On Tisha B’Av, Muslim War for Temple Mount Advances to Next Stage: Conquer the Kotel
“In that day I will all but annihilate all the nations that came up against Yerushalayim.” Zechariah 12:9 (The Israel Bible™)
Jewish
men pray as they gather for the ritual of Tisha B’Av at the Western
Wall (Kotel) in the Old City of Jerusalem, on July 31, 2017. (Yonatan
Sindel/Flash90)
Following the capitulation by the Israeli government over security measures on
the Temple Mount, the Palestinians have embarked on the next stage:
protesting Jewish “raids” on the “Al Buraq Wall”, more commonly known as
the Western Wall or Kotel.
“Last night, thousands of settlers desecrated the Plaza of Al-Buraq Wall, the western wall of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported on Monday, noting that the raid “coincided” with the “Ninth of Av, or the so-called destruction of the Temple.”
Wafa stated
that the raid took the form of organized ceremonies and prayers, and
the settlers’ “improper behavior” was protected by “the occupation
forces.”
The
“raid” Wafa reported was actually the annual arrival of thousands of
Jews at the Western Wall on the Ninth of Av, a day of fasting and
mourning commemorating the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Many
worshipers spend the entire night at the Kotel, reciting Lamentations
and traditional elegies.
The Muslims have not always made such claims to the site. In
1924, the Supreme Muslim Council published “A Brief Guide to Al-Haram
Al-Sharif” which proclaimed that its “identity with the site of
Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.” In contrast, the present Mufti,
Mohammed Hussein, has been quoted many times in the media as claiming
that the site has been holy exclusively to Muslims since the dawn of
time.
This increasing Muslim
claim to the Temple Mount was given credence in 2016, when the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
passed a resolution giving Islam a religious monopoly to the Temple
Mount. The resolution, referring to the region as “Occupied Palestine”,
made no reference to a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, and
referred to the Western Wall as “Al Buraq Plaza”.
Despite police restrictions and Arab protests, Jewish visitation to the Temple Mount rose 15 percent according to a Jerusalem Post report.
With six weeks left in the Jewish year, at least 17,000 Jews visited
their holiest site as compared to a total of 14,908 last year. 1,000
Jews are expected to visit the site during this holiday of Ninth of Av.
More than 250 Jews were reported to have entered the site by 9:00 AM, undergoing increased security checks.
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