Family of 13-year-old girl murdered by Palestinian terrorist ascends Temple Mount
Harassed by Muslim protesters as they walked, guarded by police.
On Tuesday morning July 12, 2016, the family of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, the 13-year-old Israeli girl who was brutally stabbed to death on June 30th as she lay asleep in her bed, was granted special permission to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—the most sacred site in Judaism.
Hallel’s anguished parents, Rina and Amihai Ariel, had reportedly requested permission to ‘pray for the ascent of Hallel’s soul’ at the holy place that was dear to her and their hearts.
Credit: The Times of Israel
Rina Ariel had written directly to PM Netanyahu asking him to personally intercede. Via a YouTube video that went viral over the last few days, they also invited their fellow Israeli citizens to join them in the special prayer service:
Hundreds came to pay their respects and offer support.
https://twitter.com/jack_brook96/status/752731193452396544
But on Tuesday, as noted in several media reports (see here, here, and here), only the deceased teen’s immediate family and a few dozen close friends were ultimately authorized to go up to the Temple Mount.
Escorted by a ‘heavily armed police detail’, they were reportedly whisked through the site in less than 15 minutes. Even in that short time they were harassed by the always-present ‘Temple Mount screamers’.
https://twitter.com/jack_brook96/status/752776149403635712
https://twitter.com/jack_brook96/status/752781647116984320
While it’s been difficult to confirm it (see below), they may have been able to utter a few hurried prayers before the Temple Mount once again became a no-go zone for Jews.
https://twitter.com/jack_brook96/status/752793067363639296
Hundreds Attend Ceremony for Terror Victim at Temple Mount Entrance
At the event, Rina Ariel, mother of the murdered teen, delivered a powerful speech:
The heart of our daughter was stabbed and killed, and this is the heart of the Jewish nation…We have to empower it. We need to help strengthen it, and to strengthen the whole nation…”
Credit: The Times of Israel
Also speaking were “a veritable who’s who of Temple Mount activists”, many of whom demanded equal rights for Jews on the sacred space.
Oren Hazan, the youngest Knesset member of the Likud party, noted that restricting Jewish visitation to Judaism’s holiest site was “unacceptable”:
I think it’s about time that Jews should be able to go up to the Temple Mount every day, around the clock…This is the heart of the Jewish people, so look at it this way: if you took any place in the world and said Jews cannot pray here or walk here, that’s anti-Semitism. So this is anti-Semitism”.
https://twitter.com/jack_brook96/status/752748051274534913
But Hazan, and Yehudah Glick, a long-time activist for religious freedom and equality who recently joined Likud as its most recent MK and also spoke passionately at the event, weren’t permitted to join Hallel’s family on the site.
Credit: The Times of Israel
Agricultural Minister Uri Ariel, a family member, was also barred from going along.
So too were some 400 others, who patiently waited in the hot sun for the police to give them the chance. Instead, they had to make do with the ceremony at the Western Wall plaza. That’s where they were later joined by the Ariel family after their Temple Mount visit.
https://twitter.com/jack_brook96/status/752734995689734145
As I’ve highlighted in several prior posts (see here, here, here), Jewish access to the Temple Mount is severely restricted on account of a discriminatory “status quo arrangement” between Israel and Jordan that dates back to June 1967. Over the years it’s been reinforced and upheld by Israel’s courts as well.
Basically, these days Jews can only visit the Temple Mount during a very few select hours and Jewish religious displays of any kind are banned.
Whispering a prayer, bowing before G-d, singing, reading from a siddur (prayer book), or even visiting the compound wearing a Jewish Star of David can lead to a run-in with the police. Jewish visitors are routinely thrown off the site, detained, arrested, or barred from further entry for the slightest infraction.
Devout Jews know all this. So most are willing to abide by the stringent and frankly bizarre visiting rules simply for the opportunity to tour the place in peace and quiet—even if it’s just for a few brief minutes.
That was the case on Tuesday morning too.
As best I could tell from reading the media reports, the vast majority didn’t come to be provocative or disrespectful of Muslims on the site.
Credit: Breaking Israel News
Rina and Amihai Ariel were adamant that the event “not be carried out in any manner of confrontation”. They wanted people to come to the Mount to support, comfort, and “strengthen their heart”—but “not through war and not through hate”.
https://twitter.com/jack_brook96/status/752786390128160768
https://twitter.com/jack_brook96/status/752765665266761728
The Ariel Family May Have Been Able to Recite a Few Quick Prayers
I was happy to hear that the Ariel family and some of their friends were permitted to ascend the Temple Mount.
Their visit was especially meaningful to me because, as I noted in a recent post, I had also attempted to visit the Temple Mount a couple of weeks ago.
Unfortunately for me though, my stay in Jerusalem coincided with the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan.
Took a chance, but Temple Mount still closed today to all non-Muslims, including "tourists" @anneinpt #disappointed pic.twitter.com/Z4JnZM7qbk
— Miriam F. Elman (@MiriamElman) June 29, 2016
As I wrote in my post, during that period, Israel’s national police made the decision to close the Temple Mount to all non-Muslims after Jewish worshippers were attacked there during three days of rioting by armed and masked Muslim hooligans. They had stored rocks and metal pipes in al-Aqsa mosque, intending to cause harm to innocents.
Masked Palestinian rioters threw today rocks from the Al-Aqsa Mosque at people who were praying at the Western Wall. pic.twitter.com/WIpINX2h9H
— Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) June 28, 2016
Israel decided to ban non-Muslims from visiting the Temple Mount until the end of Ramadan. This following consecutive days of clashes there.
— Dov Lieber (@DovLieber) June 28, 2016
So on June 29th my hope of touring Judaism’s holiest of holies was dashed.
But on that day, and the days that followed, hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshippers were granted unfettered access. Apparently great fun was had by families celebrating the conclusion of Ramadan:
Can't wait to read these kids' "What I did on my summer vacation" essays. (Eid al-Fitr on the Temple Mount) pic.twitter.com/ncKEuUIn4j
— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) July 8, 2016
Why are Jews praying on the Temple Mount considered a "provocation", when these clowns have free reign? pic.twitter.com/qdDBcqLq1U
— Anarcho-Zionist (@AnarchoZionist) July 9, 2016
Basically, Muslims were able to worship there as they saw fit—non-stop and around the clock.
Whether the Ariel family and their entourage could do the same on Tuesday was unclear.
A report in Haaretz suggested that the group was permitted to pray. Protected by dozens of armed police, their “uttered blessings were answered by calls of ‘Amen’”. Here’s the article headline and the Tweet:
Jews utter prayers at Temple Mount while accompanying slain teen's family to the site https://t.co/Ej7DAuNzK9 pic.twitter.com/TG8v6uwgMG
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) July 12, 2016
But, as pro-Israel blogger ‘Israel Matzav’ rightly notes, the accompanying image isn’t of a religious service on the Mount:
.@MiriamElman @AsafRonel Picture from @haaretzcom taken at entrance below and NOT on Temple Mount
— (((IsraelMatzav))) (@IsraelMatzav) July 12, 2016
And coverage of the event in The Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel dispute the account in Haaretz. In them, it’s explicitly noted that ‘prayers were forbidden’.
In fact, according to the TOI article, four Jewish visitors who went on the tour were detained for doing so (they were reportedly released from police custody a short while later, according to the police).
I attempted to clarify the matter with Jack Brook, currently an intern at JPost.
He wrote about the event for the newspaper and also helpfully documented it on his Twitter timeline.
Brook replied to my query via Twitter. He’s under the impression that the family did say a few prayers during the 15 minutes or so that they were on the Mount:
https://twitter.com/jack_brook96/status/752868119132119040
If so, it would’ve been a striking departure from previous police policy and an unheard of demonstration of Jewish worship on Judaism’s most sacred site—one that, if it did occur, was undoubtedly authorized only due to the unique circumstances pertaining to the Ariel family.
If it happened, it was a one-off.
Given the past policies of the police, who as I’ve noted in prior posts generally cater to the Islamic Waqf on the site, the chance that other Jews will be guaranteed similar police protection remains remote.
UNESCO Postpones Voting on Jewish Attachment to the Temple Mount
On the same day that a murdered child’s family was granted permission to briefly honor her memory by ascending to the Temple Mount, the 21-member UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Committee was due to vote on whether the Jewish people had any connection to the sacred site.
Several speakers at the rally mentioned the coincidence.
This latest UNESCO resolution attacks Israel’s archeological and restoration work in the Old City and ignores Jewish ties to the Temple Mount. Unbelievably, it even refers to the Western Wall plaza in quotation marks, using the Arabic term for it—Al-Buraq Wall.
As noted by Itamar Eichner for YNet,
The [resolution’s] recommendations constitute another attempt to remove any Jewish presence on the Temple Mount”.
@rabbisacks @chiefrabbi UNESCO perverts its mandate to protect heritage, educate, & promote cultural diversity. Sad. https://t.co/qQJUznBGwA
— Lynn Koss (@LynnKoss) July 10, 2016
So @UNESCO is about to vote on the #Jewish connection to Temple Mount…THE holiest site in Judaism. What a joke https://t.co/JsjhZBf5jq
— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) July 10, 2016
https://twitter.com/AnneBayefsky/status/752566635383230464
However, the vote didn’t take place.
The Palestinians, who as a recognized member state of UNESCO had submitted the document to the committee, decided to pull it at the last minute, ostensibly because they feared it wouldn’t pass.
They probably made the right calculation.
UNESCO is a deeply anti-Israel body—of all UN agencies, it’s widely regarded as the one that’s the most prejudiced against the Jewish state.
But as Herb Keinon correctly notes in a recent article that addresses this UNESCO resolution, the Palestinians can no longer be assured of a slam-dunk there. According to Keinon, that’s because many African and Asian member-states are in the process of recalibrating their relationship with Israel, so any diplomatic pressure brought to bear is now more likely to have an impact.
Keinon’s right.
Last April a resolution that condemned Israel’s “aggression” on the Temple Mount and sought to reclassify it as an exclusively Muslim religious site sailed through the 58-member UNESCO Executive Board (it was approved by 33 states; France and Brazil have both subsequently backtracked calling their affirmative votes a mistake).
So this time Israel’s diplomats pulled out all the stops and worked hard to stymie the draft’s passage.
Israel and European allies working to stop UNESCO from ignoring Jewish ties to… https://t.co/fwDuWRSGHN #IsraelNews pic.twitter.com/JmXIGvPnhN
— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) July 12, 2016
Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold issued a scathing letter accusing UNESCO of being “malicious, dishonest, misplaced, hypocritical…disconnected from reality”.
MFA DG @DoreGoldMFA letter on #UNESCO's draft resolution: "We urge you to oppose this effort to distort history." pic.twitter.com/IKDSfZv9re
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) July 11, 2016
PM Netanyahu also condemned the resolution and Israel’s ambassador at UNESCO, Carmel Shama Cohen, called on the Palestinians and UNESCO to “come to their senses”.
All these efforts apparently paid off.
But this won’t be the last of such scandalous UN documents.
Draft @UNESCO resolution denying Jewish ties to Jerusalem shelved, so history won't be rewritten–for now… https://t.co/JVFmMyahht
— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) July 12, 2016
Because the Palestinian denial and denigration of Jewish affinity to the Holy Land is an ingrained part of their anti-Israel narrative.
So one minor set-back is unlikely to put them on any new course.
.@UNESCO SHMENESCO. Nothing can take away the Jewish people's 3,000+ year connection to #Jerusalem! #Israel pic.twitter.com/B8nkpdZTTD
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 12, 2016
Conclusion
For Jews eager to see their religious freedoms respected on the Temple Mount, Tuesday was a good day.
UNESCO—one of the most anti-Israel organizations on the planet—shelved a resolution that would have repudiated 3,000 years of Jewish connections to the sacred place. Then, the bereaved family of an Israeli terror victim was granted their wish to memorialize their loved one there.
But there’s no reason to uncork the champagne bottles just yet.
The UNESCO resolution was merely postponed for review—not rescinded. And while the Ariel family and a few of their closest friends could pay their respects on the Temple Mount, they could only do so under heavy armed guard. If they were allowed to pray, it was only for a few minutes.
To some observers this absurd and degrading situation is what necessitates an Israeli-Palestinian peace:
I appreciate and respect this position. But to my mind, the causal arrow runs in the opposite direction.
Bottom line: a just and lasting peace will remain elusive until such time when the Palestinians no longer deny the Jewish people’s connection to their heritage and families like the Ariels can freely worship at the Temple Mount without worrying about death threats.
—————————————-
Miriam F. Elman is an associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Syracuse University. She is the co-editor of Jerusalem: Conflict and Cooperation in a Contested City, published by Syracuse University Press. Follow her on Twitter @MiriamElman
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Comments
Why do writers say “holy month of ramadAn” and “prophet Mohammad” but never holy season of lent or holy days of rosh hashana etc ? Screw them. Ramadan is a time of killing. How can that be holy? Islam is a cult. Don’t treat them with respect they don’t reciprocate.
Because they are corrupt, ignoramuses, cowards – or all three.
How can anyone read the above and watch how the Jewish people are treated by the Palestinians and such and even begin to think of how there could ever be peace? For any kind of peace to have a chance requires both sides to work at it, but when only one side is willing or interested, then the effort is doomed to failure.
The above isn’t how they’re treated by “Palestinians”, it’s how they’re treated by their own government. The truth is that Israel is a major violator of human rights — those of its own Jewish citizens. The forcible expulsion of 10,000 Jewish residents of the Gaza Strip who were harming nobody was a crime against humanity. The constant demolition of “settlements” built on privately owned land or on hilltops that have been empty and unowned for centuries, and the periodic bans on any construction in Jewish towns in the “territories”, the imprisonment of people for saying the wrong thing, or for “art” that the leftist legal establishment doesn’t like, is shameful.
I find it hard to believe that Jews aren’t allowed on the Temple Mount. It’s in Israel, correct? Who cares what the UN or Jordan says? It’s obvious from the above pictures that the al-Aqsa is built on top of the foundation of a much older, much larger structure…the Jewish Temple.
That’s just the point; the Israeli government doesn’t really recognise the Mount as Israel. Moshe Dayan gave it away to the Waqf in 1967. And then Israel gave it to Jordan in their peace treaty. The current government keeps saying it’s Israeli territory, and keeps acting as if it’s not. What’s particularly ironic is that Members of Knesset have the right to go anywhere in the country they like — except on the Mount.
That Mosque needs to be disassembled and reassembled someplace else. And the Arabs calling themselves Palestinians should get out of the land of Israel.
All families and surviving victims of Palestinian terror should be escorted on visits to the Temple Mount. This should become a regular response to the terror.
Because the internet is forever, daddies with young daughters should not comment on this story.
Miriam, thank you for this extensive coverage of the outrages that continue daily at the Temple Mount as the Jews are forbidden to pray, while the Muslims are not only permitted to pray, but to harrass, humiliate and attack Jews. Moreover they make a mockery of the holiness of the site with Muslim children playing soccer, clowns entertaining the masses, and of course the unending violence against Jewish visitors.
Shame on them and shame on the Israeli government for its appeasement of the Muslims – which as we have seen countless times is a thankless effort since we are STILL accused of attempting to destroy the mosques. If only we lived up to their expectations!