Youth who sought to protest discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount were told that they could not bear banners with the famous words, “The Temple Mount is in our hands!”. The iconic phrase was uttered by Lt.-Gen. Mordechai “Motta” Gur as he reported the reunification of Jerusalem during the Six Day War, after 19 years in which the city was divided.
A police spokesman said the youth had been permitted to protest on the Armon Hanatziv promenade, from which the Temple Mount can be seen, but that “inciting” speeches and slogans would not be permitted.
The ban drew furious reactions from Members of Knesset. “If the slogan ‘the Temple Mount is in our hands’ is incitement in the eyes of the police, it is not the slogan that we need to change, but the police,” said MK Uri Orbach (Jewish Home).
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) suggested, “Perhaps the police should issue an arrest warrant for Motta Gur, of blessed memory, or at least ban his books.” Ben-Ari said Gur “is turning over in his grave,” adding, “Apparently there’s no end to stupidity in the Israel Police.”
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) made an official parliamentary inquiry asking Minister of Internal Security Yitzchak Aharonovitch, “Is it permissible to distribute Motta Gur’s book, ‘The Temple Mount is In Our Hands’?”
Yehuda Glick of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation said the police ban just served to prove the importance of the protest. “The absurd police ban on waving a ‘The Temple Mount is In Our Hands’ sign in a Jewish neighborhood two kilometers from the Temple Mount makes it clear how important this protest is to show the point we’ve reached in our fear of our own shadow, and how much we must work so that the Temple Mount remains in our hands – before it is too late,” he declared.