MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) on Wednesday submitted a bill permitting Jews to pray on Temple Mount, altering the present status quo arrangement in which Jews are allowed to visit the site but not pray. The bill is sponsored by MKs Shuli Mualem and Nissan Slomiansky (Bayit Yehudi), and Mickey Zohar, Oren Hazan and Avraham Neguise (Likud), Walla reported.
The bill contends that members of all religions should be allowed to pray anywhere they wish, stating: “In some cases, the court noted the existence of a lack in the current law, which does not protect specifically the freedom of worship and settles for ensuring freedom of access. This lack is sometimes problematic and the time has come to amend the law so that its interpretation be more comprehensive and more appropriately fitting the principles of the advanced political system in Israel. Therefore, it is proposed to add to the law of protecting the holy places the freedom of worship for all religions clause, alongside the free access it already offers, so that this fundamental right, too, would be defined in the law and result in freedom of worship everywhere and to everyone.”
MK Smotrich added in his proposed bill that “freedom of worship and freedom of access of all religions to the holy places is a basic right in a democracy, and is derived from the Knesset Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty. Many relevant cases have been brought for hearings before the Supreme Court in its function as the High Court of Justice. In almost all cases, the court spoke emphatically about every person’s having the right to commune with his Maker anywhere and anytime. It is part of the freedom of religious worship, and part of the freedom of expression.”
In an interview with Walla, Smotrich explained that “anyone who speaks of the sanctity of human rights should allow all religions to pray everywhere. The law does not change the current situation in the sense that it allows the prime minister and defense minister to prevent access if they wish, but there is no doubt that once that right is anchored in law, it would be harder to harm it.” He added that he understands there is a possibility that the political echelon would continue to prevent Jewish prayer on the Mount, even if the law is approved, “but they’ll need to show a more meaningful reasoning. It will not continue to be as it is now, based on the whim of a police officer who decides that Jews shouldn’t pray. Every Jew has a right to pray everywhere.”
He said he believed it would be difficult not to pass the law. “I do not believe right-wing ministers would oppose such a law, and I don’t see how the left-wing Knesset members can suddenly ignore a fundamental right recognized worldwide,” he said. “The bill is responsible, it does not state that it’s an absolute right. I took accepted norms, enshrined them in the law, and it certainly would be relevant to the Temple Mount. Whoever wants to violate the right to pray on the Temple Mount, would have to explain why it is justified.”