Media Central

Fact Sheet

The Temple Mount

Called Har ha-Bayit (the Temple Mount) by Jews and Christians and known as Al-Haram al-Qudsi al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims.


History

  • Most holy site in Judaism and third holiest place to the Muslim faith after Mecca and Medina.
  • First identified as “Mount Moriah” in the Hebrew Bible, where Abraham was ‘tested’ by God in the ‘binding’ of Isaac (Genesis 22 v. 1-19).
  • Muslim tradition links the location named in the Qur’an as the “farthest Mosque” to this site (v. 17:1).
  • Archeological evidence and scripture indicate the Jewish Temple stood on this hill from approximately 950 BCE for about a thousand years (with a 70-year break between the First and Second Temple) until it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, when the majority of Jews were expelled from the land of Israel and Jerusalem.
  • After the Muslim conquest in 638 CE, the Umayyad rulers constructed an octagonal shrine named the Dome of the Rock over the site of the Jewish Temple, and in 717 CE built a mosque on the plateau just south of the shrine known as the Al Aqsa Mosque (the “furthest mosque”).
  • Jews traditionally visited and prayed on the Temple Mount until the Crusaders introduced restrictions preventing Jewish residence or business in Jerusalem which were then continued by the Mameluks.
  • The Temple Mount was captured by the Jordanian army during Israel’s War of Independence (1948-9) along with the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and Jews were prevented from visiting the Temple Mount until the Six Day War (1967) when Israel took control over the site.  Following the Six-Day War, the Muslim Waqf (religious trust) has administered the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif area with Israel’s agreement.

Archeology

 

  • The Temple Mount is one of the richest archeological sites in the world. Centuries of archeological excavation at the site reflect its importance to humanity, beginning in the 19th century by British explorers and archeologists.  These included Dr. Edward Robinson (1838), who discovered one of the arches which led to the Jewish Temple in the time of King Herod; Sir. Charles Wilson,  who discovered the other arch from the same area; and Captain Charles Warren, who in 1867 collaborated with Wilson and drilled 7 holes into the Temple Mount plaza, in which he found (among other things) seals with the names of Jewish leaders from the First Temple era.  A particularly interesting find was a stone discovered in 1871 by M. Clermont-Ganneau, bearing the inscription No stranger is to enter within the balustrade around the Temple and enclosure. Whoever is caught will be responsible to himself for his death, which will follow, marking the boundary of the outer court beyond which gentiles were forbidden. (http://www.abu.nb.ca/ecm/topics/arch4.htm)
  • Archeological work on the Temple Mount was discontinued for many years with the few exceptions until after 1967, when a number of archeological projects were initiated in the vicinity of the Temple Mount but not on or under it.  Today archeological work continues outside the Mount, and excavation sites can be seen on the west side of the Western Wall plaza, at the Mugrabi Gate ramp and in the Western Wall tunnels.
  • Much attention has been paid lately in the Israeli media to the massive construction work the Waqf has conducted on the Temple Mount.  According to the Committee for Prevention of the Destruction of the Temple Mount Antiquities (composed of elite Israeli intellectuals including prominent leaders of the Israeli political ‘Left’), the construction work is “an archeological crime and unenviable cultural destruction”.  The committee has applied to Israel’s Supreme Court for an injunction against further construction or digging work on the site, claiming such work is against Israeli law if carried out without supervision by the proper archeological authorities. (See High Court asked to halt Muslim dig on Temple Mount, Haaretz, September 10 2007.)

 

Current Affairs

 

  • The current status quo between the Israeli government and the Waqf grants administrative responsibility for the management of the Temple Mount to the Waqf and permits access to the site to non-Muslims only for tourist purposes and only through the Mugrabi gate (see The Gate for The Jew, Haaretz, February 19, 2007).
  • The Temple mount has become a symbolic icon reflecting the struggle between Israel and the Arab world and the Palestinians. Both revere its sanctity and historic significance; thus even seemingly routine maintenance work and innocuous visits become loaded political issues.

 

  • 3 Examples:

o       In 1996, despite attempts to coordinate excavations at the Western Wall (the retaining wall of the Temple Mount which became a focus for Jewish prayer once access to the Temple Mount was prohibited), their initiation resulted in Arab riots.   Since their opening on September 24th 1996, the western wall tunnels have become an important tourist, archeological and religious site, continuing underground along the foundations of the western wall of the Temple Mount compound.  The opening of the tunnels, and a door at their end in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City (arranged in collaboration with community and business leaders in the Quarter) was accompanied by allegations in the Muslim and Arab world that the archeological dig was a disguise for a secret plan to undermine the stability of the shrine and mosque.  These allegations, with no evidence, led to riots and shooting battles across the disputed territories which led to the death of dozens.

 

o       After the failure of the Camp-David talks between Barak and Arafat in late summer 2000, the security situation became tense.  Encouraged by the Palestinian leadership, Arab Muslims in Jerusalem and the territories rioted when then-opposition-leader Ariel Sharon exercised his right to visit the holy site in October 2000.  Yossi Beilin, one of Israel's Left-wing leaders and initiators of the Oslo process writes that “Sharon’s visit served as the perfect excuse [for the Tanzim] to react in an Intifada” in order to confront the rival organization Hamas (http://www.beilin.org.il/lexicon).  The riots developed into what became known as the ‘Second Intifada’ which lasted for over 5 years and claimed the lives of thousands on both sides.

 

o       The latest violence took place while Israeli municipal authorities sought to rebuild the ramp providing access to the Mugrabi Gate in February 2007.  This ramp, damaged in 2004 by a snowstorm, serves as the only passageway for non-Muslims to enter the Temple Mount area, and was deemed a public safety hazard in need of repair.  The reconstruction of the ramp and the archeological excavations accompanying it have been viewed by Muslim authorities as an attempt by Israelis to harm the holy places, though the ramp itself is outside the Temple Mount area and approximately 100 meters from the Al-Aksa mosque.  Many local Arab leaders tried to inflame violence with statements like MK Muhamad Barrake’s declaration that “this is another conspiracy by the occupation authorities against the Al-Aksa mosque”, but were treated with relative indifference by the Muslim and Arab world.

 

  • Extensive digging and construction work has been carried out on the Temple Mount by the Waqf, with what appears to be minimal fulfillment of Israeli law requiring supervision by an archeologist of all construction or digging anywhere in the country.  This includes the building of the El Marwani mosque (also called Solomons Stables) compound adjacent to the Al-Aksa mosque, and widespread trench-work re-laying electric and other cables across the Mount area.  (Various archeological finds have been discovered in the “debris” trucked out of the area and dumped by the Waqf, including First Temple-era seals and other artifacts, and a 7-meter wall was uncovered and then re-covered, thought to be the eastern wall of the “women’s section” of the Temple.)
  • Sovereignty over the Temple Mount is a central point of contention in Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.  Both peoples claim the area for themselves; both communities wish to receive ‘ownership’ of the site.  Various creative suggestions have been offered by observers, such as joint-sovereignty or distinctions between the surface area and the earth/artifacts below the surface and/or the airspace above the Mount, but none have been seriously considered by either party to date.