Potentially explosive statement by Jewish Home’s Uri Ariel breaks taboo against damaging status quo on Temple Mount
July 5, 2013, 10:20 am
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Minister
of Housing and Construction Uri Ariel (left) with the mayor of Ma’aleh
Adumim Benny Kasriel during a ceremony in the tract of land known as
E1, located between the large West Bank settlement and Jerusalem, in
April. (photo credit: Flash90)
A government minister from a
nationalist religious party called Thursday for the Jewish Temple to be
rebuilt on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The statement from Housing and
Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) breaks a long-standing
taboo on high-ranking government officials speaking about changing the
fragile status quo on the holy and contested esplanade, and will likely
draw ire from official Israeli circles and anger the Arab and Muslim
world.
Speaking at an archaeological conference next
to the West Bank settlement of Shilo and quoted by Maariv, Ariel called
for a third Temple to be built on the site, which today is home to the
Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque and is considered Judaism’s
holiest site and Islam’s third holiest.
“We’ve built many little, little temples,”
Ariel said, referring to synagogues, “but we need to build a real Temple
on the Temple Mount.”
The Jerusalem site was home to Judaism’s first
and second Temples, both of which were destroyed, the second one in 70
CE. The idea of building a third Temple, while popular among some
religious and right-wing Jews, is considered outside mainstream Israeli
discourse by most.
Last year, Jewish Home MK Zevulun Orlev also
called for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, saying that removing the
Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque would mean that the
“billion-strong Muslim world would surely launch a world war.” However,
he added, “everything political is temporary and there is no stability.”
Jews are currently banned from praying on the Temple Mount by the Jordanian department of endowments, known as the Wakf, which administers the plaza surrounding the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
Ilan Ben Zion and Elhanan Miller contributed to this report.
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