Moshe Feiglin’s Letter to the MKs on Israeli Sovereignty on the Temple Mount

To the Knesset Members,

On next Tuesday, Feb. 25, a debate on Israel’s loss of sovereignty on the Temple Mount will be held in the Knesset plenum, with G-d’s help.

Just a few hours after the liberation of the Temple Mount in 1967, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan afforded responsibility for administrative procedures on the Temple Mount to the Moslem wakf – in other words, the Jordanian Islamic trust. The purpose of his decision was to allow the Moslems to conduct their religious practices with honor and without disruption.

In practice, however, the Moslem wakf took advantage of the religious autonomy that it received and transformed it into almost absolute Moslem/Jordanian sovereignty on the Temple Mount – while all of Israel’s governments closed its eyes to the issue.

PLO, Hamas and Islamic Movement flags are flown on the Mount without fear. No security check is performed upon the Moslems, who stream into the Mount from all its gates.

At the Mugrabim Gate, however, which is the only gate from which Jews are allowed to access the Mount as tourists, Israel’s police strip the Jewish visitors, sometimes to their undergarments, lest they bring an Israeli flag or Psalms booklet onto the Mount. Wakf representatives stalk the Jewish visitors, inspecting their lips to make sure that they do not pray.

In addition, the Moslem wakf has been methodically destroying invaluable archeological artifacts of immeasurable historic and national value from the First and Second temples on the Temple Mount – and nobody says a word.

Is the Temple Mount really in our hands?

The Jewish Nation’s most holy place has been abandoned to foreign hands. This severely and essentially undermines Israel’s moral standing, both as a Jewish State and a democratic state.

Attached  is a special report that summarizes the discrimination against Jews that takes place on a daily basis on the Temple Mount.

The Knesset Interior Affairs Committee, chaired by MK Miri Regev, who has consistently and decisively put the Temple Mount issue on the Committee’s agenda, is still not allowed to visit the Mount. This is a tangible blow to the independence and sovereignty of the Knesset.

I call upon you to participate in this important deliberation, which touches upon the bedrock of our existence. Please join my call to Israel’s government to implement Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount, to stop the discrimination there and to allow all people to ascend the Mount through any of the entry gates, regardless of religion, race, sex or nationality – in accordance with the fundamental laws of Israel.