Nearly three thousand Jews (2958) ascended the Temple Mount on Tuesday, the 9th of Av, the day when, 1,954 years ago, our holy temple was destroyed by the Romans, and 2,610 years ago by the Babylonians. Many more will be ascending during the afternoon shift.
One of the Jews who visited the holy site on the national day of mourning was National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) and the Minister of the Negev and the Galilee Yitzhak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit), alongside the head of the Temple Mount Administration Rabbi Shimshon Elboim.
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member Amit Halevi (Likud) also ascended.
The police detained for questioning some of the Jews who broke the rules that are imposed on no one else through a deal between previous Israeli governments and the Jordanian Wakf agency. Those unruly Jews dared to prostrate themselves, as our ancestors had done on the Temple Mount Yom Kippur. They also waved Israeli flags, because, you know, the compound happens to be in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem happens to be in Israel (ask the US State Dept.).
Jews singing on the Temple Mount pic.twitter.com/63KRH72Hkx
— [email protected] (@neveragainlive1) August 13, 2024
Jews are openly and loudly praying on the Temple Mount, right next to the Dome.
The status quo which disallows Jewish prayers seems to be changing, whether the Israeli government wants this or not.
Jews have every single right to pray on our holiest site. pic.twitter.com/CFOlXqkD0y
— ???? ???? ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) August 13, 2024
We actually prayed on the Temple Mount.
We actually sang on the Temple Mount.
Now the government is petrified, because we aren’t allowed to upset the poor Muslims. Jews and Christians are not allowed to freely worship here.We’re done with the status quo. pic.twitter.com/tSoHjZJw2W
— Netanel Worthy – נתנאל וורתי (@NetanelWorthy) August 13, 2024
Wait, there’s more, some pesky Jews even sang the Hatikvah national anthem, which offers the promise of redemption as long as there’s hope in Jewish hearts.
So ridiculous that Jews in Israel cannot comfortably raise an Israeli flag nor sing HaTikva on the Temple Mount without being removed from it all because of Jordanian Arabs who have ZERO right or sovereignty over here!!!
Seriously now this has to stop! This is Israel, our land! https://t.co/6oNdQuFCB5 pic.twitter.com/9OSeaTA9Bg
— Documenting Israel (@DocumentIsrael) August 13, 2024
הר הבית pic.twitter.com/u63qwMt2es
— בז news (@1717Bazz) August 13, 2024
No Arab security incidents were recorded. It turns out the Arabs who usually hang around the holy compound, (illegally and disrespectfully) playing soccer on the ancient stones and picking fights with visiting Jews, on Tisha B’Av got the message. Don’t mess with us today.
Minister Ben Gvir proclaimed:
“We are here on Tisha B’av, on the Temple Mount, to commemorate the destruction of the Temple. But we also have to say honestly: there is a very big progress here in governance, in sovereignty. Pictures of Jews praying here. As I said: our policy is to allow prayer. I’ll say one more thing: we must win this war. We must win and not go to conferences in Doha or Cairo, but beat them, bring them down to their knees – that’s the message. We can defeat Hamas, bring it to its knees.”
PM Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Ben-Gvir, declaring in a statement, “It is the Government and the Prime Minister who determine policy on the Temple Mount. There is no private policy of any minister – not the National Security Minister or any other minister – on the Temple Mount. Thus it has been under all governments of Israel. This morning’s incident on the Temple Mount deviated from the status quo. Israel’s policy on the Temple Mount has not changed; this is how it has been and this is how it will be.”
Ben-Gvir then release a subsequent statement [translates], presumably in response to Netanyahu’s statement: “The policy of the Minister of National Security is to allow freedom of worship for Jews everywhere, including the Temple Mount, and Jews will continue to do so in the future as well. The Temple Mount is a sovereign territory in the capital of the State of Israel. There is no law that allows racial discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount, or anywhere else in Israel.”
And there you have it.
