Escorted by police, a group of about 25 people walked across the Temple Mount esplanade to the steps leading up to the Dome of the Rock, the site where the First and Second Temples once stood.
They climbed a few steps toward the mosque, singing “Yedid Nefesh” (“soulmate”), usually sung on Friday nights.
“Are you with us?” a policeman asked this reporter.
When I said no, he told me to stop filming as participants in the group continued to video themselves walking on the large courtyard of the mount.
The men did not want to be interviewed, but Ilana, one of the few women in the group – who asked that only her first name be used – agreed to speak.
Wearing a white kerchief covering her hair, Ilana said she had immigrated to Israel from the Ukraine.
“I used to go to pray at the Kotel,” she said, referring to the Western Wall, just below the Temple Mount. “But then I started coming here whenever I had the opportunity. It feels very special to pray here.”
A few Muslims sitting on a nearby stone wall watched the group silently.
Ali, who said he goes to pray every day at Al-Aqsa (so called because it was “the farthest” mosque from Mecca when the Quran was revealed), said Jewish groups visiting and even praying there doesn’t bother him.
“It does disturb some people, but it doesn’t bother me,” he said. “If they do it quietly, it’s okay. People should worship God in the way they want to.”
But other Palestinians disagreed. A group of three women from the Galilee, who said they come about once a week to pray at the mosque for their families and for those who were killed in Gaza, frowned as they watched the Jewish group.
“This place is for Islam, and Jews are supposed to pray at the Wall,” Samira said.
Indeed, that has been the case since 1967 when Israel took over Jerusalem’s Old City from Jordan during the Six Day War. For many Israelis, it was the fulfillment of a dream, with the chance to pray at the Kotel – the Western Wall. The iconic photo of three paratroopers standing at the Wall is inscribed into every Israeli’s DNA.
The Temple Mount, which Muslims call the Haram al-Sharif, is holy to both Jews and Muslims.
For Jews, it is the site of both the First and Second Temples (destroyed in 586 BCE and 70 CE, respectively), and the holiest site in Judaism. For Muslims, it is the site where Mohammed ascended to heaven on a miraculous trip called Isra’ and Mi’raj (“the night journey and ascension”) and is the third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina.
When Israel conquered east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it, then-defense minister Moshe Dayan made a controversial decision to allow the Waqf (Islamic religious trust) to continue administering the site, while Israel would be responsible for its security.
In an effort to ease potential tensions in 1967, the government made a decision that while Jews could visit the site, they could not pray, dance, or engage in any other religious activity.
As part of the deal, while Muslim prayer is permitted in the area, and hundreds of thousands go there to pray during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan (see box), Jewish prayer was not permitted.
The area has long been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian tensions, and riots have repeatedly broken out after Muslim worshipers threw rocks at Jews praying at the Western Wall below and police stormed the area.
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