The story isn't "Israeli restrictions on Al Aqsa." It is how unbelievably tolerant Israel is towards Muslims in Judaism's holiest spot.
Jews never had rights to holy spots taken by Muslims
On Thursday night, 85,000 Muslims worshipped at the Al Aqsa Mosque complex for Ramadan night prayers.
Lots of Muslims have been complaining about Israeli restrictions. According to reports, during Ramadan Israel would allow 10,000 Arabs from the West Bank, with permits, to travel there, excluding men under 55 and women under 50.
However, there are no restrictions on Israeli Arabs and Arab residents of Jerusalem in attending. Here's a detail of the crowd Thursday night, showing lots of young men.
I expect the Friday morning crowds to exceed 150,000, in line with previous Ramadans.
Now, let's think for a minute about how incredibly liberal Israel is in allowing so many Arabs to enter the complex:
- It is the holiest site in Judaism. According to Jewish law, no one should walk in the area around the Dome of the Rock nowadays at all because of its intense holiness. The Jewish state is violating Jewish law by allowing tens of thousands of Muslims to desecrate the most sacred spot in Judaism.
- Israel is currently in a low level war in areas of Judea and Samaria. Palestinian sites keep running totals of how many times they shot at, stabbed, rammed their cars or threw stones at Jews. Even so, Israel is allowing tens of thousands of Arabs to enter even during wartime.
- In every Muslim holy place that they took from Jews under Muslim rule - the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Joseph's Tomb, the Temple Mount, Samuel's Tomb - Muslims forbade Jews to enter altogether when they were under Arab control. The Jewish state gives rights for Muslims to pray in sites that both claim (and, let's be frank, sites that Muslims stole from the Jews), the Arabs never gave the smallest amount of similar rights to Jews. (Under the Ottomans, Jews were allowed to worship at the Western Wall with severe restrictions; under Jordanian rule, Jews were not allowed in the Old City at all, even if they were not Israeli.)
- Muslims are allowed to publicly pray, to bring in political flags, to play sports, to have picnics, to have summer camps for children on the holy site. Jews are highly restricted in what they can do there, when they can visit, and what they can bring in.
- More Muslims visited the Temple Mount Thursday night than the number of Jews who visited the site in all of 2024.
Jewish rule in Jerusalem is more tolerant of Muslims than Muslims ever have been towards Jews under their rule. Any restrictions Israel puts in place are based purely on safety considerations - similar to what Muslims themselves do in Muslim holy sites like the Kaaba in Mecca.
The real story isn't how Israel restricts Muslim worshippers. The real story is how Israel can be so incredibly tolerant towards them to allow them to desecrate Judaism's holiest site, when Muslims never gave Jews anything close to this much consideration.
Superb summation. I am going to send it to my senators who vilify Israel. Thank you for your insight.
Absolutely spot on.
Israel is the only country in the entire history of the Middle East to guarantee religious freedom to all religions. During Muslim rule, Jews were facing extreme oppression. Claiming the Wailing Wall as Islamic, the Muslims have restricted Jewish access to Judaism's holies site. Despite claiming the Wailing Wall as a Muslim holy site, Islamic rulers encouraged Muslims to desecrate it. They built a residential neighborhood for MOROCCAN MIGRANTS (they called the Moroccan Neighborhood) to spite the Jews. The Muslim residents DEFECATED and URINATED at the Wailing Wall routinely. The authorities never bothered to keep the site in sanitary, orderly condition. The stench was ever-present, for the entire millennia the Muslims ruled Jerusalem.
It goes without saying that the Muslims never let the Jews pray there. The Jews were banned from blowing the shofar, or otherwise praying there in accordance with centuries old Jewish custom.
The hatred of Islamic authorities towards Judaism, towards Jews, goes hundreds, thousands of years back.
The hypocrisy, the ignorance, of the fundamentalist left knows no bounds.
As Albert Einstein, a Zionist, once said. "Only two things are infinite - the universe itself and human ignorance. And I'm still not sure about the former."