by Aaron Klein
Arafat himself spoke of planning the intifada months before Sharon's visit, as did Marwan Barghouti, a jailed Palestinian terrorist and one of the chief architects of the intifada. (I believe Barghouti will eventually be freed by Israel to become a future Palestinian leader.) Multiple senior terror leaders involved in intifada planning freely admitted to me on numerous occasions Sharon's visit to the Mount had little to do with the intifada.
Yet many news reporters to this day ignore the intifada planners own glaring admissions and regularly claim the 2000 violence was sparked by Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount.
The theme of using nonexistent Israeli threats against the Al Aqsa Mosque is repeated often. During the time of my interview with Tamimi, Israel was conducting routine renovation work near the Temple Mount to replace a ramp that provides access to a gate leading to the Mount. The work schedule was coordinated with Arab leaders. The renovations took place in full view of a twenty-four-hour-a-day Web camera, and were not on the Mount itself. All logic dictates the work in question couldn't have possibly affected the Al Aqsa Mosque. Still, Tamimi and Muslim leaders worldwide claimed Israel was trying to weaken the foundations of the Mount and collapse the Al Aqsa Mosque. Muslims threatened violence. News media reported some of the crazy Palestinian claims as fact. Cowardly, the mayor of Jerusalem postponed construction of the new gate.
To his face I accused Sheikh Tamimi of "using the Al Aqsa Mosque time and time again as a political tool to rev up the masses. You are going in the mosque and preaching these lies. And Muslims believe you and start violence."
Insulted by my directness, the sheikh got visibly agitated.
"I'm using the mosque to start riots? On the contrary, Israel is damaging the Al Aqsa Mosque. Sharon's visit provoked the Palestinians."
I have to hand it to Tamimi and to the greater Middle East Muslim world, I have respect for one thing-at least they care about the Al Aqsa Mosque, even if some only use it as pretense for political gain. I wish Jewish leaders cared enough about the Temple Mount to work up the Jewish masses about nonexistent threats. I wish Jews cared enough about the Temple Mount to counter the Muslim claims of exclusivity. But my fellow Jews have shamefully forfeited their holiest site, the Temple Mount.
Temple Mount: No Prayer Zone.. .Unless You're Muslim
It was a sunny, mild February morning in Jerusalem. My brother Josh and I met early to attend synagogue services and immerse in a mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, as is required by Jewish law before ascending the Temple Mount.
Currently, some rabbis forbid Jews to go up to the mount until the Third Temple is built even though there are records of Jews, including some of the most prominent Jewish law scholars, visiting the Temple ruins during the Byzentine period and beyond. Other contemporary rabbinic authorities permit entry to the outer areas of the Mount, which can be measured by a change in the kind of foundation stone.
According to Jewish law, the sanctity of the Temple Mount is structured in concentric circles. In the innermost circles, where the Holy of Holies was said to be located, the restrictions of access are the greatest. During Temple times, only the kohen gadal, or high priest, was allowed to enter the most restricted area, and this happened once a year on Yom Kipper. The outer layers are less restricted.
Josh and I met our tour guide, Nachman Kupietsky, at exactly 7:30 a.m. at the gate leading to the Temple Mount. The holiest Jewish site, you see, is open to Jews and Christian only on Sundays through Thursdays from 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 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 Muslim Waqf custodians. It's open to Muslims nearly 24-7.
After Israel recaptured eastern sections of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount in the 1967 Six Day War, one of the first acts of Moshe Dayan, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, was to ensure Jordan and Muslim leaders the holiest site in Judaism would remain under Islamic custodianship. Jordan had controlled the area from 1948 to 1967, destroying nearby Jewish synagogues and graveyards. According to some records, Dayan personally removed an Israeli flag hoisted on the Temple Mount by Israeli soldiers in the aftermath of the war. The Mount was placed under the custodianship of the Waqf, which had and still has very strong ties to Jordan.
The Temple Mount was opened off and on to the general public until September 2000, when the Palestinians started their intifada by throwing stones at Jewish worshipers after Sharon's visit to the area. Following the onset of violence, the new, antireligious Sharon government closed the Mount to all nonMuslims, 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, but only for a few hours a day and under heavy guidelines for fear Jewish visits may agitate the Muslims and restart clashes.
The decision to reopen the Temple Mount fueled a wave of anti-Israeli incitement in the Palestinian press and a campaign by Arafat to have the area closed. Arafat at the time sent letters to Arab leaders threatening "grave consequences" for the "invasion of extremists disguised as tourists, under the auspices of the Israeli police."
Mahmoud Abbas, now Palestinian Authority president, called Jewish tours of the Mount "provocative." Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said the Christian and Jewish visits were "an insult to Muslims everywhere."
Currently, under Israeli authority, non-Muslims can go up but are ridiculously banned from praying on the Temple Mount. Non-Muslim visitors to the Mount must enter from a particular gate, usually with a guided tour. Visitors pass a set of guidelines written in Hebrew and English on a large blue sign. These Israelienforced rules state "Holy objects not permitted." The rules dictate non-Muslims cannot pray on the Mount. 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 police units screen visitors and strongly suggest Jewish men do not wear their kipas, or scull caps, on the Mount. That's right. In the Jewish state, Jewish police ask Jews to remove their religious Jewish kipas before ascending the holiest site in Judaism for fear of offending the Muslims. It's absolute madness.
Our guide Kupietsky was an Orthodox Jew who usually wears a kipa but covers his head with a baseball cap while on the Mount. My brother Josh and I and several other Jewish male visitors showed up wearing our kipas. Like the Jews who obligingly marched into Nazi gas chambers without a trace of resistance, the Jewish men on our Temple Mount tour removed their kipas before passing through a Mount checkpoint, dutifully donning their baseball caps lest a Muslim see a religious Jew on the Temple Mount.
Josh and I refused to take our kipas off. I would go to jail under torture before surrendering my Jewish identity to anyone, especially to other Jews who cowardly enforce self-hating, antiJewish laws enacted by religion-loathing Israeli leaders.
Kupietsky gave Josh and me problems, arguing we should remove our kipas to continue.
"Over my dead body," I said.
"No way in hell," said Josh.
I heard other Jews on our tour whispering about the two Jews who shouldn't be making trouble. They complained we were holding up the group.
"Just take your kipa off," one of the Jewish men told us.
After a few minutes of argument in which it was clear we wouldn't budge, Kupietsky finally agreed to let josh and I remain with his tour while wearing our kipas. I first had to flash my press credentials and threaten to write about the treatment I was receiving for being Jewish, which I did anyway. The Israeli police at the checkpoint weren't happy, but they didn't want to mess with a reporter. They let us up. I ascended the Temple Mount proudly, as a Jew should.
Our tour was followed every step of the way by a Waqf official, who was paying particularly close attention probably after being warned by the Israelis two potential troublemakers were on their way.
Once on the Mount, Kupiets
ky told josh and I we were lucky we got up with our kipas. He said Orthodox guests who decide to wear kipas are routinely delayed by Israeli police at the entrance to the Temple Mount for up to thirty minutes while they are interrogated about the purpose of their visit.
Kupietsky told the group of an instance in which an elderly Jewish woman was detained by the Israelis last summer for putting her head down while sitting on a bench on the Mount:
It was a hot day and she just wanted to rest for a few minutes. The Waqf started screaming and the police arrested her. They thought she was praying. She told me she was held for six hours and had to sign documents stating she would never again return to the Temple Mount.
You also can't bring anything with Hebrew letters, even secular Hebrew books. The Waqf confiscated many of my tour books. One time I brought a guy who pulled out the Hebrew edition of the [Jerusalem] Post, and they took that from him.
The tour began with Kupietsky showing the area directly behind the Western Wall, the section used by Palestinians to start their intifada against Israel. Visitors were then brought to the steps of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque.
Two Christians on the tour tried to enter Al Aqsa, but rejoined the group minutes later saying a Palestinian in worship garb slammed the doors and told them to go away.
Kupietsky took out a picture book to show the disappointed Christians images of the interior sections of the mosque, but a Waqf official who had been watching the tour demanded Israeli police confiscate the book, assuming it contained prayers. A scuffle ensued between the police, the cleric, and Kupietsky, but it was finally determined the book contained no Hebrew lettering and thus could not have been meant, gasp, for Jewish prayer.
Anti-Jewish laws surrounding the Mount are enforced by Israel not only on the site itself, but also adjacent to it. I'll never forget the time a Jewish man was removed by Israeli police from a key section of the Western Wall for blowing the shofar, or ceremonial ram's horn, during prayer services for the Rosh Hashanah high holiday, during which sounding the shofar is required. I personally broke the story.
Nineteen-year-old Jerusalem resident Eliyahi Kleiman was taken forcibly from the Western Wall during Rosh Hashanah of 2006 for fear the sound of the shofar would offend nearby Muslims congregating on the Temple Mount, which is opposite the wall. Kleiman had no previous arrest record and was not associated with any extremist or Temple Mount activist group.
Kleiman and about twenty Jews had gathered for Rosh Hashanah services at the northern-most section of the Western Wall commonly referred to as the "Small Wall." The little-known area stands opposite the spot at which the Holy of Holies is believed to have resided and is considered by Jews to be the most holy section of the Western Wall. The "Small Wall" is located within a mixed Jewish and Arab section of Jerusalem and is supposed to be accessible to Jews at all times.
Large prayer services take place at the central section of the Western Wall, where thousands gather for prayers on holidays. Smaller groups regularly gather at the "Small Wall."
Kleiman told me he had attended Rosh Hashanah services at the "Small Wall" annually for several years without incident. He said he prefers the smaller wall because it is less crowded.
After Kleiman began blowing the shofar during the Rosh Hashanah service, a nearby police officer asked him to stop, according to Kleiman, the Jerusalem police and several witnesses I spoke to.
Kleiman says he continued blowing for about two minutes to finish the section of prayer that requires the sounding of the shofar. Fifteen policemen immediately dragged Kleiman from the site, observers said.
Kleiman was going to be banned by the police from returning to the Western Wall or Temple Mount for the remainder of the Jewish holiday season, but the ban order was lifted, perhaps because I gave the case some publicity.
Shmulik Ben Ruby, a spokesman for the Jerusalem Police Authority, admitted to me the only reason Kleiman was removed from the Wall was Israel's fear of offending Muslims with the sound of the Jewish shofar.
"Hundreds of Muslims went up to the Temple Mount. In order to prevent any tensions between the two sides, we asked Kleiman to stop blowing the shofar," Ben Ruby said. "He continued and so he was removed and detained."
A Jew in Israel today can't even blow the shofar on a high Jewish holiday at our holy sites. Meanwhile, Muslims, who have full rights to the Temple Mount, are about as loud as it gets. Several times per day the Muslims broadcast prayer services on loudspeakers that can be heard for miles, including every morning at about 5 a.m. It is extremely disturbing to many Jews nearby, but you don't hear the Jews complain about it. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Arabs in Jerusalem's Old City regularly celebrate after sunset with loud explosions from firecrackers and gunshot blanks. But Allah forbid a Jew once a year for a few minutes blows the shofar near the Temple Mount.
And it infuriates me to no end in the Jewish state Jews cannot pray on the Temple Mount. Perhaps set up this way intentionally, most groups associated with the Temple Mount that are getting major publicity in Israel consist of right-wing nut cases who make extremist statements about taking over the Al Aqsa Mosque. Advocating for Jewish rights on the holiest Jewish site has sadly become a fringe, extremist cause. It's sickening. Many Jews nowa days have no pride whatsoever; especially the leadership of Israel. They are all afraid of asserting Jewish power in any way, worried what the Muslims might do and what the international community might think.
Well, if believing Jews have the right to pray on the Temple Mount is an extremist cause, call me extremist. I am not advocating expelling Muslims. I'm not advocating removing any mosques from the Mount. But it's our holiest site; why the hell can't we pray there? One Israeli lawmaker has proposed building a synagogue on the Mount. He has been lambasted by fellow Jews. What in the world is wrong with a synagogue on the Mount? Miamonidies built one once. It will of course never happen; the terrorists will start World War III. They told me as much.
"If anybody other than Muslims dares to pray on the [Mount] this will cause a war. The world will not be the same anymore if such an aggression will take place. We will not allow anybody to desecrate this blessed area," said the Committees' Muhammad Abel-El.
Al Aqsa Brigades northern West Bank deputy commander Nasser Abu Aziz threatened if Jews assert their rights to pray on the Mount:
This will cause a huge explosion, a third Intifada, a war. We, and I believe all Muslims from all the world, will react in launching attacks, suicide attacks, rockets from inside the Palestinian territories and missiles from outside. I think that this will bring the collapse of the Arab regimes that are so crucial to the maintenance of the state of Israel. I do not know if I can imagine all that will happen.
Muslim Mount leader accepts reality!
Not all Palestinian Muslim leaders deny Jewish history. Deep inside Jerusalem's Old City, down the narrow stone streets of the Muslim Quarter, I found a true gem, a former Waqf official who defies his former colleagues, the custodians of the Temple Mount, and admits the First and Second Jewish Temples existed and stood at the current location of the Al Aqsa Mosque. The man divulged in a rare meeting Al Aqsa custodians passed down sto ries for centuries from generation to generation indicating the mosque was built at the site of the former Jewish temples.
I was put in touch with the former Waqf official by Palestinian elements who occasionally work alongside Israel on holy site and other issues. I was told I could only meet the former Temple Mount custodian if I didn't use his name, even though it will likely be easy for those in the know to identify him. The man, in his late sixties, was dismissed from his Waqf position after he quietly made his beliefs known.
The former Waqf official and I talked over tea in his home, a small Old City apartment not far from the Temple Mount. The dining room was modestly decorated, the walls littered with framed verses of the Quran. Pictures and small-scale models of the Al Aqsa Mosque were everywhere.
It was very brave of the man to meet me. He said
an on-therecord interview would endanger his life. He spoke quietly but also very confidently, and made me feel welcome in his home.
He said the Muslim 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," he said.
"I am mentioning historical facts," said the former leader. "I know that the traditional denial about the temple existing at the same place as Al Aqsa is more a political denial. Unfortunately our religious and political leaders chose the option of denial to fight the Jewish position and demands regarding Al Aqsa and taking back the Temple Mount compound. In my opinion we should admit the truth and abandon our traditional position."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A Waqf official who actually accepts reality?
The man related to me stories he said were passed for centuries among Al Aqsa Mosque custodians.
"[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 Muslim generation to another-we believe Al Aqsa was built on the same place where the Temple of the Jewsthe first monotheistic religion-existed."
He outlined some of the stories related to him:
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.
