Israel’s defense establishment is fearful of an escalation of the violence in the territories as the holy Muslim month of Ramadan approaches, Reshet Bet radio reported Sunday morning, and yet, for the first time since the outbreak of the corona pandemic in February 2020 and operation Guardians of the Wall in May 2021, the same defense establishment will allow Arabs from the Palestinian Authority to pray on the Temple Mount during the month of Ramadan. Also: visits by families from the Gaza Strip with their loved ones who are Fatah terrorist prisoners will be approved, in addition to ample concessions during the holy days.
You want some more convoluted logic? Reshet Bet cited a security source who stated: “These are very complex days and we are prepared for extreme events, both through intelligence gathering and operations in the field. However, we will make every effort to facilitate the movement of Palestinian workers, including extending the hours of operation of the crossings and facilitating movement.”
Honest, he actually said it: we are afraid of wildfires so we’ll bring in truckloads of gasoline and matches.
Of course, they’ll change their policy and impose strict limits as soon as the first few Jews are murdered, God forbid, as a result of their liberal approach to security and law enforcement. Because the month of Ramadan has always been violent, since before the establishment of the Jewish state.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s personal secretary, the author Arthur Kestler, referred to the many attacks on Jews in the 1920s and wrote that Muslim clerics at the time “used to call on average a holy bloodbath twice a year. A nice, peace-loving Arab landlord would joke with his Jewish tenants during the month of Ramadan, he would later go to the mosque, listen to the preacher’s words, and then run home to slaughter the tenant, his wife, and children with a kitchen knife…”
Israelis call it Ramadam, with the “dam” ending meaning “blood.”
That same security source told Reshet Bet: “We are monitoring and preparing for the possibility that there are elements who will try to stir up the area. On the other hand, the Palestinian public for the most part is waiting for these reliefs.”
And how can we possibly disappoint the Palestinian public?
Israel Hayom also cited a security source, last week, who warned that “the four attacks that took place last week in the Jerusalem area – two stabbing incidents in Hizma and two stabbing incidents at the Temple Mount gates – may be a trailer for another bloody month, such as the months of Ramadan that we have known here for the past two decades.”
More like two centuries.
After the unification of Jerusalem under Israeli rule following the Six-Day War in 1967, visitors of all faiths were allowed to enter the Temple Mount. With the outbreak of riots on the Temple Mount in late 2000, later known as the “Second Intifada,” non-Muslim visitors were barred from entering the compound––because by being non-Muslim they apparently provoked faithful Muslims into rioting. The compound was reopened to visitors only in 2003, on the orders of then-Minister of Internal Security, Tzachi Hanegbi.
Year-round, the most sensitive time on the Temple Mount is Fridays at noon, at the end of Friday prayers in the compound’s mosques. And so, during sensitive periods, Israeli police restrict the entry of Muslim worshipers to the Temple Mount, to reduce the chance of violent demonstrations. But not this year.
This year, with the country’s internal security deposited in the hands of Peace Now founder Omer Barlev, on the most sensitive time, his police will encourage Muslims of all ages, young and old, including those residing in the Palestinian Authority, to come in their hordes and practice their bloody religious zeal.
