Page 39 - Satan in the Sanctuary

Opening Pandora's Box—Prayer on the Mount 41

that day must have been horrified to see the worshipers
climb the hill and pass through the forbidden entrance to the
upper level of the mount, where the Temples of Solomon and
Herod stood. (Entrance to the mount proper is theoretically
forbidden to all owing to the holiness of the place in Jewish
law, and tourists are all handed an announcement to that
effect when they pass through the gates at the top of the hill.
But this prohibition, in the spirit of peacekeeping, is never
enforced.)
If the Jews were horrified, the Muslims were utterly in-
censed by this intrusion. The Muslim Arab authorities on
the mount considered the prayer a sacrilege to the Islamic
worship in progress at the site. Jewish police summarily
arrested the worshipers and the matter was considered closed,
as the Muslims shuddered with indignation.
But that was not at all the end of the issue. Those arrested
were due a trial, and several months later, in January 1976,
they had their day in court. The defendants were determined
to argue their right to the mount and they rose to the occasion
regardless of the formidable opposition on all sides of the
unique, emotional litigation. They simply stated that they
had a right to the mount by all biblical and legal reckoning
and they meant to exercise that right.
It was assumed that the prayer group would lose the case;
there would be real trouble if they won.
But they did win, and there was real trouble!
In her decision, Israeli Magistrate Ruth Or found the wor-
shipers not guilty and declared that Jews have a right to pray
on the mount. Few judicial decisions could have created
more shock waves in an area of constant and increasing bad
will. Riots on the Temple Mount ensued at once, with the
Muslims decrying the affront, and soon the entire West Bank
of Israel was literally up in arms. The argument wound up