruptly closed again, for what the police mysteriously called "operational reasons." Public Security Minister Tzachi HaNegbi said at the time that Jews would soon be allowed to visit once again, and in fact yesterday morning, large groups of 40 at a time were allowed to ascend. Participants said that only minimal restrictions were placed upon them. After this morning's disturbances, however, the police closed the site - first to religious Jews and then to everyone. They said that they would open the mount this afternoon, but did not do so. Tomorrow's schedule is currently not clear, but many supporters plan to be there at 8 AM in any event.
Does Halakhah [Jewish law] permit Jews to enter the Temple Mount? The Bible specifically forbids those who are ritually impure - as we are today - from entering the inner areas of the Holy Temple. However, many hareidi and religious-Zionist rabbis say that after immersion in a mikveh [ritual bath] and taking other precautions, one may enter the other areas of the Temple Mount. Rabbi Yehuda Edri, of the Movement to Establish the Temple, a principal and educational supervisor for ten years in the hareidi Shas Party's El HaMa'yan educational system, spoke about this with Yosef Zalmanson today. "Several of our great sages of the Rishonim period," he said, "such as Maimonides and Ishtori HaParchi, actually set foot on the Temple Mount. In addition, Rabbi Akiva Eiger [d. 1837] tried to find out if the Turks would allow Jews to bring the Passover offering... Over the centuries, the Jews simply got used to not frequenting the Temple Mount because the Moslems allowed neither Christians nor Jews to do so."
Rabbi Edri said that even now, "not one religious authority forbids entry into the Temple Mount per se. It is only that because the sin of entering the Holy of Holies is so grave, they are afraid that Jews who either don't know or don't care will also ascend to the Temple Mount and will enter the wrong places. But this does not affect Jews who do know and who are careful." He agreed that these rulings, ironically, prevent only knowledgeable Jews from entering, while having no influence on those whose entry they wish to stop.
Rabbi Edri said that many members of the hareidi community, including leading rabbis, agree that entry to the Mount under rabbinical supervision is acceptable - but they do not wish to say so publicly. Among those who are outspoken on this topic are Rabbi Yisrael Appel of Bnei Brak, who has discussed this issue with many hareidi rabbis and confirmed this; the well-known Sochatchover educator and Temple Mount supporter Rabbi Yosef Elbaum; Rabbi Yosef Rothstein, Rosh Yeshivat Keter HaTorah in Jerusalem; the Nadvorne Rebbe, Rabbi Elimelech Leifer; Rabbi Yosef Laufer, head of the Kotel HaKatan Kollel; Rabbi Tzvi Rogen, head of Yeshivat Beit HaBechirah in Jerusalem; Rabbi Zalman Koren, who wrote a work on the matter of the permitted place on the Temple Mount; and others.
Zalmanson asked, "What of those who fear that by entering the holy and controversial compound, we are provoking the nations of the world?" Rabbi Edri said, "On the contrary, we know that in order to conquer it, we are allowed to enter the area even while impure. This is our way of asserting our rights to this holy spot! In fact, the Shabak (General Security Service) has long been in favor of allowing Jewish entry, for exactly this reason - so as not to leave a 'vacuum' in which we abandon our sovereignty. Those who feel that it's a provocation, it's because for so many years we lived in the Exile and had to be worried about what they goyim would do, so we closed ourselves off into the shtiebel... But now, thank G-d, we have a State, and an army, and we can assert our rights. We must remember that foreigners' hold on the Land of Israel is based on their hold on the Temple Mount - the stronger they are there, the stronger they are in the whole country. The Moslems, for many centuries, never claimed that this spot was holy to the m - o nly of late have they done so, in response to [our conquest in the Six-Day War] - and this shows that it's just political machinations on their part."�
Rabbi Edri said that former Chief Rabbis Bakshi-Doron and Lau asked Rabbi Yisrael Ariel of the Temple Institute to prepare a pamphlet on the topic: "Rabbi Ariel proved conclusively that the rock under the Dome of the Rock is in fact the Holy of Holies, in accordance with all the accepted opinions. Based on this, he determined the exact places we are permitted to walk. All that is needed is to immerse, not to wear leather shoes - and to know the precise route."
Thanks to the intensive and constant campaign of The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement over the last 3 years since the Temple Mount was closed to non-Moslems, the government of Israel today reopened the Temple Mount to Israelis, Jews, Christians and non-Moslems. It was so important to hear from the Israeli Minister of Internal Security that the Temple Mount will never again be closed to Israelis, Jews, Christians and non-Moslems.
Three years ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (at that time leader of the opposition) went up on the Temple Mount to demonstrate Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount and in this way to declare to everyone in the world and to the enemies of Israel that the Temple Mount is the holiest site of Israel and the Jewish People and the location of the First, Second and Third Temples. The Arabs - so-called "Palestinians" - under the leadership of the arch-murderer and terrorist, Yasser Arafat, and his bands in the PLO, immediately started bloody terror attacks against innocent Israelis in the midst of the land of Israel. They stated that this was as a reaction to Ariel Sharon going up onto the Temple Mount. They understood what some forgot that the end-time destiny of Israel will be decided on the Temple Mount and that once they are removed from the most holy site of the G-d and people of Israel and the Third Temple built, they will be completely removed from all the land of Israel and an end will come to their bloody wars against Israel and the kingdom of the G-d of Israel will be established in Jerusalem, all over Israel and in all the world. Also their goals to destroy Israel and to occupy all the world and make it an Islamic world will come to an end.
Since the Six Day War, the Temple Mount Faithful Movement has called on all the governments in Israel to bring about this godly end-time redemptional cause which will redeem Jerusalem and all the land of Israel, remove the enemies from the land and bring redemption, not only to Israel, but to all the world. We called on the governments in Israel not to fear the many Arab Islamic enemies of Israel nor even all the world but to obey and fulfil the end-time word to Israel to trust in the G-d of Israel and his promises to defeat and judge all the many enemies of Israel and their allies all over the world and to make His end-time commandment to Israel a reality in this generation which G-d decided would be the end-time generation of redemption. He promised us that only this will bring a real peace in Israel and all over the world and establish His kingdom in Jerusalem, Israel and all over the world:
"The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. And many people shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for from Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall decide for many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." (Isaiah 2:1-5)
Today many members of the Temple Mount Faithful Movement and more than 150 Israelis today went up to the most holy site of Israel and all the world, the eternal location of the First and Second Temples as well as that of the Third Temple which is soon to be built. It was an exciting day for all of us and a great hope and opening for the fulfilment of The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement's cause and goal, by the Israeli Government, to remove the foreign Arab Islamic occupation from the holy mountain of the G-d and people of Israel and to rebuild the house of G-d, the end-time Temple, soon in our lifetime as the main mission and goal of this generation in Israel.
The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement will continue her godly historical campaign to soon fulfil these goals which are the main word and commandment of the G-d of Israel to our generation. Today's opening of the Temple Mount to everyone in the world, despite the Arab Islamic attempt to keep it closed to all non-Moslems, is the first step to make Temple Mount Faithful Movement's goals a reality in our lifetime. Israel was dedicated by G-d to build His end-time house, the Third Temple, to bring the G-d of Israel, His values, laws, morals and principles to the centre of the life of the people and land of Israel and to make His house a house of prayer, worship and love for Israel and all the nations exactly as G-d commanded us through His prophet, Isaiah -
"Also the sons of the stranger, who join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one who keeps the sabbath and does not profane it, and all who hold fast to my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those who are already gathered." (Isaiah 56:6-8)
The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement will continue even more intensively to make today's opening of the Temple Mount a first stage in the fulfilment of her godly end-time causes. Nobody can stop the G-d of Israel from leading this process and soon bringing it to completion in our lifetime. Everyone in the world should be a part of this, the biggest cause ever; to stand with the Temple Mount Faithful Movement in her campaign and struggle; to assist her morally, spiritually and practically to bring it to pass in our lifetime. G-d gave us this privilege. Let us not miss it.
In G-d we trust.
Pictures for the previous articles will soon appear on our web site.
The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement
P.O. Box 18325
91182 Jerusalem, ISRAEL
Tel: +972(2)625-1112 Tel/Fax: +972(2)625-1113
Web Site: http://www.templemountfaithful.org
TEMPLE MOUNT WILL BE RE-OPENED NEXT WEEK: Public Security Minister Tzachi HaNegbi announced this week that the Temple Mount would be opened next week to Jews and Christians. Although some Moslems have called the announcement premature, and some left-wing Israelis have criticized HaNegbi's "provocative" declaration, it appears that Egyptian-mediated negotiations with the Waqf have in fact been successful and that the site will be opened. A Moslem official said today that the reason for the Waqf's sudden consent is economic, as the influx of tourists would mean significant financial profits for the Waqf. (Jerusalem Post) (August 13, 2003)
1930 Moslem Council: Jewish Temple Mount ties 'beyond dispute'
By Etgar Lefkovits - The Jerusalem Post 26 January 2001
JERUSALEM (January 26) - Although Islamic Wakf officials are currently denying any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, a 1930 booklet about the site published by the supreme Moslem body in Jerusalem during the British Mandate states categorically that the site's identification with the First Temple is "beyond dispute."
Published by the Supreme Moslem Council, the nine-page English-language tourist guide, entitled A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, a copy of which was obtained by The Jerusalem Post, states: "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings." A footnote refers the reader to 2 Samuel 26:25.
The Supreme Moslem Council "was the supreme Moslem body appointed by the British Government during the Mandate period to administer the Moslem affairs in Palestine which included Wakf affairs," said Dr. Eli Reches, an Arab affairs expert at Tel Aviv University.
The booklet focuses on the Moslem connection to the site, with the authors stating clearly: "... for the purposes of this Guide, which confines itself to the Moslem period, the starting point is the year 637 A.D."
But Judaism's unequivocal connection to the Temple Mount comes up again on the last page of the booklet, which discusses the "substructures" of the Dome of the Rock.
Describing the area of Solomon's Stables, which Islamic Wakf officials converted into a new mosque in 1996, the guide states: "...little is known for certain about the early history of the chamber itself. It dates probably as far back as the construction of Solomon's Temple... According to Josephus, it was in existence and was used as a place of refuge by the Jews at the time of the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 A.D."
The guide mentions in passing Christianity's connection to Solomon's Stables. "We also know that this space was used by the Knights Templar as stables and the holes to which they tethered their horses can still be seen in the masonry of the piers... The contrast between lower and upper courses of the larger piers would tend to show that they belong to two distinct periods, and that the upper parts and the vaults of Arab construction [are] superimposed upon ancient foundations."
The guide also refers to Christianity's link to a small chamber in the vast subterranean structure, "which was believed in medieval times to have been associated with Jesus Christ's infancy, a belief that was prevalent long before the advent of the Crusaders, and was subsequently accepted by them."
Published by the Moslem Orphanage Press as a visitor's guide to the site and priced at 200 mils, the booklet contains seven full-page photographs of the Dome of the Rock which the guide says were reproduced courtesy of the American Colony.
This week, Palestinian Authority Mufti Ikrima Sabri, interviewed by the German Die Welt said, "There is not [even] the smallest indication of the existence of a Jewish temple on this place in the past. In the whole city, there is not even a single stone indicating Jewish history."
Tisha B'Av
Tisha B'Av begins tonight, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. This is the day on which both the First and Second Holy Temples were destroyed (and many other calamities also befell the Jewish people on this day). Fasting and the recital of the Biblical scroll of Lamentations mark the day, and Jews observe rites of mourning. In order for us to be totally focused on the loss of the Temple, we all become mourners for one day, and tonight we will conduct ourselves accordingly, in the manner of those who have (Heaven forbid) suffered the loss of a close relative. For example: we refrain from wearing leather shoes and grooming, we do not greet one another, and we sit upon the ground.
When the seven-day mourning period for a relative draws to a close, the mourner must rise up from the ground and begin to resume his life and get his act together again, though that is sometimes a formidable and nearly-impossible task for one whose world has been drastically and irrevocably changed. In fact, it is traditional for another relative or friend to actually extend a hand and pull the mourner up physically from the ground. Otherwise, left on his own he may never get up off the ground--that is how it difficult it is for him to face his harsh new reality.
Our sages teach us that complacency and foot-dragging in building the Holy Temple leads to punishment for all of Israel. This was the reason for the death of all those thousands who fell in war and in plague in the time of King David. They only fell because they did actively seek the building of the Temple (Midrash Tehillim 17). This teaches us that the entire nation was faulted and punished for delaying the building. The words of the Midrash conclude: "How much more so does this apply! For if that generation, which never even saw the Temple--it was neither built nor destroyed in their time--was punished for not expressing desire for it, how much more so are we guilty. For it was destroyed in our generation, and we neither mourn for it nor seek mercy regarding it."
It behooves us to regard ourselves as the generation in which the Temple was destroyed, for two reasons. The first is because the sages teach that "every generation in which the Holy Temple is not rebuilt, is reckoned as the generation in which it is destroyed." But the second reason is simply because in our own time it is being destroyed all over again. The Temple Mount has been closed to non-Moslem visitors for nearly three years, with the exception of a small number of groups who were permitted to visit recently, until Moslem pressure and threats once again forced its closure. In the meantime, while Jerusalem's mayor speaks in a totally unacceptable manner about Jews who wish to ascend the mount in purity � demonstrating his gross insensitivity and disconnection to Judaism's holiest site � the Temple Mount is gradually becoming the center of Islamic fundamentalism in the Land of Israel.
The Temple Mount is both the spiritual center and apex of Israel. In Hebrew it is Har HaBayit, the "Mountain of the House" --for it is not just another place, another problem, another issue--it is the house, it is home. Thus it is everything, and without it we have no home. But it is also a microcosm of Israel's entirety, and thus it is only the tip of the iceberg and the treatment is receives is demonstrative of everything else going on around us: leaders who try to lull us into believing in the false hudna, even though violence and incitement still rage all around us and experts inform us that the enemy is just using this time to prepare more attacks against us; leaders who are willing to pump millions into a "security fence" designed to keep the Jews fenced into a ghetto in their own land, instead of dealing with the real problem.
The rites of mourning are an important and constructive vehicle for aiding in the psychological rehabilitation of one who has suffered an irreparable loss. However, the rites of mourning, if unaccompanied by a proper resolve, can be nothing more than self-deception, a ruse--the mourning game.
Are we really mourning for the Holy Temple, or are we satisfying ourselves with the trappings of mourning, satisfied to be acting out the part? Are we doing all we can? It is much more convenient to mourn than it is to attempt to rebuild. The true measure of the sincerity of our mourning should be measured in our attitude regarding the Holy Temple and the Temple Mount during the rest of the year, when it is not so stylish to be concerned with this subject. What are we doing about it all year long, to ensure that we will not have to mourn again this Tisha B'Av?
It was one thing to mourn for the Temple when we were strangers in a foreign land, and the Holy Temple was nothing more than the memory of a far-off dream. Should we be acting the same way in our own land, pretending that we are strangers in our own land, and lending a hand in our own destruction? It would seem that we cannot afford to keep on doing what we have been doing for the past thousand years.
Everyone familiar with therapy knows that rather than accept responsibility, it's much easier to simply blame the parent. But G-d commands us to be sovereigns in our own land; G-d commands us to build the Temple. It is much easier and far less threatening to mourn than it is to build. If the king desires that we join in the meal and sit with him at the table, why should we insist upon demeaning ourselves by sitting under the table?
Before and after Tisha B'av we traditionally greet each other by saying, "Next year, may this day turn into a holiday." But if we really � really � want to see the nation, the land of Israel, and the Holy Temple rebuilt, perhaps we could consider extending each other a hand to pull each other off the floor. Perhaps we should consider rising up, when no one holds us down. Does it have to wait until next year?
Rabbi Chaim Richman,
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500
"Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the Lord" (Zechariah 6:15)
In the beautiful pictorial book on the third Temple 'The odyssey of the third Temple', we find these words:
When the third Temple is built, the Gentiles will sincerely wish for it to be done, to facilitate the resting of the Shechina in Jerusalem.
This is the conclusion of the Midrash on the Song of Songs, commenting on the verse: "I have caused you to swear, O daughters of Jerusalem. ..."
"What was the purpose of these oaths? One refers to Solomon's Temple, and one refers to Ezra's, and one to the future Temple ... Gentiles vow to help in the construction, so that the Jews will understand for themselves and say: 'If the Nations perform the will of God out of fear [and help to build the Third Temple], then we - who perform the commandments on account of love - how much more so [must we exert ourselves to build the Temple]?" (Midrash Shir HaShirim Rabbah 8:4, Grinhut Ed., Jer.) Also, in the classic work Emunot V'Dayot (Beliefs and Doctrines) of Rabbi Saadiah Gaon, the author describes the phenomena which will accompany the building of the future Third Temple in these words: "And the third, that the Nations will build the walls of the Temple, as it is written: 'And the sons of strangers shall build up your walls'." (Isaiah 60:10) (Emunot V'Dayot Essay 8 - On Salvation)
The Biblical commentator Abraham Ibn Ezra explains this same verse in similar fashion: "'And they shall buildup your walls' - even the children of Israel will not build the walls of Jerusalem, just as they did not build the Temple - the Gentiles will." 'And this is the offering which you shall take of them' (Exodus 25:3) Commenting on this verse, the Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 35:5) tell us "this informs us that in the future, the Holy One Blessed be He will accept presents from all the kingdoms, except for Edom - which is Rome, for Rome destroyed the Temple to its very foundation." In short, these writings and commentaries clearly indicate that the building of the Third Temple will include the participation of non-Jews.
May on this day in August, Tisha B'Av - when many Jews pray, fast and lament the destructions of the two previous Temples - God soon grant the building of His house again on this His holy mount so that then the Messiah and Shechina presence can come again to this place on earth as Malachi says:
And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the Lord of hosts (Malachi 3:1)
and Ezekiel foresees when he prophesies:
And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east ... and the earth shone with His glory. ... And the glory of the Lord came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east. ... and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple." ... And He said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. (Ezekiel 43:2, 4, 5, 7)
May that day soon come!
Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director
International Christian Zionist Center
ETZION: TEMPLE MOUNT SITUATION IS WORST IT'S EVER BEEN
"The policy is simply to give in to the Waqf and the PA across the board, and I call on the public to arise against this." So says Yehuda Etzion, long-time activist on behalf of the Temple Mount, referring to yesterday's police decision to close the holy site to Jews once again.
Jews had not been allowed to ascend to the Mount since the outbreak of the Oslo War in September 2000, until about a month ago. Yesterday, the police again announced the closing of the site, for unexplained "operational reasons." Etzion told Arutz-7 this morning that the "operational reasons" are that Arafat simply threatened once again to order violent riots if Jews are allowed to ascend to the site.
Etzion, head of the Chai VeKayam (Eternally Alive) movement working to secure Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, said, "The sad reality is that we're still outside [the Mount], while the Moslem enemy who has arisen against us is still inside. The worst thing is that there is coordination between the Waqf [Islamic trust that runs the Mount] and the Israeli government. Even during this past month, when Jews were allowed up, it can be assumed that it was only because it was made worthwhile for the Waqf. I don't have precise documentation, but I can say that the tourists who are [now allowed up] bring them good money, and I know that they have received tacit permission to start renovating a whole wing on the Mount... We are acting like a dishrag, allowing Arafat to determine when we can enter and when we can't. There are simply no words to describe this. It began with Moshe Dayan, who returned the Mount to the control of the Arabs hours after we conquered it, even though they were sure that they had lost it... Here and there you can find some common sense in the police or the Shabak, but the moment Arafat just looks at them cross-eyed, they get weak-kneed and whine, 'What can we do? We tried.' But the fact is that they just don't want!"
Etzion explained that the police "made an agreement for the past month with low-level officials of the Waqf, and when Arafat heard about it, he called in the Waqf people and said, 'How dare you agree to this without me?' and threatened all sorts of things. So the Waqf came back to the police and said, 'Sorry, we can't do this anymore...' What happened last week? A small group came up, and the Waqf made a small provocation - claiming that one of the Jews was actually praying, Heaven forbid! This of course caused a big fracas, lots of Arabs surrounded them, and the police of course looked for the first open gate, and escorted them out. Right away, the PA press reported that they had thrown the Jews off the Temple Mount, while the police claim that they are stopping the visits for 'operational reasons.' You see how we've deteriorated? It's better to believe the Arabs, and not the police. It's not 'operational reasons' at all, but rather policy reasons - and the policy is to cave in throughout to the Waqf and the PA."
Etzion explained that the Waqf collects an entrance fee only for the entry to the mosques, but not to the Temple Mount itself. "This was the result of a court petition by Yisrael Ben-Dov just several days after we liberated the Mount in 1967," Etzion said.
Ministers and Knesset Members of the National Union and National Religious Party condemned the decision to close the Temple Mount to Jews. Labor MK Eitan Cabel said that the decision was a correct one.
A record number of participants took part in the monthly Walk Around the Temple Mount Gates last night. Police estimate that over 5,000 people marched through the Old City of Jerusalem, reciting Psalms at each of the several gates leading to the holy site. Etzion said that this is our way of pressuring "both the Heavens and the authorities." He said that in truth it's our own fault: "We are a few days before Tisha B'Av, the day of mourning for our Holy Temple, and we are in the worst situation we've ever been in. Until now it was closed, true, but now it's closed because of a direct threat by Arafat, something that has never happened. We must not accept this. We must not 'weep in vain' [rather, we must do something]. The Waqf is leading, and our government is being dragged along. We must rise up against both of them, whether by walking around the Gates or in any other way." (Israel National News TV, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/tv.php)
An Open Letter About the Critical Situation on the Temple Mount and its Godly End-Time Solution and the Godly Prophetic End-Time Events Which Are Soon to Take Place in Israel and All Over the World. The Temple Mount, Jerusalem and Israel Are and Will be at the Focus of It All
One of the dear friends of The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement sent us a letter in which he asked us questions which may also be asked by other people. The answer to these questions follows and needs to be read by and brought to the attention of everyone.
The questions were -
1. How can the Temple be built on the Temple Mount when we are not even allowed to go up and pray on the Mount and a pagan temple exists on the holy site?
2. Could you please comment on what is going to happen in the near future.
The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement is undertaking a campaign and struggle to liberate the Temple Mount from foreign Arab hands and then to purify it from the pagan Islamic worship and rebuild the Temple. According to the Word of G-d, this must be done by Israel at this time in which we are now living. The Temple Mount was actually liberated by Israel in 1967. This was no accident but the clear decision of G-d to redeem the land and people of Israel and to immediately rebuild the Temple. It was a mistake on the part of the Israeli leadership, especially Moshe Dayan the then Defence Minister, who recalled the Arabs and gave them the management of the Temple Mount and allowed them to continue their pagan foreign worship. At the same time Israel immediately renewed her sovereignty on the Temple Mount and this is still the current situation. The Temple Mount Faithful Movement is acting to correct this sinful mistake. We know that we are living at G-d 's timing and the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the regathering of the Jewish people by G-d to the land of the covenant prepared everything for the climax of the redemptional event through which Israel is now passing. G-d expects Israel to rebuild the Temple now and then He will send Mashiach ben David. Our activities and struggle brought this idea very close to fulfilment and we know that time is short and that it will soon come to pass.
It is correct that we are not allowed to go up on the Temple Mount to pray but this is a temporary situation and again, it is our campaign to stop this and nothing will deter the G-d of Israel from redeeming Israel and to rebuild His house in the prophetic end-times in which we are now living. The redemption of Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple is a key event not only in the life of Israel but in the lives of all mankind. The redemption of all mankind depends on the redemption of Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple is the key to all of it. (Isaiah2:1-5; Micah4:1-5; Zechariah8,12,14; Ezekiel37-46 and other prophets.) The actual events like the war in Iraq, the 11th September, the terror all over the world and the campaign of the UN and other powers in the world to take Jerusalem and parts of the Biblical land of Israel are actually the opening stages of the end-time war and all of it is focussed on Israel and Jerusalem as G-d shared with us in prophecy. (Zechariah12.14; Ezekiel38,39)
All of these events are both prophecy and the fulfilment of prophecy and all of it is focussed on Israel, exactly as was prophesied, since 1948 when the State of Israel was founded and even earlier when the Zionist movement was founded. It is so sad that all the world is too blind to see what G-d is doing with Israel at this time and how prophecy is becoming a reality - word by word - in Israel. Most of the world is now against Israel and we see how anti-Semitism is again raising its head against the Jewish people and Israel. Despite the fact that they have so many problems of their own to deal with and solve. The G-d of Israel warned Israel of this and that it would happen in the end-times and then the Day of Judgement will come of all the nations which persecuted Israel since the time of Abraham until now and the terrible persecution in the exile. G-d told us in His prophetic Word that all of them would be gathered to Jerusalem to the valley of Jehoshaphat to be judged by Him for all of this. Then Mashiach ben David will be sent by G-d and he will complete the redemption of Israel. He will be the king of Israel anointed by the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob exactly as He promised to his mashiach, King David. From Jerusalem he will rule all the world and will establish the kingdom of G-d over all mankind and a new godly time will start for all the nations based on the Word of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, His values and His laws. Exactly as the prophet Isaiah wrote - all the nations will flow to Jerusalem to worship the G-d of Jacob, to learn His laws and ways and the Torah will go out from Zion and the Word of G-d from Jerusalem. All of them will say and do - "Let us go and delight in the G-d of Jacob." (Isaiah2:1-5; 11;Zechariah8:20-23)
You asked me to comment on the newsletter that you enclosed with your letter. Everything that I wrote above is my comment. Actually it is the comment of G-d and how He told us in His prophetic Word what is to happen in the near future and what has happened up until now as an exciting and critical events in the prophetic end-times in which we are now living. More than this, He showed us in reality in which we are now living that His Word is not only a word and vision but a plan and programme to be fulfilled and he shows to all the world and the nations how His Word is eternal and that He makes a reality. I advise everyone to lift their eyes to Israel and to Jerusalem and especially to the Temple Mount to see what is doing and will do in the near future with Israel, His chosen people for and eternal purpose and mission, and then with all the world.
The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement is the end-time Movement of G-d which was created, I believe, by G-d Himself after the redemptional war of 1967 which by G-d's miracles liberated the Temple Mount and biblical Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan Heights and Sinai and gave them back to Israel to open the climax stage of the major redemptional event which G-d is doing with Israel. The Faithful Movement has been privileged to serve G-d in the fulfilment of His end-time plans and, at the focus of it, the rebuilding of the temple which is the key to all the other redemptional events and to serve Him in His prophetic end-time plans to establish His kingdom not only in Jerusalem and Israel, but all over the world. We are acting day and night for all of this as the volunteers of the G-d of Israel and we shall never stop until we see all of this come to pass. We know that all of this will come to pass in the near future in our lifetime. I advise everyone in the world who have doubts about this and about the appearance of G-d in the life of modern Israel to come and see what he is doing in these days in the holy land of Israel or at least to open their eyes and pay attention to Jerusalem and Israel. The Faithful Movement and Israel have many wonderful friends all over the world whose eyes, hearts and attention are directed to Israel and Jerusalem with great love and appreciation to the G-d and people of Israel and with a great desire to see the rebuilding of the temple in their lifetime, the coming of Mashiach ben David and the establishment of the kingdom of G-d from Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the G-d and people of Israel, all over the world. The G-d and people of Israel and the Faithful Movement love them with the deepest appreciation. They are pioneers of the entire world which will follow them one day. These righteous brothers and sisters, wonderful pioneers, of the G-d and people of Israel will be redeemed together with the people of Israel as the prophets of Israel promised.
I hope that this has answered your questions. May the G-d of Israel bless you.
With deep appreciation and love.
Your friend in Jerusalem,
Gershon Salomon
Chairman, The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, April 3, 2003.
The Israeli President, Moshe Katzav, Asks the Vatican to Reveal the List of Temple Treasures and Judaica That They Hold
On More Than One Occasion The Temple Mount Faithful Movement Demanded That the Pope Return The Temple Treasures to Israel to be Used in the Soon-To-Be-Rebuilt Temple
During his recent visit to Italy, the President of Israel, Moshe Katzav, asked the Prime Minister of the Vatican, Cardinal Angelo Sudano, to prepare a list of all the Temple treasures, vessels and Judaica that are being held by the Vatican. The President asked for the Vatican's co-operation on this issue which is sensitive to Israel.
The major importance of this request is the fact that the Vatican holds the Temple Menorah of pure gold which, together with other holy vessels from the temple, was stolen by the Romans and taken to Rome in 70 CE. After the destruction of the Temple and the Israeli kingdom, the Roman emperor, Titus, who destroyed the temple, built a triumphal arch in Rome which portrayed the menorah and other vessels from the Temple in Jerusalem. The arch shows Israeli captives carrying the Menorah and the vessels in Rome. The fact that the Menorah and the holy vessels were taken to Rome and later, when the Roman Empire became Christian, the Menorah and vessels were placed in the basement of the Vatican, has passed down from generation to generation of the Jewish people. During the exile the holy Menorah and vessels remained at the focus of the memory of the Jewish people. Their dream was that one day soon they would recover them from the Vatican and return them to Jerusalem which would indicate the beginning of the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the redemption of the people and land of Israel.
The fact that the Vatican holds these holy Temple vessels has been very well know since 70 CE and many Jews travelled to the Vatican when they could do so to look for them and to see them. Some of the travellers testified that they had personally seen the golden Menorah and the vessels in the basements of the Vatican. Some priests have even confirmed the fact that the Menorah and holy vessels are in the Vatican.
On more than one occasion over the past years, The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement have demanded of the Vatican and the Pope that they immediately return the golden Menorah and the other Temple vessels as well as any other Judaica that they hold. The Vatican and the Pope have never responded to these demands. The Temple Mount Faithful Movement advised them to do it immediately and to no longer hold them in captivity and that, if they would not do so, the G-d of Israel would "help" them to do so.
The Temple Mount Faithful Movement and all the Jewish People and Israel were very happy that President Katzav had requested this now and had given official status to the request. He did so in the name of all the Jewish People as well as the State of Israel. This was the first time it has been done by an Israeli president since the destruction of the Temple and was a very important event. It signified in a very exciting way that Israel is now living in the prophetic end-times of redemption, that the Temple of the G-d of Israel is soon to be rebuilt in Jerusalem and that the golden Menorah from the Second Temple and the other vessels should be returned to Jerusalem to be used in the Third, end-time Temple. Many people in the world did not pay attention to this exciting, end-time event which should move the heart of everyone in the world and they missed this major event.
It should be noted that a previous Israeli Minister of Religion, Shimon Shitreet, had requested the Vatican to return the holy golden Menorah from the Temple as well as the other vessels. He presented that Vatican with the results of historical research which showed that the Menorah and vessels were taken to Rome together with the Israeli captives and then to the Vatican after the destruction of the Second Temple. The research was also based on the ornamentation on the Titus' triumphal arch in Rome which confirms it in a very clear manner. This request was ignored and even raised opposition and disapproval in the Vatican.
Despite the fact that the Prime Minister of the Vatican did not disapprove of the request of President Katsav, he did not show any readiness to accept it and no progress was made with regard to the matter.
Sources in the Vatican denied that the Pope is holding the holy Menorah from the Temple in Jerusalem. They stated that the current Pope is sensitive to the life of the Jews and that he would act to return an item which has such a religious and symbolic value as has the Menorah. The sources said nothing about the request of the Israeli president to prepare a list of all the other holy vessels from the Temple. The reaction of these sources raised great disappointment and anger in Israel and among the Jewish people. Historians and researchers and everyone in Israel again stressed what has been very well known since 70 CE - that the temple Menorah and the other Temple vessels are, indeed, held by the Vatican in its hidden basements and, as in the past, they do not want to return them to the Jewish People, to Jerusalem, to be used in the Third Temple which is soon to be rebuilt. Israel has very clear evidence which makes this an undeniable fact. It is very well known that the Vatican also holds ancient Torah Scrolls, Jewish manuscripts and other holy vessels in its basements.
The Office of the President of Israel confirmed the president's request and stated that it is "a meaningful break-through and the first major request of this kind from an Israeli president".
The fact that the Vatican and the Pope are not ready to return the Temple Menorah and the vessels to Israel and Jerusalem will not deter The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement in their struggle and campaign to bring about the return of these major vessels from the Temple to Israel and Jerusalem. Israel is now living in G-d's time of redemption and the Temple Mount Faithful Movement is the vessel of the G-d of Israel to immediately rebuild His holy Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The demand of the Faithful Movement is the demand of G-d Himself and we are His messengers to present it with no delay. It will not help the Vatican and the Pope to try in this way to stop the march of the prophetic history of Israel and even all the world. They have no chance to fight against the G-d of Israel and His clear intention to redeem Israel and all the world and to rebuild His house in Jerusalem.
Israel is now in the midst of a major, prophetic, end-time struggle and campaign to rebuild the kingdom of G-d in the land of Israel and all over the world and to again locate the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in His rebuilt house in Jerusalem on Mt. Moriah. It is the desire of G-d Himself to see the original Menorah and the holy vessels from the temple liberated from captivity in the Vatican and used in the worship in the end-time temple which is soon to be rebuilt.
We advise the Pope and the Vatican to give up trying to stop the march of G-d and history to Jerusalem. We demand of them that they immediately return the Menorah, the holy vessels and other holy items to Israel and Jerusalem before the anger and judgement of G-d forces them to do so.
However, as we see, we are living in very special, exciting and prophetic end-times. We are witnesses of the fulfilment of end-time prophecies by the prophets of Israel thousands of years ago. The time of the destruction, exile and captivity of Israel is over, thanks to G-d, and we are living in the midst of a very exciting time of redemption that for so many years was a dream, a desire and a prayer of the people of Israel and is now becoming a reality. We are witnesses of major end-time events and many more will occur in the near future. The significance of all this for all mankind is even greater than people can imagine. We are at the beginning of a major godly time and everything will come from Jerusalem, from the Temple Mount, the holy hill of G-d and our lives are completely dedicated to this end. Everyone is called on to lift their eyes to Israel and Jerusalem and mainly to the Temple Mount and to see what the G-d of Israel is doing now in the holy land with His people, Israel, and what He will do in the near future.
Blessed are and will be the wonderful friends of Israel and the Faithful Movement who have decided to be a part of this major event of all times and who stand so devotedly with us. They have heard the call of G-d and answered it with no doubts. Together we shall soon see the great godly fulfilment.
Pictures will appear together with the article on our web site. Please go there.
Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement, P.O.Box 18325, Jerusalem 91182, ISRAEL; Telephone 972.2.625.1112, Telephone/Fax 972.2.625.1113
To subscribe or unsubscribe to our email list or to obtain more information about us, please visit our web-site at http://www.templemountfaithful.org To contact us, please use the following address:gershon@templemountfaithful.org
http://www.templemount.org/recent.html
Jordanian architects will fix Al Aqsa bulge
By TJT Staff, The Jerusalem Times (independent Palestinian weekly) 19 December 2002
http://www.jerusalem-times.net/article/news/details/detail.asp?id=2539
No comments:
Post a Comment