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‘Preparing the hearts’ – how the Temple Mount movement works

towards their goal of building the Third Temple over the ruins of
Al Aqsa
BY MERS I H A GADZO - FEBR UA RY 16, 2018 -  87

Mersiha Gadzo
Mersiha Gadzo is a multimedia journalist. Her articles
have appeared in Al Jazeera, CBC, Canadian

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 Dimension and the Middle East Eye. She tweets at
@MersihaGadzo.

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THE DOME OF THE ROCK. (PHOTO: MERSIHA GADZO)

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Their plan to destroy the “abomination,” was appropriate; the only problem was Hind’s Hall defendants
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“The generation was not ready,” Etzion wrote in a letter while incarcerated.

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Once out of prison Etzion established the Chai Vekayam (Alive and
Existing) movement, which believes in shaping public opinion as a prerequisite for
building a Third Temple in the religious complex in Jerusalem’s Old City where Al
Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located, otherwise known as the Noble
Sanctuary. In addition to housing Islam’s third most holiest site in the world, the
compound is also one of Judaism’s most sacred sites and the desired location for the
Third Temple.

According to messianic belief, building the Third Temple at the Al Aqsa compound—
where the First and Second temples stood some 2,000 years ago—would usher the
coming of the Messiah.
In his prison letter he explained, destroying the Dome of the Rock could be part of
the plan,

“We must build a new force that grows very slowly, moving its
educational and social activity into a new leadership. Of course I
cannot predict whether the Dome of the Rock will be removed
from the Mount while the new body is developing or after it
actually leads the people, but the clear fact is that the Mount will
be purified [from Islamic shrines] with certainty…”
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 Three decades later, “the process of ‘preparing the hearts’ that precedes the
practical stage of removing the Dome of the Rock is now underway in full force,”
noted Israeli NGO Ir Amim in their 2013 report, “Dangerous Liaison.”

Since then dozens of organizations have formed with the goal of promoting “temple
awareness”- raising awareness about the Third Temple’s importance and its
construction. In 2013 Ir Amim noted 19 registered associations that call for
changing the status quo at the Noble Sanctuary.

Since 1967, Israel has controlled the entrance to the Noble Sanctuary and the
compound is administered by Islamic Waqf seated in Jordan. Non-Muslims can
enter the site as tourists, but cannot pray there.

Today, discussion about changing the status quo on the Al Aqsa compound and
building the Temple is part of Israeli mainstream discourse.

2017 was a record breaking year in many aspects including an increase of 75 per
cent in Jewish visits to the compound. In 2017 around 25,600 Jews visited the
compound compared to around 14,600 in 2016.

Last October, around 500 Jewish activists practiced their ritual next to the Southern
Wall, closer to the compound than ever before.

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 THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE’S MODEL OF THE THIRD TEMPLE. (PHOTO: MERSIHA GADZO)

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 THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE’S RECREATED GOLDEN MENORAH DISPLAYED OUTSIDE IS
READY TO BE USED IN THE THIRD TEMPLE ONCE IT’S BUILT. TEMPLE INSTITUTE
LEADERSHIP CLAIMS THAT BY PLACING THE MENORAH IN FULL VIEW OF ANYONE
HEADING TO THE WESTERN WALL FROM THE JEWISH QUARTER, HELPS PROMOTE THE
IDEA OF REBUILDING THE THIRD TEMPLE.
(PHOTO: MERSIHA GADZO)

“The struggle is about sovereignty”

Many Temple activists have openly admitted that praying at the compound is just
the first step in achieving their greater goal of building the Third Temple inside the
Noble Sanctuary. It’s why Palestinians remain concerned about increased Jewish
visits to the compound.

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 Elishama Sandman, founder of Yeraeh, which publishes
weekly statistics on the number of Jews visiting the Noble
Sanctuary. Using the Jewish term for the compound, the
Temple Mount, she stated:

“Our aspiration is to build a Temple on the

Temple Mount. In order to get to a Temple, there
is a path that must be followed, and along this
path there are various milestones that are
YEHUDA ETZION INSIDE THE effectively our more immediate goals: Allowing
NOBEL SANCTUARY IN
JERUSALEM, 2015 (PHOTO: open and free prayer on the Mount, extending
HONENU/YNET NEWS)
entry hours for Jews as well as broad awareness
among the people and so forth.”

Former Likud member Moshe Feiglin revealed the real intention behind the call to
Jewish prayer at the compound:

“Let’s be truthful. The struggle here in not about prayer,” Feiglin admitted. “Arabs
don’t mind that Jews pray to God. Why should they care? We all believe in God. The
struggle is about sovereignty. That’s the true story here. The story is about one
thing only: sovereignty.”

Last summer, right-wing rabbis called for increased visits “to strengthen our hold
on this holy place.”
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 Motti Inbari, professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at
Pembroke agrees that the Jewish activists’ “act of going up the Temple Mount is an
act of showing ownership” over the site.

“Building the Third Temple is viewed as something futuristic, not something that’s
going to happen soon,” Inbari told Mondoweiss.

“But Jewish presence on the Temple Mount and Jews coming to pray is viewed as a
more realistic goal that they can achieve to symbolize ownership,” he said.

Likud Knesset member Yehuda Glick has played a key role for more than a decade in
promoting Jewish visits to the compound and calling for their right to prayer.

According to Glick, when he first ascended the compound in 1990, Jewish visitors
were let in only one at a time and there were only three rabbis who supported their
cause since leading rabbis have repeatedly ruled that it is forbidden for Jews to enter
any part of the compound due to the site’s sacredness.

Now, groups of 50 and more typically visit (sometimes over 100) and according to
Glick, there are around 300 rabbis who support their call.

“They have successfully changed the halachic [Jewish law] position concerning
ascent to the Mount among the Council of Yesha Rabbis and even to expose rifts
within the Haredi public, for which activity promoting the rebuilding of the Temple
as a practical program was once entirely insupportable,” Ir Amim noted.
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 PALESTINIAN MUSLIMS ARRIVE AT AL AQSA MOSQUE FOR FRIDAY PRAYER. JANUARY
2017. (PHOTO: MERSIHA GADZO)

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 A VIEW OF THE DOME OF THE ROCK TAKEN FROM OUTSIDE OF THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE.
(PHOTO: MERISHA GADZO)

“A particularly alarming trend”

One of the leading Temple movement organizations is the Temple Institute, which
has had a blueprint ready for the temple’s construction since 2011. In 2014 they
crowdfunded over $100,000 on Indiegogo to prepare architectural plans for their
Third Temple.

“This is the generation. The children are ready,” reads the tagline in one of their
videos which often show the youth leading their parents and the elderly away from
distractions and towards the Third Temple.

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 Their ultimate goal is no conspiracy theory.

The dozens of ritual objects that are displayed in Plexiglass cases at the institute
aren’t merely replicas. They have been specifically made to be used in the Third
Temple once it’s rebuilt.

“The Temple Institute’s ultimate goal is to see Israel rebuild the Holy Temple on
Mount Moriah [where the Al Aqsa compound is located] in Jerusalem, in accord with
the Biblical commandments,” reads their statement on their website.

At the institute, paintings are displayed on walls depicting visitors arriving by light-
rail train and cable car. They gaze at the gigantic Third Temple, clearly located in
today’s Al Aqsa Compound. In all of their illustrations, there is no Dome of the Rock
or Al Aqsa mosque in sight.

With the Midrasha, the Temple Institute’s educational arm, their “growing
infiltration” of the Israeli education system is a “particularly alarming trend,”
according to Ir Amim.

“By presenting itself primarily as an educational body, without emphasizing its

ultimate goal of rebuilding the Temple, the Institute has been successful in
garnering support,” Ir Amin wrote, “Because there is no other organization
representing an alternative viewpoint, students receive a blatantly biased
perspective. In this way, both secular and religious students under the Education
Ministry are exposed to a one-dimensional approach to the subject.”
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 From 2008 to 2011 the Temple Institute and Midrasha received an average of
$110,000 (412,000 NIS) in state funding. In 2012, the most recent year that statistics
are available, Midrasha received $230,000 (819,000 NIS) from the Ministry of
Education.

The Temple movements’ influence reached the Knesset as well. From May 2013
until October 2014, the Knesset Interior Committee held 14 discussions concerning
the issue of Jewish entrance and prayer to the compound, compared to four
discussions in the entire preceding decade.

Glick also formed a lobby that successfully convinced Israeli decision makers in
2015 to outlaw the Mourabitoun movements, guardians of Al Aqsa mosque.

“Religious groups that joined the Likud Party ranks have raised the curtain on the
issue, making it mainstream,” Glick said in an interview. “[…] I was present at all
these junctures and used all the tools to give the idea a serious push.”

According to a poll from 2013, about a third of Israelis support building the Third
Temple in the Al Aqsa compound.

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 OMAR KISWANI, DIRECTOR OF THE AL AQSA MOSQUE COMPOUND. (PHOTO: MERSIHA
GADZO)

Recently, the battle over Al Aqsa’s sovereignty has shifted to legal grounds. Last
October the Supreme Court ruled that soccer games are forbidden on the compound
because it desecrates the site’s holiness. Palestinian youth often play soccer in Al
Aqsa’s courtyard since there are few places where they can freely do so in their
neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem.

The Waqf has refused to respond to summons sent by Israeli courts to hear claims
filed against it, since they don’t recognize Israeli law over Al Aqsa. They maintain
that Israel has no authority to interfere in Al Aqsa’s affairs.

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 According to Omar Kiswani, director of the Al Aqsa compound, since the prayer
protests led by Palestinians last July, Israeli authorities have maintained their ban
on tools, electric cables and renovation materials from entering the compound,
consequently halting much-needed renovation for the mosque. Any minor
maintenance now requires approval from the Israeli police. As of January 2017
renovation plans have still been frozen.

“Even cleaning. We need approval from Israeli police to clean,” Kiswani said. “It’s
because they want to change the status of Al Aqsa. They want to have more control
over the mosque.

“[The Israelis] will take quicker steps in the future [to assert sovereignty.] Now, the
battle is with the Waqf inside the mosque. The Israeli government has been trying
to find a way to impose their policies without provoking Palestinians.

“For the public outside it appears quiet, but this is an illusion. It’s not peace and
quiet. We are afraid that if it continues like this the situation will explode.” Kiswani
said.

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87 COMMENTS   Most Voted 

Maghlawatan 
 February 16, 2018 5:22 pm

Zionism is insane.
Moving to Palestine and expelling the locals was insane
Thinking there could be a tabula rasa after the Shoah was insane.
Conquering the last 22% with the people attached was insane.

Zionist leaders are bastards.

and they all run the groupthink.
but they left al Aqsa alone.

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 Because it is a powder keg.
And the jihad that followed would destroy Judaism

0 0 View Replies (1) 

RoHa 
 February 16, 2018 10:15 pm

“Palestinian youth often play soccer in Al Aqsa’s courtyard since there are few places where they can freely do so
in their neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem.”

And that makes it clear (not that there was reason to doubt) that there is nothing un-Islamic about football. Now
all that is needed is some sort of accommodation with pubs.

0 0 View Replies (1) 


 February 16, 2018 11:05 pm

What a f****d up situation. These Israeli nut jobs are far worse than American Bible thumpers.

0 0

gamal 
 February 16, 2018 11:10 pm

” Now all that is needed is some sort of accommodation with pubs.”

the pioneers

“Anyway, the section below struck us as interesting in the context of the argument put forward by some
commentators that pubs have suffered in certain towns and cities whose populations include a substantial
number of Muslims:

It was almost lunchtime and the pubs looked inviting. In one of them, the man behind the bar had a broad
Lancashire accent, but the warm, dusty interior felt like part of the one of those benighted tropical places which
Graham Greene evokes so well, where on the priest and publican are white. The publican here was serving a
group of Pakistanis and all the faces in the ‘best’ room were dark.

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 ‘We’ve been here two years now,’ he said, ‘and it’s beginning to drive the wife crackers. Wednesday afternoon, she
had a drink, there were so many Pakistanis in here by ten she started crying. At two in the morning I was still
trying to comfort her. This last month, at least ninety per cent of my customers have been Paks. I’ve about six
whites apart from the girls, you get them of course. The whites have just drifted away. When we came, there’d be
twenty or so.’

Now, that sounds to us like evidence that people from (probably) Muslim backgrounds (clearly not especially
religious in practice) did attempt to make the pub part of their lives”

https://boakandbailey.com/2016/01/pakistanis-in-the-pub-bradford-c-1965/

nowadays Muslims can frequent bars without reducing the Landlady to tears.

0 0 View Replies (2) 

Citizen 
 February 17, 2018 9:33 am

I assume Hagee ilk fully support Etzion’s messianic agenda.

0 0

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