Photo Credit: Netanel Krakover/TPS
Jews ascend the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem during the days of Passover's Chol HaMoed. Jerusalem, Apr 23, 2019.
The US State Department said the other day that it was ‘deeply concerned’ by Jerusalem violence over the last few days and urged care to maintain the Temple Mount status quo.
It called on “all sides to exercise restraint, avoid provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve the historic status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.”
So what exactly is the status quo of the Temple Mount?
Well, I’ll tell you…. It’s a racist and religious discriminatory policy against Jews.
After liberating Jerusalem from the illegal occupation forces of Jordan in the Six Day War, Israel allowed the Muslim Waqf to keep control of the Temple Mount in an attempt to maintain some kind of harmony, but unfortunately Israel is not dealing with a bunch of harmonious people. Because the opportunity given to them was squandered purposely for one simple reason.
They don’t want any Jewish presence there at all.
Prior to Israel liberating Jerusalem, it’s important to understand what exactly Arab control over the Temple Mount, the Jews’ holiest site, practically meant.
When Israel declared its statehood in 1948, the Arab world erupted and launched a war against the newly formed Jewish state. But this was not a war about territory, but a war of annihilation – a war in which they wanted to wipe out the Jewish State and murder its citizens.
But despite overwhelming odds, the Arab forces lost, yet Jordan still managed to maintain control of the Old City of Jerusalem, which contained the Temple Mount.
Now, Jordan always like to present themselves as a modern, moderate state.
They are not.
For what they did after that time should disgust any person who believes in the most basic tenets of freedom and respect and worship.
They destroyed 58 Jewish synagogues. They desecrated Jewish Holy sites. They used ancient Jewish tombstones for paving. They turned Jewish holy sites into latrines and horse stables, and they also expelled all the Jewish residents. And no Jew was even allowed to enter the Old City.
So that’s Jordan – moderate and progressive. And just for the record, the world was silent then. There was no international outcry about these crimes and atrocities.
I wish I could say this was a relic of the past, but just the other week, Joseph’s Tomb, another ancient and holy Jewish site was destroyed once again by Arabs – and anyone want to guess what the world’s reaction was?
Well, the same as the years after 1948 – absolute silence.
So going back to 1967, after Israel liberated Jerusalem from the ‘moderate’ Arab state of Jordan, they decided, inexplicably, to let the Muslim Waqf maintain control of the Temple Mount.
It was a deal with the devil because what it meant was that only Muslims were allowed to prey on the Temple Mount, an area that was of no real significance to them until the Jews came back to their land, but Jews were not. Jews were allowed to visit — under heavy restrictions and tight monitoring for a few hours— but were not allowed to pray there. They weren’t even allowed to move their lips in silence for it was illegal for a Jew to pray at their holiest site.
But this goodwill act of Israel did not bring anything of the sort. It only emboldened the Muslim authorities to continue their fascist policies towards Jews. Because every day, Jewish worshippers and others are faced with constant abuse by shrieking Arab women and children, both verbal and physical, even as they walk passively in such a holy and historical site.
And rather than treating it like a Holy site, the Arabs use it as some kind of military compound, storing rocks inside the Dome of the Rock for the very purpose of attacking innocent worshippers at the Western Wall below.
So when Israeli forces enter the compound in order to maintain calm against these terrorist thugs, they are instead, in a blatant lie, accused of ‘storming’ the so-called Holy site of Muslims.
And then it seems all of a sudden, the world has found its voice, leading to naïve stupid statements from the US State Department calling for the status quo to be maintained. Rather than pointing the finger at Arab premeditated violence, it calls on ‘both sides’ which means it essentially gives moral equivalence to the Israeli side that tries to maintain peace and the Arab side that wants to carry out violence.
But despite the fact that Israel has not violated the status quo, it’s still wrong, because it is not an agreement of peace and harmony, but rather an agreement of discrimination against Jews. In the many years since 1967, it has led to no peace and no harmony, yet the world keeps on calling for this discrimination to be maintained.
Can you even imagine just for one moment, if Muslims were forcibly barred from praying at their holy sites in Jerusalem or anywhere else for that matter? There’d be outcries, world condemnations, UN Security council resolutions (there are anyway) and Israel would be condemned in every international forum that ever existed.
Yet when that discrimination actually exists against Jews, the world doesn’t condemn it, but condones it and wants it maintained.
Any progressive person, who is quick to condemn Israel for anything should look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves if that is fair and if that is right?
And if they think it is, then they are not liberals, but fascists.
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Justin Amler is a noted South African born, Australia-based writer and commentator on international issues.