OLMERT GOV'T BANS JEWISH PRAYER FROM TEMPLE MOUNT

Olmert Gov't Bans Jewish Prayer From Temple Mount by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Public Security Minister Avi Dichter announced on Tuesday the government's official policy regarding Jewish prayer on the site of the Holy Temple: "Jews may pray on their holiest site - but only in their heart; no lip-moving allowed."

Dichter explained that government policy on the Mount is dictated by the wish to ensure that bloodshed not occur. He said that Jews moving their lips in prayer on the Mount, which the Moslems have sanctified as their own, can be seen as a Jewish provocation that could lead to bloodshed.

Knesset Members Aryeh Eldad and Uri Ariel - both of the National Union party and both residents of Kfar Adumim in the Jordan Valley - had submitted a request to pray on the holy site, and Dichter's response was the result.

Though the two had pledged not to perpetrate "group prayer" or "demonstrative prayer," both of which have been banned for Jews at the Temple Mount, Dichter said that the "outer trappings" of private prayer - namely, moving of lips - render even that forbidden. In his response to the MKs, Dichter noted that the only option for Jews who wish to pray on their most sacred site "is to exchange thoughts with his G-d in his heart."

The New Jewish Congress responded with barely-controlled fury, issuing this statement:

"Minister Dichter's comments demonstrate his, and this government's, total disconnect from the reality of the Temple Mount, from the Jewish people, and from the government's obligations towards both. This is yet another indication that the government of Ehud Olmert has ceased to be a Jewish government altogether, having not the slightest connection with the Jewish people."

Just two weeks ago, the government did nothing when Fatah allowed Hamas to broadcast its anti-Jewish incitement directly from the Temple Mount. The New Jewish Congress noted the irony of the juxtaposition of the loud and clear Hamas broadcasts and the banned silent Jewish prayer emanating from the same site - that of the Holy Temple.

"In reality," the statement continued, "the Jewish people enjoy freedom of religious expression, including prayer and Torah study, everywhere - except on the Temple Mount, their only holy site."

"Minister Dichter's comments convey hatred and discrimination towards the Jewish people," the New Jewish Congress stated. "In due time, this government will be held accountable for its actions and will stand trial in a Jewish court of justice that will be established by the Jewish people."

Say Nothing by David Hazony (Commentary)
How bizarre can Middle East politics get, you ask? In Israel—a democratic state which protects freedom of religious practice by law; a state which in principle is meant to express and protect the millennial longings of the Jews—a Jew who ascends the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, and utters the briefest of prayers, even under his breath, is subject to arrest and prosecution by Israeli police. Why? He is, allegedly, engaging in a provocative act which may lead to violence. That is, at least, the view of Israel’s public security minister Avi Dichter. Dichter recently wrote to two parliamentarians who, according to Haaretz, sought to pray in silence and without prayer shawls at the site. Such an act, Dichter wrote, is banned. It might “serve as a provocation” and result in “disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed.”

I do not think Dichter is wrong to suggest that Jews praying on the Temple Mount may upset Muslims, who also pray on the Temple Mount. Nor do I think that violence is an impossible outcome. The real question is: What happened to the individual’s rights in the face of the violent mob? Isn’t that what the police in a democracy are for—to deter precisely the kind of bloodshed that intimidates people into giving up cherished practices? And from the Jewish side—why go through the (quite considerable) trouble of having a Jewish state if a Jew cannot pray at his religion’s holiest site?