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.