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Exclusive: SECRET GOVERNMENT REPORT Israeli government relinquishes control of Mount to Muslim Waq

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According to the report, Muslims on the temple mount regularly harass Jewish visitors to the site, with Israeli authorities doing nothing to prevent it. Photo Credit: Jewish Archives
According to the report, Muslims on the temple mount regularly harass Jewish visitors to the site, with Israeli authorities doing nothing to prevent it. Photo Credit: Jewish Archives
Introduction

Paragraph 21 of the State Comptroller Law, 5718-1958 [Consolidated Version] determines that “The Comptroller shall, if requested to do so by the Knesset, the Committee or the Government, prepare an opinion as to any matter within the scope of his functions. The said opinion shall be made public at a time specified by the Comptroller.” The Knesset State Control Committee (hereinafter: the Committee) discussed the matter of the “Waqf  digging on the Temple Mount,” and asked the State Comptroller to prepare an opinion “on the matter of the excavation of antiquities on the Temple Mount.”

The Committee made this request following a meeting on the subject, after the Public Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount and the Jerusalem Post petitioned the Supreme Court sitting as the High Court of Justice. The petitioners requested an order nisi and an interim injunction to halt the digging of trenches to lay a new power line from the northern Temple Mount to the Al-Aqsa mosque, located on the southern part of the mountain, executed by the Muslim Waqf in the summer of 2007, with the authorization of the Israel Police and under the supervision of the Antiquities Authority. On 3 November 2011, the High Court of Justice decided to strike the petition  (see below).

Four authorities are involved in law enforcement on the Temple Mount: the Israel Police, the Antiquities Authority, the Jerusalem municipality and the Ministry of Justice: The Israel Police is in charge of maintaining public order and safeguarding life and property; the Antiquities Authority is in charge of preserving the antiquities; the Jerusalem municipality is in charge of enforcing the planning and construction laws. These authorities are required to report any serious and substantive violation of the planning or antiquities laws to the Attorney General. Furthermore, all enforcement action by the authorities requires coordination with the Attorney General.

In order to prepare the opinion, the Office of the State Comptroller looked into the behavior of the authorities involved in the activities on the Temple Mount. The examination focused on the years 2001-2007 and involved the Antiquities Authority, Ministry of Justice, Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Internal Security, Israel Police, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Israel National Commission for UNESCO in the Ministry of Education and the Jerusalem Municipality. Meetings were also held with various entities, including archeologists and other professionals involved in the subject.

Further meetings were held with representatives of the Public Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount (hereinafter the Public Committee). The Public Committee is a volunteer public entity established in the year 2000 in wake of excavations conducted by the Muslim Waqf in November 1999 in “Solomon’s Stables.” The Public Committee is made up of archeologists, legal experts, educators and experts on the history and geography of the land of Israel, writers, former high-ranking members of Israel’s security establishment and well-known public figures. Since its establishment, the Public Committee has petitioned a number of times against the relevant authorities and entities requesting that the law be enforced and that the supervision over activities at the site be tightened.

The Temple Mount is a very complex and sensitive subject. By its very definition, treatment of the Temple Mount cannot be divorced from Jewish-Arab relations in the State of Israel and in the territories of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza region; nor can it be divorced from questions relating to Israel’s relations with Arab countries, the Muslim world and Israel’s foreign relations as a whole.

The Unique Nature of the Temple Mount

1. The Temple Mount, which is 144 dunams [35 acres or 0.144 square kilometers] in area, is the site most holy to the Jewish people. According to Jewish tradition, the Temple Mount is Mount Moriah, the place where the binding of Isaac occurred. During the time of King Solomon, the First Temple was built on the Temple Mount and was destroyed in the year 586 BCE. Following the return to Zion in the year 516 BCE, the Second Temple was built on the Temple Mount. After the Romans burned the Temple down in 70 CE, the Temple Mount ceased to serve as the place of public Jewish ritual. Despite the destruction of the Second Temple, the Temple Mount continued to stand at the center of the spiritual and cultural experience of the Jewish people; the date of the destruction of the Temple was declared a day of national mourning and being the only surviving remnant of the Temple, the western wall of the Temple Mount – the Western Wall – became sanctified in Jewish tradition.

2. The Temple Mount is a site of importance to Christians too. According to Christian tradition, some of the important events in the life of Jesus mentioned in the New Testament occurred on the Temple Mount. Due to its sanctity to Christianity, it became a site of pilgrimage during the period of the Crusades.

3. The Temple Mount is third in sanctity to the Muslims, after the cities of Mecca and Medina, and it is known to Muslims as Al-Haram al-Sharif, i.e. the Noble Sanctuary. The Muslims built the major edifices that now stand on the Temple Mount after they conquered Jerusalem in 638: The Dome of the Rock was built in 691 around a rock that lies at the center of the Temple Mount precinct, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem’s central mosque, was dedicated in the year 705. The original structure of that mosque was destroyed in a number of earthquakes, and only very few remnants were preserved. The mosque that is in use today was built in the Middle Ages and has been renovated a number of times since.

4. In a verdict handed down in 1996, the Supreme Court made the following remarks: “No court in Israel needs proof that encroachment on the territory of the Temple Mount by the Muslim Waqf, to expand the Muslim prayer area, causes real offense to the religious and national sentiments of large parts of the Jewish public in regard to the site most sacred to Jews. […] The spread of the Muslims to an additional prayer area severely offends the sensibilities of Jews in regard to the site. […] This is the dispute simply put, without any embellishment.” The court added, “However, the reality on the Temple Mount […] is by no means simple. It is extremely delicate and complicated, to the extent that the court cannot ignore it, and in regard to the said dispute, it cannot restrict itself to the rules of law, as it is normally accustomed. […] This is one of those cases in which a judicial ruling is not the reasonable way to decide the dispute, and a decision of this kind goes beyond the boundaries of the law. It is the political echelon, and not the court […] that must give content and meaning to the historical call: ‘The Temple Mount is ours.’”

A High Court of Justice hearing on another subject stated: “The Temple Mount is unique and singular and therefore cannot serve in the cause of generalization. Indeed, the point of departure in principle is that every Jew has the right to climb up to the Temple Mount and pray there as part of his freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Nevertheless, these rights are not absolute and their realization can be restricted when taking the interest of the public into account. […] In view of the centrality and paramount importance of the Temple Mount for other religions too, the danger posed by the unleashing of violence there (on the Temple Mount) is more than just a local danger and it […] could lead to outbreaks the nature of which could endanger security beyond the borders of the state and the region. To this should be added that […] what happens on the Temple Mount influences political considerations and Israel’s foreign affairs. In consideration of all these things, the Temple Mount is a site of singular and exceptional sensitivity, and consequently, maintaining public order on it requires maximal caution.”

In 1981, the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (hereinafter: UNESCO) declared the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls a site to be included in the World Heritage List  according to Article 11(2) of the UNESCO Convention of 1972.  In 1982, The Old City and its walls were declared a “World Heritage Site in Danger,” according to Article 11 (4) of the Convention. In 1999, Israel joined the UNESCO Convention.  According to article 4 of the Convention, it is the duty of each country signed to the convention to ensure “the identification, protection, conservation, presentation and transmission to future generations of the cultural and natural heritage” of the site.

(To read the entire report on the growing Temple Mount controversy, please visit the Jewish Voice web site at: www.jewishvoiceny.con)

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