Temple Mount Closed to Rabbis

by Hana Levi Julian
January 8, 2008

Mosque on the Temple Mount
Photo: Flash 90

A delegation from the Judea and Samaria (Yesha) Rabbinic Council was blocked from ascending the Temple Mount on Tuesday morning.

Jerusalem police closed the Temple Mount to Jews, telling those who arrived that an ancient Muslim holiday was discovered to be taking place, thereby precluding entrance by Jews. They could not name the holiday when asked, however.

“It seems that the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, will be the first thing to be handed to [U.S. President George W.] Bush on a silver platter,” read a statement to the media by the Movement to Prepare the Holy Temple.

The statement called for Jews all over the world to fight the possible transfer of control of the site to the Palestinian Authority in upcoming negotiations.

"The Jewish nation must oppose in every way the abandonment of the Temple Mount and Jerusalem to foreigners. We must be faithful and act with self-sacrifice against the initiatives of our enemies, both without and within.”