The high-level discussions led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the status quo on the Temple Mount are important, but to a large extent, they’re debating an illusion.
The reality on the Temple Mount is in constant flux. The “sacred” status quo is a fiction, a white lie. The Muslim side has been altering the situation on the Mount for decades. Only now are changes coming from the Jewish side as well.
When discussing the “status quo” on the Mount, it’s worth remembering that as early as the 1970s, Muslims began using the Dome of the Rock structure for prayers. Originally, it wasn’t built as a mosque, and only women prayed there on Fridays. In 1996, they established a third mosque on the Mount, in Solomon’s Stables (Al-Marwani Mosque). In 1998, a fourth mosque was erected (“Ancient Al-Aqsa”) in the spaces beneath the upper Al-Aqsa. In the early 2000s, large areas on the Mount were paved for Muslim prayers, and in 2019, the Gate of Mercy area was effectively turned into a fifth mosque.
Status quo? Over the years, Muslims have closed the Chain and Cotton Gates to Jews, restricted their visiting hours and days on the Mount, threatened, harassed and antagonized them until a defined and limited route was established for them, and they were banned from entering the mosques.
Under this “fake status quo,” Jordan has evolved from an employer paying the salaries of Waqf Islamic trust personnel on the Mount to a senior partner with Israel in its management. Enforcement of planning and construction laws on the Mount has ceased, archaeological supervision and enforcement of antiquities laws have been severely undermined, and the restoration of the Mount’s southern and eastern walls has been entrusted to professionals from the Muslim side.
Even the ban on flag-raising on the Mount has become a joke over the years and is only enforced on Israeli flags. In contrast, flags of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hizb ut-Tahrir have been frequently raised there. Finally, Muslims have turned the lies of “Al-Aqsa is in danger” into a production line of terrorism, while taking the name of Allah in vain and desecrating His sanctities, both theirs and ours.
For seven years now, Jews have been praying in a minyan on the eastern side of the Mount. These are quiet prayers, under police supervision and approval, without external Jewish symbols such as tallitot, tefillin or Torah scrolls. Compared to the series of substantial changes that Muslims have introduced on the Mount over the years, and from the outset, such quiet, non-provocative prayer is the least the Jewish side can ask for and should not be infringed upon.
Until National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir began behaving like a bull in a china shop on the Mount, and until the prostrations began there, the Muslim side had come to terms with this change, just as the Jewish side had come to terms with the series of changes that the Muslim side had introduced on the Mount.
Those who seek to turn back the clock on the Jewish side must know that the Muslim side will also be required to do so, and the changes they have made on the Mount are many times greater. Those demanding an end to Jewish prayers on the Mount should consider a parallel demand regarding Muslim prayers in the Al-Marwani and Ancient Al-Aqsa mosques, which were also not part of the reality on the Mount in 1967.
Therefore, on the Temple Mount, we shouldn’t be talking about the fake status quo, but mainly about common sense and honesty, and act there with sensitivity and determination.
Originally published by Israel Hayom.
