Two unrelated events Tuesday about the Temple Mount threw the spotlight on Judaism’s holiest site, which the Obama administration has been trying to avoid in its peace talk show because it knows it will spell the end of its illusory dream for a piece of peace paper.

A seemingly harmless court decision in Jerusalem backed a lawsuit by Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, who won $8,500 in damages from the police for discrimination and arrest without cause. The second event was a front page article in The Washington Post entitled “At Temple Mount, Dreams of Prayer Raise Fears of Violence.”

The Temple Mount was restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967 after nearly 2,000 years of rule by foreigners, including the Jordanian occupation from 1948-1967 during which time no Jews were allowed to visit. For that matter, Jordan also prohibited Christians from visiting their sites, unless the visitors were important world dignitaries, but let’s leave that for CNN.

Unknown to most foreign and even many Israeli journalists, who know what they know by hanging out with Haaretz reporters, Jews regularly prayed on the Temple Mount in 1967.

In the following years, the Arab world started to think again about getting rid of Israel. Empowered by Moshe Dayan’s handing religious authority over the Temple Mount to Jordan, and backed by a Chief Rabbinate prohibition against Jews ascending the Temple Mount because of issues of ritual impurity, it has become a de facto Muslim site.

That has changed somewhat since many national religious rabbis have ruled that Jews may visit certain areas of the Temple Mount without fears of violating Jewish law against walking on ground that is part of the Holy of Holies in the destroyed Temples.

The Arab world, including the Palestinian Authority, has conducted a campaign in recent years to convince the world that the Jewish Temples never existed. Jerusalem police, worried more about Muslim violence than freedom, enforce Muslim rules forbidding Jews from bringing any religious articles when visiting the Temple Mount, let alone praying.

Enter Yehuda Glick, whose activism has promoted groups to ascend the site, after ritual immersion. Police routinely harass orthodox Jews while letting non-observant Jews and Christians visit. Lately, some Jews have been brazen enough to utter a prayer on the Temple Mount, prompting quick removal by police.

Glick appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court in 2009 with a complaint that the police were discriminating against him personally by not allowing him to ascend the Temple Mount. The court rejected his appeal but told him to come back again if he saw that the police methodically barred him and no one else.

Glick than armed himself with a camera and photographed police at the checkpoint at the Temple Mount. Police arrested him twice for taking pictures, and Glick went back to the court with a lawsuit for slander, false arrest and discrimination.

Tuesday’s ruling is a significant victory for him and a slap in the face of the police, who have been told in the past by the Supreme Court that the prohibition against Jews uttering a prayer on the Temple Mount is illegal discrimination. However, the Court said the police can invoke the very convenient excuse that prayer “endangers the public order.”

Of course, the presence of Jews in Israel endangers the public order, but we will leave that for the next expulsion of Jews from their homes, God forbid, because  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is worried the Arabs might try to wipe out Israel by going to the United Nations instead of by “negotiations.” Kerry wants all the credit.

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, “The complainant was arrested not for any specific action but because of the fact that has been singled out by the defendants (perhaps correctly) as a provocateur. This consideration is not a reason for detaining him or arresting a person with any justifiable basis only because of his opinions.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem was closed to visitors on Sunday, after a fight had reportedly broken out between Jewish visitors and Muslim worshipers.

According to JTA, citing Israeli media, Jews visiting the site Sunday morning reportedly began singing Hanukkah songs and praying. In response a group of Muslim worshipers attacked them.

But the Tazpit News Agency reported that three groups of foreign tourists were permitted to enter the temple Mount compound, while 36 Jews were stopped at the entrance. And another group of some 300 tourists were stopped as well.

Isaac Lampert, a reporter for Tazpit, who is getting married tonight, was in line waiting to enter the Temple Mount and was among the Jews police were blocking. Lampert commented that it was a shame to have Israeli police prevent Jews from entering the site of the very Temple the Maccabees purified and re-opened more than 2,000 years ago.

Two Jews and two Muslims were arrested at the site Sunday.

Jews generally are not permitted to pray or bring any ritual objects to the Temple Mount, which is considered Judaism’s holiest site, in order to avoid confrontation with Muslim worshipers at the Al-Aksa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest site. The site is overseen by the Muslim Wakf, the Muslim religious administration charged with managing the Temple Mount site.

The Temple Mount was closed to non-Muslim visitors during this year’s Sukkot holiday over fears that Muslims would be incited to violence by the crowds.

Days later on Oct. 14, the Temple Mount was shut down to visitors after police removed 10 Jewish men for praying and singing. The men were detained after praying and bowing on the Temple Mount, then singing “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem, waving an Israeli flag and dancing.

About an hour before the incident, police detained three other Jewish men for questioning after they prayed and bowed during a tour of the Temple Mount.

Both JTA and Tazpit contributed to this report.

Arab Members of Knesset furiously protested the standardization of Jewish visitation rights to the Temple Mount at a session of the Israeli Knesset Committee for the Interior on Monday.

Deputy Minister for Religious Services Eli Ben-Dahan said during the meeting that he is seeking an agreement on the visitation rights with Israel’s chief rabbinate. But MKs Ahmad Tibi, Jamal Zahalka, and other Arab MKs who attended the meeting threatened dire consequences, including a new intifada, if any proposals on the issue would be agreed upon.

“There is no Temple Mount. There is only the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” shouted Zahalka, according to the Jerusalem Post. “You’re playing with fire and you’re starting an inferno,” he added. Tibi said that “because of you [another intifada] will break out again, also because of Al-Aqsa.”

After the Temple Mount was closed to Jews for almost a week, the Israeli police permitted Jewish access to the holy site on Sunday.

The police closed the site after a group of Jews had the audacity to pray ‘Shema Yisrael’ out loud and then pulled out an Israeli flag.

Dozens of Jews went up to the Temple Mount on Sunday.

In what is an unusual response, after the Jewish visitors complained to the police about the Arabs playing soccer on the Temple Mount, which is both illegal and disrespectful, the police actually confiscated the ball, and stopped the game. At best, the Arabs simply ignore the police, and at worst, the the police simply let the soccer games continue unabated, despite the court order forbidding this disrespect on the Judaism’s holiest site.

Source: The Temple Mount Blog

By Henry Goldblum

At first glance, Simon Sebag Montefiore’s best seller Jerusalem: The Biography is surely impressive. Media critics as well as Henry Kissinger have showered it with praise, and the BBC devoted a timely three-part TV series to the author, providing invaluable publicity. Indeed, the book is not dull by any standards. Drama abounds – be it in chapter headings (take chapter 5, “The Whore of Babylon”) or in the description of events, such as the Moloch ceremonies in the days of King Menasseh, “the sacrifice of children at the roaster…in the Valley of Hinom…as priests beat drums to hide the shrieks of the victims from their parents” (p. 39). The Muslim invasion is depicted in graphic detail, particularly the battle of 636 CE, which took place “amidst the impenetrable gorges of the Yarmuk River” (p. 172) – although the area through which the Yarmuk flows is in fact more of an open plain.

Renouncing Uniqueness

Sebag Montefiore has clearly invested much effort in conveying his vision of Jerusalem – past, present, and future. The result reflects thoughtful study of many sources relating to different features of the city, and the author certainly recognizes its special status. However, in his apparent desire to deal evenhandedly with the various local religions, he fails to make it clear that it is only for Jews and Judaism that Jerusalem is, was, and has always been the sole spiritual center on earth. This omission is unacceptable. The author rightly refers, if only en passant, to Midrash Tanhuma and the writings of Philo of Alexandria as two examples of this basic, constant belief, unlimited by time or circumstance. The intensity of Jerusalem’s sacred status for Judaism is such that later monotheistic faiths have attempted at various times to gain a foothold in the city, despite their having other, holier places (Mecca and Medina, Rome and Bethlehem). Perhaps recognizing the significance of capturing the “chosen status” of Judaism, they have utilized diverse strategies to prop up their variant “histories,” including reinterpreting Muhammad’s miraculous night visit to the “Farthest Mosque” on the outskirts of Mecca to include a stopover in Jerusalem.

It has always been fundamental for the Jew to appreciate this imbalance, and it cannot be overlooked in any attempt to describe Jerusalem. Sebag Montefiore has downgraded this uniquely Jewish aspect of the city; as far as he is concerned, Judaism’s monopoly on Jerusalem is limited to part 1 of his book, extending until the year 70 CE. Parts 2-8 belong primarily to other faiths and peoples, and the final section of the book, dating from 1898, is titled “Zionism,” as if the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty is a separate chapter in the history of the city rather than the restorationof a violently interrupted continuum. Significantly, he neglects to emphasize thata Jewish majority has dominated the citywhenever circumstances have permitted,including from the early 19th century onwardwithout interruption; nor does he remind thereader that only when Jews have ruled thecity have all other faiths enjoyed full rights ofworship there.

Historically Dubious These omissions are partially explained by the almost complete absence of references to classic Jewish works compiled in the Land of Israel – despite their obvious relevance in terms of place, time, and subject. Thus, the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds are together accorded a mere four quotations; the output of Jewish historians from Graetz to current Israeli scholars not of the revisionist mode is similarly glaringly absent. In contrast, detailed descriptions of events and individuals taken from non-Jewish sources abound – even when their relevance is historically uncertain or unsound – notably the passages on Jesus in chapter 11. The sole reference to Jesus in Josephus (Antiquities, book 17, 63-64), whom Sebag Montefiore cites among other non- Jewish sources as confirmation of his existence as a historic character, is widely regarded as being of dubious authorship (see Emil Schürer’s History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus, vol. 1, p. 428ff.).

The reliability of the author’s statement at the opening of the Islam section is similarly questionable: Muhammad is said to have come “to venerate Jerusalem as one of the noblest of sanctuaries” (p. 169). With all due respect, the Koran never mentions Jerusalem, and by beginning his discussion of Islam with the reinterpretation of the passage regarding “the furthest place of worship,” Sebag Montefiore creates a false impression, especially since in Sura 2, the Prophet commands that prayer be directed exclusively to Mecca. The other quotes on page 168 are all from later Muslim sources. The term “Iliya,” a corruption of the pagan name Aelia Capitolina coined by Hadrian, continued to be used by the Muslim conquerors of Jerusalem for a generation or more following Muhammad’s death, with examples from as late as the end of the 10th century. This is the name of the city appearing on the milestones of Caliph al-Malik, who built the Dome of the Rock in the 690s. The name Al-Quds, “The Sanctuary,“ came into common use only in the 11th century, in the context of the struggle between Crusaders and Saracens for dominion over the Holy Land (see Moshe Gil, The Political History of Jerusalem in the Early Muslim Period, p. 10). The anecdote concerning Caliph Omar’s tour of the Temple Mount (p. 175 in Sebag Montefiore’s book) only reiterates the secondary status of Jerusalem in Islam – the caliph rebukes Kaab, a converted Jew, who suggests praying in the direction of the Temple on the mount rather than toward Mecca. As Bernard Lewis has stated in The Middle East, “Much of the traditional narrative of the early history of Islam must remain problematic, whilst the critical history is at best tentative” (p. 51). Why, then, has Sebag Montefiore adopted Islamic accounts regarding this period so readily? Is he perhaps playing to Muslim sensibilities? All this leads us to an epilogue that looks forward, as might be expected from the previous sections, to a permanent division of the city into two capitals for two states, in accordance with current liberal and revisionist dogma. The hope of witnessing such a chapter in the history of Jerusalem rankles coming from a scion of the illustrious Montefiore family, whose philanthropy was once invested in the furtherance of a quite different destiny for the city.

Admittedly, Jerusalem: The Biography provides an enjoyable ride. A more appropriate destination and a less controversial and dangerous route might be preferable, but that, presumably, would require a change of driver.

Dr. Heny Goldblum is a lawyer and a scholar of history

Visit Behind the News in Israel.

According to the official news agency of the PA, WAFA, Palestinian newspapers and other media over the weekend ignored most of the al-Qaeda induced mayhem, tearful poverty stories, victim worship items and run of the mill Jew hatred stories, in favor of one big story: Israel is building the Third Temple, or at least a big synagogue.

All three Palestinian papers reported on this plan, according to WAFA, with “al-Quds” saying the Israeli deputy minister of religious affairs supports this plan and is working on getting approval for it.

Poor Rabbi Eli ben-Dahan – they attack him in Shas, they attack him in the PA, he can’t catch a break.

The same papers also reported on an interview Chairman Abbas gave to Palestine TV on Thursday evening, in which he said he would not give up on the 1967 lines as the borders of the future Palestinian state, which will have Jerusalem as its capital.

Our frequent contributor, Elder of Zion, reported back in August: “There have been a bunch of articles … throughout the Arab world claiming that there has been some sort of official approval to build a small synagogue on the Temple Mount, mostly because of this illustration (see above) that is on some Israeli sites showing what one might look like.”

If you’ve been wondering why some clean cut, well mannered frequent visitors to the Temple Mount, like Yehuda Glick, have been banned indefinitely by police – Arab hysteria might provide a reliable answer.

So then, according to the other guys, the Islamist-affiliated Ahlul Bayt News Agency, the Hamas Movement has also issued a warning to the “Israeli occupation regime and its extremist Jewish groups” (do you get the feeling Ha’aretz’ Ezra Pound scholar in residence Gideon Levi is writing their press releases?) of building a synagogue on the land of the Aqsa Mosque and affirmed that there would be dire consequences for such violation.

“We, in Hamas, warn the occupation and its extremists of executing such grave plan or touching any part of the Aqsa Mosque,” Hamas said on Saturday.

“Attacking the Aqsa Mosque and attempting to divide it temporally and spatially are a major crime and a red line that our people cannot allow to be crossed,” it explained.

Hamas also expressed its belief that all the occupation’s plans to Judaize the Aqsa Mosque are only desperate attempts and will never succeed in imposing a fait accompli.

Of course, a proper Jewish government response (and all its extremists) would be to rebuild the synagogue that had been constructed by the late Israeli chief rabbi, Rav Shlomo Goren in the area of the compound which is permissible for Jews to access. If the Arabs respond with violence, Israel police should arrest the violent ones, as they do so skillfully when a Jew dares spend a night with his family in, say, Yitzhar.

And should our enlightened allies in the west protest, all we have to do is produce the U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom Report for 2012, which states for all the world to see:

The Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem Islamic Waqf that manages the site generally restricts non-Muslims from entering the Dome of the Rock shrine and Al-Aqsa Mosque, a practice it started in the year 2000. The Waqf does not allow non-Muslim religious symbols to be worn on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif.

On October 3, (2012) a Jerusalem magistrates’ court judge noted that “the explanation that Muslims do not approve of Jews’ praying on the Temple Mount cannot, in and of itself, prevent Jews from fulfilling their religious obligations and praying on the Temple Mount.” However, the judge noted he was not providing an instruction to the police. While arrests are subject to judicial oversight, the government, not the courts, has the authority to decide matters relating to religious rights in holy places, and the Supreme Court has upheld that governmental authority.

Israeli police controlled access to and the security of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound with police stationed both inside the compound and outside each entrance to the site. Entrance to the Temple Mount was legally permitted regardless of one’s religious beliefs, although access was often restricted. Police cited security concerns when restricting young Muslim men from entering the site. Police often removed from the site Jewish individuals who appeared to be praying, in accordance with a government policy dating back to 1967. Some Jewish groups were prevented from entering the Temple Mount without a police escort due to security concerns, and there were reports that the police escorts at times did not detain these groups when they prayed. The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, part of the Jordanian Ministry of Waqf, exercised administrative control over the site and prohibited from the site non-Muslim symbols, the Bible and other religious literature, and clothing deemed immodest by Muslim standards, as well as non-Muslim entrance into the Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Al-Marwani Mosque, and the Islamic Museum.

In other words, building a synagogue on Temple Mount is practically urged by the State Dept. And since the Arabs are all worked up about it even when there are no such government plans—and if there are, they didn’t tell me—why not go ahead and build one?

UPDATE: According to Ma’ariv, the Temple Mount compound has been closed to visitors, following the arrest of ten men who danced and waved Israeli flags at the site. The area is now clear for Arab kids to continue their soccer matches.

We previously reported that Jerusalem police on Monday morning detained for interrogation three Jewish visitors on the Temple Mount on suspicion of praying and bowing in the area which is designated for strictly Muslim worship.

According to Yehuda Glick, a Temple Mount Heritage Foundation official who has been detained last week and banned from setting foot on the holiest Jewish site, the three Jews, Mevo Horon Rabbi, Rav Micha Peled, and Rabbis Yaakov Heiman and Danny Simmon, were arrested after they had been caught saying the “Sh’ma Israel,” the twice-daily utterance of the covenant between God and the Jews.

Not a very popular document near the Al Aqsa…

The United States Dept. of State has deplored numerous times the unequal treatment of non-Muslims on Temple Mount. Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims who are spotted shutting their eyes meaningfully or moving their lips silently are immediately approached by police who usher them off the compound.

According to Glick, there appears to be anew campaign emerging on the part of the police, whereby they would be guaranteed a measure of peace by the Waqf, the Jordanian charity supervising the site, in exchange for banning anyone who manages to upset the Arab bosses of the place.

Several months ago, MK Moshe Feiglin, a frequent visitor to the holiest site for Jews, was banned indefinitely, backed with an order from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Five years in the making, the first IMAX film ever made about Jerusalem is as much a visual tour de force as a marvel of cultural diplomacy.

“Jerusalem,” which had its world premiere last week at Boston’s Museum of Science, uses cutting-edge cinematography to immerse the audience in the ancient city’s historic sites from rarely seen perspectives.

Over the course of 45 minutes, viewers are treated to rare aerial views of the Old City as Jews gather at the Western Wall for the priestly blessing, Christian pilgrims march down the Via Dolorosa and Muslims gather at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first Friday of Ramadan.

Distributed by National Geographic Entertainment, the film, narrated by the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, will show on IMAX screens and in digital 3-D cinemas across the United States in the coming weeks.

Gaining access to some of the world’s most sensitive and contested locations was a test of devotion and artful negotiations that took the film’s three producers and a team of advisers years to accomplish. Preparations required dozens of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials, the Israeli army and the many clerics who control the city’s religious sites.

Filming from a low-altitude helicopter in the Old City of Jerusalem’s strict no-fly zone required a permit that had not been granted in more than 20 years, the filmmakers said, and acquiring the permit took eight months of negotiations.

In advance of the shooting, producers took out ads in the major Hebrew- and Arabic-language newspapers to notify residents about the helicopter filming.

“There was nothing that was not complicated,” Taran Davies, one of the film’s producers, said at the premiere.

Even the terrestrial shots were difficult to carry off. For the scene filmed at the Western Wall, an IMAX camera was mounted on a crane above the crowds.

The most challenging authorization by far was for the Temple Mount, known in Islam as the Muslim Noble Sanctuary, which required permission from the Islamic custodial body, the religious affairs ministry in Jordan and Israeli security forces.

A critical figure in helping the producers navigate the logistical maze was Ido Aharoni, now Israel’s consul general in New York. Aharoni first learned about the film six years ago when he directed Brand Israel, a project to promote Israel around the world.

He recognized the potential of portraying the country’s historical and cultural gems in such a visually powerful medium. IMAX films also typically screen in museums and can run for years.

“The whole purpose of the movie is to produce a visually awesome experience for the moviegoer who happens to be a museumgoer; it can’t be judged like any other movie,” Aharoni told JTA. “Realizing that, we told [the producers], ‘Whatever you need, we’ll help you.’ ”

The film’s mesmerizing visuals are woven into a narrative propelled by the voices of three teenage Jerusalemite women — Jewish, Christian and Muslim. Fluent in English, the women offer eloquent descriptions of the deep religious, cultural and family ties that bind them and their respective religions to their home city.

Though the film was carefully planned down to the last minute and camera angle, Daniel Ferguson, the film’s producer, writer and director, told JTA the teens’ words were their own.

“My goal is to promote understanding,” Ferguson told JTA. “The film will change assumptions and give a window into another point of view.”

The voices of the women are supplemented by that of Jodi Magness, an archaeologist at the University of North Carolina, who guides viewers through an ancient tunnel and visits active excavation sites that continue to unearth the history of the land.

The filmmakers took great pains to balance the presentation of all three religions, according to George Duffield, another producer with longstanding ties to Israel. He and Ferguson say they were at times pressed to take a position on controversial or political issues, but insisted on neutrality.

“Everyone wanted the film to be about their own faith,” Duffield said. “That’s how they see the city.”

The producers hope the film can be used to promote tolerance and understanding. Profits will be donated to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to underwrite projects that benefit all residents of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum in a still from the IMAX film “Jerusalem.”