US criticizes Ben Gvir's Temple Mount visit, sparking debate on Jewish prayer rights - opinion

Recently, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken released the following statement: “The United States strongly opposes Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount on August 13, which demonstrated blatant disregard for the historic status quo with respect to the holy sites in Jerusalem. These provocative actions only exacerbate tensions at a pivotal moment when all focus should be on the ongoing diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire agreement, secure the release of all hostages and create the conditions for broader regional stability... The United States reaffirms our commitment to the preservation of the historic status quo and will continue to oppose unilateral steps that are counterproductive to achieving peace and stability and undermine Israel’s security.”

In Israel’s 1967 Six Day War victory, Israel recaptured Jerusalem’s Old City and the Temple Mount from Jordan. Unlike other areas, such as Hebron (home to the Cave of the Patriarchs) and the Western Wall, Israel chose not to take control of the Temple Mount. 

Then-Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan said, “We have returned to the holiest of our places, never to be parted from them again... We did not come to conquer sites sacred to others, or to restrict their religious rights, but rather to ensure the integrity of the city and to live in it with others in fraternity.”

Instead, the state forged an agreement with local Arabs and Jordan in which the Islamic Wakf, a Muslim religious organization, would administer the Temple Mount.

Later, as part of the 1994 Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty, Jordan was named custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount. As part of the status quo, only Muslims may pray on the Temple Mount. Israeli Jews who attempt to pray on the Temple Mount are stopped by Israeli police from doing so. 

Former Israeli ambassador Alan Baker disagreed with Dayan’s policy. Baker wrote, “A status quo that perpetuates an ancient and outdated social structure that no longer exists, that practices religious discrimination and denies or restricts rights of worship, should logically no longer be relevant and should not be maintained in modern international society. It is distinctly and blatantly incompatible with accepted international norms and concepts of equality, human rights, freedom of religion and worship, interreligious and intercultural dialogue, tolerance, understanding, and cooperation."

Equal prayer rights

In response to a Jewish appeal to allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, Aharon Barak, then-president of Israel’s Supreme Court said, “The basic principle is that every Jew has the right to enter the Temple Mount, to pray there, and to have communion with his Maker. This is part of the religious freedom of worship, it is part of the freedom of expression. However, as with every human right, it is not absolute, but a relative right... Indeed, in a case where there is near certainty that injury may be caused to the public interest if a person’s rights of religious worship and freedom of expression are realized, it is possible to limit the rights of the person in order to uphold the public interest.”

Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas represented the Palestinian position regarding Jews at the Temple Mount and Christians at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre when he declared, “Al-Aqsa is ours, and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. They have no right to defile them. We must prevent them. We will not allow our holy places to be contaminated. They claim that 2,000 years ago they had a temple. I challenge the claim that this is so.”

Maimonides wrote about the history of the Jewish people and the Temple Mount, “Isaac was prepared as a sacrifice on the Temple’s future site. Solomon began to build the House of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to David, his father, in the place that David had prepared, on the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.” It is universally accepted that the place on which David and Solomon built the Altar, the threshing floor of Ornan, is the location where Abraham built the altar on which he prepared Isaac for sacrifice. Noah built an altar in that same location when he left the ark. It was also the place of the altar on which Cain and Abel brought their sacrifices. Similarly, Adam, the first man, offered a sacrifice there and was created at that very spot.

Allowing Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount because they consider it holy, while not allowing Jews to pray at the same spot – even though they have a longer historical claim and consider the same location sacred – reeks of hypocrisy, discrimination, and although it is officials of the Jewish state who are enforcing the discrimination, of antisemitism. In a Western-world culture where equal rights are prioritized, what possible justification could there be for discriminating against one religious group based on their religious identity?

Supreme Court allows for Palestinian terrorism

Supreme Court president Barak’s justification for the suspension of equal rights based on the calculation that it avoids violent outbursts of Palestinians is absurd. It takes for granted and allows Palestinian terrorism as if Palestinians have no impulse control and can’t help but be violent. Like any other people, Palestinians have agency and can choose non-violence over terrorism. They can be tolerant of Jews and share their prayer space with them. Palestinians and Jews share the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and the same peaceful arrangement can be made in Jerusalem.

The worst hypocrisy in promoting the status quo on the Temple Mount belongs to the American government. The US-Israel relationship is rooted in the values both nations share. The US Constitution’s first amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” 

Could anything be more hypocritical of an American administration than promoting American values around the world while excluding the world’s most sacred location from the value of freedom of religion?! This is a shameful policy that should embarrass all Americans. 

It is time the world comes to the realization that Jews have, at least the very least, an equal right to pray on the Temple Mount as Palestinians. Jordan’s insistence that only Muslims pray at there should cancel Jordan and the Wakf’s control over the administration of the site.

There should be an arrangement modeled after the Cave of the Patriarchs made in Jerusalem, where Jews, Muslims, and Christians are all able to pray peacefully. The world, and especially America, should warn the Palestinians that any violent response to Jewish prayer will be met with a drop in financial and diplomatic support for the Palestinian Authority. 

It is time for the world to live up to its values by ending its hypocrisy and discrimination by allowing equal rights for Jews, demanding that Palestinians stop their violence, and ending international kowtowing to threats of Palestinian terrorism. 

Denying the Jewish people the right to pray at their most sacred location is counterproductive to achieving peace and stability and undermines Israel’s security.

The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho, Israel. She lives with her husband and six children.