The Temple Mount Faithful organization has filed a petition with the High Court of Justice against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, seeking permission to pray on the Temple Mount this coming Thursday, Tisha B\'Av. The petition states that Israel Police is willing to permit prayer, but that the Prime Minister has banned it for political reasons.
Tisha B\'Av is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, on which is commemorated the destruction of the Holy Temples 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, respectively. Both of them stood on what is now the Temple Mount. No Israelis have been allowed to visit the site since the onset of the Oslo War over 21 months ago.
Jerusalem resident Ezra HaLevy reports that he was detained and questioned by police for five hours this past Thursday after inquiring - not for the first time this month - whether he could pray on the Temple Mount that day. HaLevy, a recent new immigrant to Israel, said that the police were trying to give him and other Temple Mount well-wishers a \"clear message to \'Give it up. Har HaBayit [the Temple Mount] is not a Jewish holy site, it is a sensitive Islamic shrine. Stay away from it and do not even ask questions about it or you will be dealt with.\'\" The police did not mistreat him, he reports, and one investigator even reacted warmly to his [HaLavy\'s] concluding words:
\"I just think its incredibly absurd that there is a nation of a billion people who are trying to wipe us off the face of the Earth, Imams who preach our destruction from atop our Holy Mountain every Friday... - and I, a new immigrant who came willingly from the US, am sitting in a police station being interrogated because I inquired as to the status quo of the holiest site of my religion...\"
HaLevy said he calls upon visitors to the Western Wall to \"take a slight detour to your right and... inquire as to the well-being of our holiest site, at the heart of Jerusalem... Just saunter up to the bored Border Police sitting at the entrance to the path leading up to Mughrabi gate and ask [if it\'s possible to pray there today], wait for an answer and then go about your business...\"
Tisha B\'Av is the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, on which is commemorated the destruction of the Holy Temples 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, respectively. Both of them stood on what is now the Temple Mount. No Israelis have been allowed to visit the site since the onset of the Oslo War over 21 months ago.
Jerusalem resident Ezra HaLevy reports that he was detained and questioned by police for five hours this past Thursday after inquiring - not for the first time this month - whether he could pray on the Temple Mount that day. HaLevy, a recent new immigrant to Israel, said that the police were trying to give him and other Temple Mount well-wishers a \"clear message to \'Give it up. Har HaBayit [the Temple Mount] is not a Jewish holy site, it is a sensitive Islamic shrine. Stay away from it and do not even ask questions about it or you will be dealt with.\'\" The police did not mistreat him, he reports, and one investigator even reacted warmly to his [HaLavy\'s] concluding words:
\"I just think its incredibly absurd that there is a nation of a billion people who are trying to wipe us off the face of the Earth, Imams who preach our destruction from atop our Holy Mountain every Friday... - and I, a new immigrant who came willingly from the US, am sitting in a police station being interrogated because I inquired as to the status quo of the holiest site of my religion...\"
HaLevy said he calls upon visitors to the Western Wall to \"take a slight detour to your right and... inquire as to the well-being of our holiest site, at the heart of Jerusalem... Just saunter up to the bored Border Police sitting at the entrance to the path leading up to Mughrabi gate and ask [if it\'s possible to pray there today], wait for an answer and then go about your business...\"