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| Moshe Gafni
Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash 90
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The Arutz Sheva
news site has reported that only two Knesset members, Yehuda Glick, and Shuli
Moalem-Refaeli, have notified the Knesset that they plan to visit the Temple
Mount tomorrow. Both Yehuda and Moalem have
visited the mount in the past.
On October 29, 2014 Glick
survived an assassination attempt after speaking at an annual Temple Mount
event at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center.
Five days after the assassination attempt, Moalem
visited the Temple Mount when she was confronted and verbally accosted after
ascending the steps to visit the Dome of the Rock. Even then she made it clear that she planned
to continue visits to the mount. According
to Moalem,
“I don’t plan to stop. I think the response to the horrible
assassination attempt [of Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick last week] should
be to increase rights of Jews on the Temple Mount, not to go backwards.” She also stated, “I think the Temple Mount is a place for prayer
for all those who want to go there—Christians, Muslim, Jewish, or anyone else….We
continue to say we have a right to pray in the holiest place for Jews. Our
national and religious rights must be expressed. God willing, more people will
join this process.”
Reflections
The religious right of the Jews to pray on the Temple Mount
is one thing. The national right of the
Jews over the Temple Mount seems to be another.
It seems that this would be nothing less than Israel taking sovereign
control of the mount. At present, the
Waqf has sovereignty over the Temple Mount, though Israel is responsible for
its security. If the claim for Jewish national
right is a claim for sovereign control, it is no wonder why some Jewish
authorities condemn the decision to allow the trial pilot program on Tuesday.
Another Knesset member Moshe Gafni strongly
condemned the program to the Temple Mount saying,
“I strongly condemn this terrible decision and protest it.
It testifies to the foolishness, nationalism, ignorance, absolute irresponsibility,
and more than anything the reverence for God.”
Gafni argues that it is the Jews, who are visiting the Temple
Mount, that are to blame for the new Palestinian intifada (uprising).
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ReplyDeleteIn what is not too surprising, Jordan condemned the visit to the Temple Mount by Yehuda Glick, and Shuli Moalem-Refaeli , the two members of the Israeli government who had notified the Knesset about the visit. What is surprising is the way the visit is described by the Petra news agency as “the storming” of the mount and that the two members “broke into the holy compound.” The visit to the mount was planned ahead of time and appears to have been peaceful from the reports, photos, and videos found on the Times of Israel and the Haaretz news sites. However, a video on YouTube captures an interview with Glick following his visit in which he describes his experience on the mount and expresses frustrations surrounding the present situation that resulted from the Oslo Accords.
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