WhatsappThe Temple Mount is the site of the Holiest place of the Jewish people. This does not go back to the beginnings of the State of Israel. It does not go back 2,000 years. It goes back to the very beginning of the Jewish people, more than 3,500 years ago.
Jewish tradition holds that the Temple Mount will be a place of peace and coexistence as Isaiah prophesied. While it is sadly not yet a house of prayer for all nations, it’s still the right of every Jew to visit. Whoever believes in tolerance and coexistence, should support that. pic.twitter.com/BnzR8prJal
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) January 6, 2023
The reason that the Temple Mount is so precious to the Jewish people is that G-d chose the Jewish people as His people and chose the Land of Israel as his Chosen Land. In addition, there are parts of the Land that are holier than other parts of the Land. Jerusalem is holier than any other city. And the holiest place in Jerusalem is the Temple Mount. For more than 800 years, the 1st and the 2nd Temple stood in the Temple Mount. The holiest day of the year, the Day of Atonement was the one day of the year the the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies to serve G-d.
So why should the Jewish people NOT be allowed onto the Temple Mount today? There is no good reason. But there are many poor reasons. The Arab arguments against the Jewish people ascending the Temple Mount amount to a direct rejection of the hopes and prayers of the Jewish people over the last few millennia. The hopes are indeed to rebuild the Temple. The Arabs who object to the existence of the Jewish people in Israel indeed are right in focusing their most vociferous objection to the heart of the Jewish people – the Temple Mount.
There is no place that stirs as many emotions among Jews and Arabs as the Temple Mount. But that does not justify the basic rights of the Jewish people to serve G-d in the holiest place to the Jewish people. The only time in recent memory when people of all faiths, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and others, have been allowed to serve G-d has been since the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967 by the Israel Defense Forces. Freedom of religion exists across Israel. It should also exist on the Temple Mount.
