Following the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Sunday’s ruling that it is permissible for Jews to recite the “Shema Yisrael” prayer and bow on the Temple Mount (Jerusalem Court Rules Jews Can Recite ‘Shema Yisrael’ and Bow on Temple Mount), Israel Police on Monday morning detained for questioning a Jew who came to the Temple Mount and, according to witnesses, bowed before his father in Heaven. Two other Jews were stopped when they tried to enter the sacred compound with a tallit and tefillin.
Judge Zion Sahrai wrote in his decision on the appeal by the Honenu legal aid society regarding boys who uttered the Shema Israel on the Temple Mount that it’s not possible to say that bowing and reciting “Shema Yisrael” raises a reasonable suspicion of behavior that could lead to a violation of the public peace. The judge cited Policed Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai, who told the media that the police allow anyone who comes to pray on the mountain to hold their religious service.
“Under these circumstances, when the conduct of the appellants is made in keeping with the public announcement of the Police Commissioner and in accordance with the Preservation of Holy Places Act, they cannot be suspected of committing a criminal offense,” the judge ruled.
However, the court emphasized that the decision does not constitute an intervention in the work of the police and the matter of freedom of worship at the compound.
The Bennett government’s Secretariat was quick to issue a statement that “there is no, nor is it planned to change in the status quo on the Temple Mount (Israeli Government Refutes Court Ruling on Temple Mount Prayer). The decision of the Magistrate’s Court deals exclusively with the matter of the conduct of the minors brought before it, and it constitutes no lateral determination as to the freedom of worship on the Temple Mount.”
Bennett’s government added that “with regard to the specific criminal case in question, the government was informed that the state would file an appeal to the district court.”
Minister for Regional Cooperation Issawi Frej (Meretz) told Reshet Bet radio Monday morning that the court’s decision to lift the police restriction on saying “Shema Yisrael” on the Temple Mount is “conduct bordering on stupidity.”
“It reminds me of the saying that one fool can burn an entire forest,” Frej said. He is right, Jerusalem is surrounded by forests that have been burned down by Arab terrorists. Hundreds of acres of forests have also been burned by the Arabs of Gaza, as well as by the Negev Bedouin. But Frej was not concerned with Arab violence. Indeed, he treated that component as a given, a part of nature, if you will. It’s the Jews who decide whether the Arabs release a fiery storm in response to their reciting a line from their prayer book.
“Everyone has their own place of worship,” Minister Frej repeated the line that’s supported, unfortunately, not only by the Arabs but by the majority of Jews in Israel and elsewhere. “The Al-Aqsa Plaza is a place of worship for Muslims and the Western Wall for Jews.”
See how he turned the Temple Mount compound into the Al-Aqsa Plaza? The whole thing is now Al-Aqsa, boys and girls. Only a couple of decades ago, the Muslims were referring to the place as Bayt al-Maqdis, Arabic for the Hebrew Beit HaMikdash, Temple Mount. But even the communist politician Issawi Frej has now adopted the Islamic bon ton, wiping away three millennia of Jewish worship on the holy mountaintop.
“The majority wants things to continue as they are,” Frej said, and he is absolutely right. “We are not allowed to play with fire,” he said, meaning Arab rage. Because once we dare provoke the Arabs’ rage, who knows what might happen, as Israel has learned in June 1967, when the rage of three Arab countries was directed at it. OK, it ended with the annihilation of three Arab armies, but that didn’t count.
Come to thik of it, that’s how Israel liberated the Temple Mount, only to shed this divine gift like used rags. One wonders what else Israel could liberate in the face of the next Arab rage. Of course, it won’t happen with Islamist wannabes like Issawi Frej in government.
