Last week, Saudi Twitter pages began to promote the message that ‘the direction of Jewish prayers do not matter to me”.
The campaign, designed to emphasize the importance of Mecca and Medina as the holy places of Islam, and to eliminate the importance of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, has caused considerable controversy online.
Among the most prominent messages in the campaign were those who wrote that "the direction of the prayers of the Jews is not important to us, what is important to us is only our homeland," referring to Saudi Arabia. This tweet was written by a well-known Saudi cartoonist named Fahd al-Jabiri.
Another English-language tweet by Ibtassam from Morocco seeks to bolster the Saudi campaign as it emphasizes that the Temple Mount is of no particular importance to Muslims, and hopes for the building of the Third Temple and the arrival of peace with it for all peoples.
According to the Saudis, the campaign is in response to the Palestinians who insult and humiliate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its cooperation with Israel, both online and in many demonstrations on the Temple Mount on Fridays. The reaction of the Saudis is to emphasize that Al-Aqsa is a mosque like all mosques, but the direction of prayer of the Muslims is to the city of Mecca and to it only.
Tom Nissani, CEO of the Temple Mount and Temple Heritage Foundation, noted, “In the end, it is becoming increasingly clear that the main obstacle - the Temple Mount - is in our hands. Now the Saudis and Moroccans also emphasize the strong connection of the Jewish people to the Temple Mount and the diminution of its importance to Islam. This is a historic opportunity to expel the hostile Waqf from the Temple Mount and transfer it to full Israeli management that will allow full freedom of access and religion to the mountain in cooperation with the Emirates, Saudis and Moroccans, Jews and non-Jews who will attain shared goals."