8 | AUGUST 5 • 2021 

PURELY COMMENTARY

M

aybe it was just 
the product of the 
ongoing civil war 
between the different political 
parties on the Israeli right. Or 
maybe it was 
just time that 
an Israeli prime 
minister said 
something that, 
in a saner world, 
wouldn’t be con-
sidered contro-
versial. 
 But whatever motivated Prime 
Minister Naftali Bennett to 
speak of Israeli security forces 
and police acting to maintain 
order on Jerusalem’s Temple 
Mount after Arab disturbances 
while also “maintaining freedom 
of worship for Jews” at the sacred 
site, it was a first and, in the eyes 
of many in his own country’s 
foreign policy and security estab-
lishment, something that could 
be a dangerous mistake that 
will lead to violence.
Bennett’s statement, made 
on Tisha b’
Av — the day on 
the Jewish calendar that com-
memorates the destruction 
of both the First and Second 
Temples that existed on the 
Mount — was an eye-opener 
for a number of reasons. But 
it came in the context of what 
appears to be a shift in policy 
by the new government in 
that, for the first time since the 
city was unified in 1967, it is 
acknowledging that Jews are 
being allowed to pray at the 
holiest place in Judaism.

After an illegal Jordanian 
occupation that lasted from 
1948 to 1967, Israel took con-
trol of the Temple Mount when 
it unified Jerusalem during 
the Six-Day War. Israeli rule 
meant that for the first time 
in its modern history, there 
was complete freedom of wor-
ship at all the holy places in 
Jerusalem. Prior to 1948, the 
British — and before them, 
the Turks — had maintained a 
status quo that established Jews 

as second-class citizens with 
respect to prayer at many holy 
places. During the Jordanian 
occupation, Jews were for-
bidden to pray at the Western 
Wall, let alone on the Temple 
Mount.
But the one exception to 
that rule after June 1967 was 
on the Temple Mount where 
Jews were, in theory, allowed 
to visit, but forbidden to pray. 
Then-Minister of Defense 
Moshe Dayan decided, in a 

gesture intended to help keep 
the peace, to allow the Muslim 
Waqf to maintain control over 
the Temple Mount. Those 
Jews who did visit were often 
harassed by Arabs, includ-
ing police, who were vigilant 
against any behavior that might 
be construed as prayer.
That was a policy that was 
not challenged by any Israeli 
government, including those 
led by former Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu, even 

though the coalition that has 
succeeded him is still to some 
extent claiming, as Netanyahu’s 
governments always did, that 
there has been no change in 
the status quo.
Dayan’s surrender of the 
Temple Mount has been crit-
icized bitterly over the years, 
not least because it allowed the 
Muslim religious authorities 
to engage in vandalism on the 
site when they undertook con-
struction projects that essen-

tially trashed the treasure trove 
of historical artifacts that exist-
ed underneath mosques built 
on the site of the two temples.
The ban on prayer was main-
tained because Israeli govern-
ments feared that Palestinian 
Arab leaders would use any 
gesture toward acknowledging 
the Mount’s holiness to Jews, 
as well as to the Muslims who 
worshiped at the mosques 
there, to justify violence. 
Since the beginning of the 
conflict a century ago, leaders 
such as Haj Amin el-Hus-
seini, the pro-Nazi Mufti 
of Jerusalem, PLO leader 
Yasser Arafat and his succes-
sor Mahmoud Abbas have 
attempted to gin up violence 
and hate by claiming that the 
Jews are planning to blow up 
the mosques.
Palestinians have consistent-
ly treated any acknowledgment 
of Jewish rights to the Mount 
as an intolerable insult to all 
of Islam — an unreasonable 
stand that has nevertheless 
been supported by the rest of 
the Arab and Muslim world. 
Even the supposedly “moder-
ate” Abbas hasn’t hesitated to 
play that card, vowing that the 
“filthy feet” of Jews would not 
be allowed to defile Jerusalem’s 
holy places during the 
so-called “stabbing intifada” in 
2015 and 2016.
This appalling incite-
ment was largely accepted 
by Netanyahu as a reason to 
maintain the status quo. He not 

analysis

Why Is Support for ‘Freedom of 
Worship for Jews’ on the Temple
Mount So Controversial?

Jonathan S. 
Tobin
JTA.org

continued on page 12

Israeli security forces guard as a group of religious Jews visit the 
Temple Mount, also known as Haram al Sharif, in Jerusalem’s Old City, 
during Tisha b’Av, July 18, 2021. 

