Page 51 - Satan in the Sanctuary

Opening Pandora's Box—Prayer on the Mount 53

rabbi's forces were armed. The Arab mayor of Hebron re-
signed, becoming the eighth West Bank leader to resign in
protest of the disturbing situation, Associated Press reported.
In the United States, the office of the Consulate General
of Israel in Houston endeavored to explain the decision of
the Supreme Court. A "Policy Background" statement dis-
tributed by the Consulate General on March 25, 1976, con-
firmed that " the right of a Jew—as that of a Moslem—to
pray on the Temple Mount is fundamental and unquestion-
able," but that "In the matter of Jewish prayers on the Tem-
ple Mount, the Government has deliberately and voluntarily
relinquished a clear right for the sake of communal har-
mony."
The Jerusalem Post, certainly a free press if there ever was
one, continued to take issue with the Supreme Court's posi-
tion, however. On March 30 that paper published an article
stating that the court was ignoring the central issue—"the
magistrate's ruling that the Jews have the right to pray on the
Temple Mount and that the Ministry for Religious Affairs
should draw up regulations permitting such prayer."
But clearly, as long as the police forbid Jewish prayer on
the mount, feeling that it will lead to a serious disturbance of
the peace, and as long as the Supreme Court backs up the
police, the matter is at a standstill. As matters stand, only
Jewish outlaws pray on the mount.
An attempt at a middle-ground prayer effort was made by
a group who searched the mount and the law, and chose a
spot which they felt was definitely away from the prohibited
areas. The mount is spacious, after all, and one might find
places away from the mosques and away from the site of the
ancient Holy of Holies that would not bring on a confron-
tation with either the Arabs or the rabbis. The group also
made sure that their prayers did not coincide with Muslim