Muslims renew Temple site destruction

Rabbi Chaim Richman at the Temple Mount Institute has issued this urgent message on the renewed destruction of the Temple Mount.

Click here to view a video update on the latest Temple Mount destruction.

For the past several weeks, workers employed by the Islamic Wakf have been excavating on the Temple Mount. This excavation, ostensibly to facilitate improvements to the infrastructure of the Al Aksa Mosque, is being carried out with the approval of the Israeli government. Digging in any archaeologically sensitive area is generally carried out with great care and delicacy, especially if the site is associated with religious traditions or considered holy. However this work is being carried out as it would be at any construction or building project, utilizing heavy machinery such as tractors and bulldozers.

The Israel Antiquities Authority, legally empowered by the government to protect all archaeological sites in Israel, is turning a blind eye to this excavation and has not posted supervisors or any representative at the site. Indeed, respected independent archaeologists who have expressed concern over the irreparable damage currently being wrought by this work, and who have attempted to observe the digging firsthand, have been physically prevented from doing so by Israeli police officers, who vigilantly ensure that no one interferes with the work. According to the eye witness reports of these archaeologists, and based on photographs they have studied, irreparable damage is being caused.

Islam maintains that there never was any such thing as the Holy Temple standing on the Temple Mount. For years a concentrated effort was made to obliterate any vestige of evidence from the site. Yet now, as a result of this destructive and wanton bulldozing, a section of the wall of the Holy Temple – in the area universally recognized as the location of the Women’s Court – has been unearthed. This is the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple that actual physical evidence of the Temple has been revealed. But all of the antiquities of the Temple that have been uncovered are in danger of being destroyed by the Wakf.

To understand this travesty as merely an archaeological issue would be myopic indeed. It would also be a mistake to consider these actions as nothing more than a heartless and cruel attack against another religion and culture. These atrocities are not being committed solely against the Jewish people and their traditions. This is an attack by enemies of the G-d of Israel against Him, and His plan for all humanity.

This callous and brutal destruction is an intolerable crime against all humanity. Why does the government of Ehud Olmert officially condone the vandalism orchestrated against that which is holiest of all to the Jewish people? Why is there no response at all?