Gang Violence

The echo of the Temple Mount crime, which is the fact that it is a crime for a Jew to mention God’s name on the site, should reverberate in the Western world and in the mind of any cultured person, regardless of his religious identity. In the Jewish world’s most sacred site, the rules, imposed by the Islamic Wakf with the cooperation of the Israeli police, are enforcing racism, anti-Semitism and Stalinism. The Israeli government should apply the 1967 law for the Protection of the Holy Places, paragraph 2(b), setting a five-year jail term for “whosoever does anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places”. It is time to mobilize international public opinion, at least anyone who cares about decency, truth and freedom, to stop this bulldozing of history. “If this is a man” was the title of Primo Levi’s masterpiece on the Holocaust. Today it should be retitled: “If this is a Jew on the Temple Mount”. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will be always escorted by two policemen. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will be overshadowed by the Islamic officials, who will walk two or three meters away from you, watching your face and hands all the time. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will be arrested if you stand still too long. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will not be allowed to carry religious paraphenalia. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will see the site used for soccer, picnics, and cheap tourism. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will not be allowed to nod your head. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, your name will be recorded in a notebook or in the “List of Suspects”. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will realize that another people has become the masters of the most sacred Jewish jewel. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will be filmed. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, your religious books will be taken into custody. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will be arrested if you move your lips in prayer. If you are a Jew on theTemple Mount, you will be arrested if you say the Shema, which resounded even in the gas chambers. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, your basic rights will be trumped. If you are a Jew on theTemple Mount, your body will be searched. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will see that everything Jewish has been destroyed or camouflaged. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you won’t merit any protest from world Jewish leaders or organizations. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will wait 30 minutes in the blazing sun, until the Sanctuary is “jüdenrein”. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will be arrested if you remove a paper from your pocket and read it. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you will feel like a “luftemensch”, an "air person" not rooted in the land. If you are a Jew on the Temple Mount, you mayl be wisked away in handcuffs and treated like a criminal in front of bewildered tourists. If you are a Jew on theTemple Mount, you will be arrested even if if you close your eyes. If this is a Jew who has returned to his homeland...