Rabbinate asked to let Jews on Mount

By Nadav Shragai (Ha'aretz June 30)

The Council of the Chief Rabbinate will meet on Monday following an appeal from rabbis and political figures to relax the accepted halachic ruling that prohibits Jews from entering the Temple Mount for reasons related to "impurity" in Jewish tradition.

The last time the council was asked to rule on the subject - in 1994 following the peace agreement with Jordan - Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau stated firmly that halacha forbidding Jews from entering the site could not be revised because of changed political circumstances.

Following reports on an forthcoming agreement concerning the Temple Mount, and the possibility that the Palestinian Authority will get formal control, sovereignty, a corridor, and perhaps the right to hoist the Palestinian flag over the site, the political right has stepped up its pressure on the chief rabbis to change their ruling.

A number of rabbis in Judea and Samaria changed their views on this halachic issue a few years ago, allowing their students to go up to the Temple Mount following the changes in the political circumstances.

MK Benny Elon recently sent the chief rabbis a letter saying: "Today we can no longer ignore that fact that State of Israel and the police have given Muslims de facto sovereignty over the Temple Mount, where they brazenly violate the law, and declare that the Temple Mount has no religious significance to the Jewish people. We ask for a ruling from the chief rabbinate that would require observant Jews to visit the Temple Mount, or at least those areas in its environs which are permitted by all accounts, or in certain places following immersion in a ritual bath, if you indeed rule so, or in any other way that would ensure a continued Jewish religious presence on the site."

Director of the Antiquities Authority Amir Drori yesterday appeared before a special meeting in the prime minister's office on the subject. He said "any work conducted on the Temple Mount means the destruction of rare and important archaeological artifacts, and if work is authorized, it must be of a minor nature only, certainly not a path 12 meters wide from Solomon's Stables to the Mercy Gate. Under no circumstances should trucks and bulldozers be allowed to move freely on the site."

Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein voiced his opposition to the continued paving "because it is part of much broader projects. The supervision on the mount is no longer effective. The claim of 'wishing to avoid bloodshed' as an excuse for not enforcing the law has already exhausted itself in the courts," said Rubinstein.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said police should take measured steps to enforce the law and restore Israeli control over it. He added that there is no safety supervision over the works either.

Ministers Yossi Beilin, Shlomo Ben-Ami minimized the extent of the archaeological damage, claiming that the organization of archaeologists and the Committee for the Prevention of Damage to Antiquities was politically motivated, a claim which Drori firmly denied.

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