On the Temple Mount, there has been no status quo for more than a decade, but in its story, including yesterday's Ninth of Av – everyone keeps pretending. Don't be confused. Here are the facts: Palestinians overturned the Temple Mount status quo by building three more mosques there, damaging Jewish antiquities, and mainly turning it into a tool for incitement and terror production. They also tried to block Jews' path to the Mount.
Gilad Erdan, as minister of public security, and Chief Superintendent Yoram Halevi, as Jerusalem District Police commander, decided at the time to exploit the window of opportunity and correct a historical injustice – gradually opening the door to Jewish prayers on the Mount, something that had been denied them since the Six-Day War. During their tenure, the number of visitors to the site grew, and silent prayers in a minyan began on the eastern side of the Mount, with police permission. Gradually, prayers were expanded and said aloud rather than whispered; visitor numbers also increased, now reaching nearly 60,000 annually.
Video: Just a decade and a half ago, only a few thousand Jews visited the Mount annually, and now there's been a growth of more than 1,000% / Credit: Arnon Segal
Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir expanded and further established this Jewish achievement. Prayers expanded even more, but were joined by prostrations, flag waving, and even public singing by worshippers. Jewish visiting hours on the Mount also increased slightly.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accompanies this change in the issue of Jewish prayer on the Mount not only with knowledge, but often with approval, through quiet agreements and understandings, both with police leadership and with ministers responsible for the police. Even Jordan's protests – whose security and intelligence cooperation with Israel is well-known – are a kind of game. It continues to protest vigorously, and sometimes with venom, about "violating the status quo," although de facto it accepts it.
The status quo on the Mount died long ago. The Waqf knows this, the Palestinians know this, Jordan knows this, and Netanyahu knows this, too. Even the US knows this. Those who overturned the status quo and changed it over decades were the Muslim side, and then came the Jewish side's turn. Just a decade and a half ago, only a few thousand Jews visited the Mount annually, and now there's been a growth of more than 1,000%. Just a decade and a half ago, police would remove Jews from the Mount who whispered prayers quietly, and today they pray there aloud, in a minyan, with singing and prostration.
So perhaps it's finally time to stop pretending there's a status quo, formally legitimize historical distortions that deprived the Jewish side, and expose the massive substantive changes the Muslim side carried out on the Mount, which have been reported here repeatedly over the years.
