WhatFinger


What motivates the Arabs is not their fundamental attachment to Jerusalem or the Temple Mount but their desire to prevent Jews from exercising sovereignty over both

The Temple Mount Controversy



Jerusalem is sacred to Jews and has been for over 3000 years. According to the Tanach, (Hebrew Bible) King Solomon built the First Temple (aka Solomon’s Temple) there around 960 BCE according to the building specifications in the Torah. He intended it as a permanent resting place for the Ark of the Covenant which contained the Ten Commandments. Upon completion, he invited Jews and non-Jews to pray and sacrifice there and urged God to pay particular heed to their prayers by saying: "Thus all the peoples of the earth will know Your name and revere You, as does Your people Israel; and they will recognize that Your name is attached to this House that I have built" (I Kings 8:43).
And there it stood for 500 glorious years until the Babylonians conquered the city, sent the Jews into exile and destroyed the Temple in 586 BCE. Seventy years later many Jews returned from exile and rebuilt the Temple (Second Temple). During the first century B.C.E., Herod, the Roman appointed head of Judea, made substantial modifications to the Second Temple. He built a huge plateau (600’ x 700’) around it which necessitated the erection of enormous walls (Herodian Walls). It is to the remnant of these walls, otherwise known as the Kotel, that the Jews pray. In 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, tore down much of the walls, massacred hundreds of thousands of Jews and exiled many more.

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Since then Jews have lamented the destruction every year on Tisha B’Av, repeated in their prayers, “next year in Jerusalem” and prayed three times a day for the Temple's restoration. The 1947 UN Partition Plan denied Israel the Old City preferring to make it a Corpus Separatum (Latin for "separated body”) due to its shared religious importance. After Israel declared its independence in 1948, Jordan and other Arab countries attacked Israel. The Armistice Agreement signed in 1949 formalized an armistice line where the fighting stopped leaving Jordan in possession of all land east of the line including the Old City in Jerusalem. This agreement obligated Jordan to enable "free access to the holy sites and cultural institutions and use of the cemeteries on the Mount of Olives." Nevertheless, Jordan barred Israelis from entering the Old City and other holy sites. Jordan systematically destroyed the Jewish Quarter and its ancient synagogues and used gravestones from the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives to build latrines for Jordanian army barracks. More..


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Ted Belman -- Bio and Archives

Ted Belman is a retired lawyer and Editor of Israpundit.org.  He made aliyah from Canada in 2009 and now lives in Jerusalem.


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