Bella Davidov

The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem

May 29, 2018 By Bella Davidov Leave a Comment

To understand the current events in Gaza, Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and the world’s reaction, it is important to understand the evolvement of the lies and distortions of history and truth that have been taking root in the hearts and minds of the Muslims and the world.

The Land of Ribat

Palestinians are being taught: Jerusalem is “land of Ribat” – holy Islamic land.

The Palestinian Authority has adopted the Hamas ideology of framing the conflict with Israel as a religious war for Allah. Jerusalem and all of the land of Israel are defined as “Ribat” – holy Islamic land – whose “liberation” and defense are said to be mandatory under Islamic law. The significance of the PA defining the conflict as “Ribat” is clear when reading how a PA schoolbook defines “Ribat”: “The Ribat for Allah is one of the actions related to Jihad …The persistence of Palestine’s people on their land in these days [i.e., Israel], and their persistence against the damage and the aggression they endure – is one of the greatest of the Ribat [fighting for Islamic land], and they [Palestinians] are worthy of a great reward from Allah…. they are found in Ribat until Resurrection.” [Islamic Education, grade 12, p. 86-87]

Since 2008, Palestinian leaders have frequently defined all of Israel, and particularly Jerusalem, as a land of “Ribat” – i.e., areas which Muslims have a religious obligation to defend and liberate for Islam. In the past, it was specifically Hamas that defined the conflict with Israel as a religious war. Now, the PA- Fatah leadership regularly presents its war against Israel as a religious battle for Islam. On Dec. 6, 2017, the day US President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, official PA radio and TV started rebroadcasting Abbas’ 2014 call for violence and they continued to rebroadcast it 41 times in the next 4 weeks.

Official PA radio station The Voice of Palestine – 28 times broadcasted between Dec. 6, 2017 – Jan. 1, 2018 and Official PA TV – 13 times broadcasted between Dec. 6, 2017 – Jan. 2, 2018 Abbas’ 2014 call for violence:
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “We must all carry out Ribat in the Al Aksa [Mosque]… This is our Sanctuary, our Al Aksa and our Church [of the Holy Sepulchre]. They have no right to enter it. They have no right to defile it. We must prevent them. Let us stand before them with chests bared to protect our holy places.”

While this call for violence from 2014 by Abbas was repeatedly broadcast, the following 12 people were murdered:

Oct 22, 2014 – Two Israelis were murdered in car ramming in Jerusalem: Chaya Zissel Braun (3 months); Karen Jemima Mosquera (22).
Nov. 5, 2014 – Two Israelis were murdered in car ramming in Jerusalem: Jada’an Assad (38); Shalom Aharon Badani (17).
Nov. 10, 2014 – Two Israelis were murdered in two separate stabbing attacks in Tel Aviv and in Gush Etzion south of Bethlehem: Almog Shilony (20); Dalia Lemkus (26).
Nov 18, 2014 – Six Israelis were murdered in a Jerusalem synagogue during prayers: Avraham Shmuel Goldberg (68); Aryeh Kupinsky (43); Kalman Ze’ev Levine (55); Moshe Twersky (59); Zidan Seif (30). Haim (Howie) Rothman (55) died of his injuries on Oct. 24, 2015.

And the world was silent.

Palestinian Lies About Jerusalem and the Temple Mount

The Temple Mount has been Holy for three thousand years because it was chosen by God as the site of His Holy Temple. The Christians who conquered Jerusalem built churches there. Later, the Muslims who conquered Jerusalem called it the Noble Sanctuary and built their two Mosques on top of the site of the Jewish Temple.

Most of the problems surrounding Jerusalem can be traced to two areas of dispute. One is the political area that both Israel and the so-called Palestinians want Jerusalem to be their capital. The other and the most contentious problem is the holiness of Temple Mount to both Judaism and Islam.

Are Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as holy to the Muslims as it is to the Jews?

Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran and did not occupy any special role in Islam. In the Bible, it is mentioned many times and still is holy in Judaism.

Jerusalem’s role as “The Third Holiest Site in Islam” in mainstream Islamic writings does not precede the 20th century.

The Arab, Haj Amin al Husseini, who was appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem by the British, introduced it to the Arab Muslims in the 1920s. The Mufti wanted to unite the Arab masses against the growing numbers of Jews arriving in the land. He, therefore, called the Arabs to a religious Muslim holy war with the clear Islamic slogan: “Down with the Infidels!” From the time he was appointed to the position of Mufti, Haj Amin put all his effort into raising Jerusalem’s status as an Islamic holy center by renovating the mosques on the Temple Mount, and conducting a great propaganda campaign against the Jewish “threat” to Moslem holy sites.

In his hatred of the Jews, the Grand Mufti falsely accused the Jews of attacking the Al Aksa mosque and killing Muslims as a pretext to attack them. He actually initiated the riots of Hebron and Jerusalem. Then the Muslims began massacring the Jews in Jerusalem, Hebron (67 killed) and other Jewish areas. Husseini later became a confidante of Adolph Hitler, urging him to bring his Jew-killing machine to Jerusalem during WWII. The only condition Husseini set for assisting the Nazis was that, after they win the war, they would murder all the Jews in Palestine. Yassir Arafat was a nephew of Uncle Haj Amin al-Husseini. Arafat was born in Cairo and took over the leadership of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), which was established in 1964 by Gamal Abdul Nasser.

He spent a great deal of effort to bring the larger Arab nations into the conflict, using the false claim that the Temple Mount and all of Jerusalem belongs to Islam alone.

The Muslim “claim” to Jerusalem is based on a short account of an event mentioned in the Koran (Sura 17:1,) that doesn’t even mention Jerusalem once. It talks about the “furthest mosque”: “Glory be unto Allah who did take his servant for a journey at night from the Sacred Mosque to the Furthest Mosque,” Al-Masujidi al-Aqtza in Arabic. There isn’t any foundation to the Muslim argument that this “furthest mosque” (Al-Masujidi al-Aqtza) refers to what is today called the Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem since it did not exist for another three generations after his death. Muhammad planned to lure Jews to convert to Islam and gave orders that they face Jerusalem in Muslims’ prayers. However, when his efforts failed, he issued a strict prohibition on February 12, 624 CE against facing Jerusalem in prayer. He never regarded Jerusalem as sacred to Islam, only to Jews in their land.

The Temple: Beit Hamikdash

Under the Arab rule, in the 10th century, and until the last century the Arabic name used for Jerusalem was always “bet el maKDeS” – the Arabic name for Beit Hamikdash, the Hebrew name of the Holy Temple. But Islam has no Temple, only Judaism has.

The Arabic name for Jerusalem makes no reference to Muhammad’s trip to Heaven or a faraway mosque (Al Aksa) but rather refers to the Jewish Temple.

Early Islamic scholars, who had no political interest, interpreted Muhammad’s dream of flight to Al Aksa as a vision of an Islamic heavenly holy mosque in the courtyard of Allah in heaven. That, indeed, would be the “El Aktza” – the “furthest place” from earth.

The connection of the earthly Al Aksa Mosque, built by Khaliph El Malik on the site of the Jewish Temple to Muhammad’s night dream is purely a modern Islamic myth created to claim the Jewish Holy Temple Mount for Islam.

Serious Islamic scholars viewed the tale of Muhammad’s dream as a folk story (before there was ever an Al Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount.)

The Muslims continued to develop the myth through the years: In his dream, Muhammad flew on el-Buraq to the Seventh Heaven where he meets all the Jewish prophets, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses and even Yeshua/Jesus. They gave Muhammad the stamp of approval that he was to be the last and only prophet of God, and the charge from the prophets as the foundation for the new religion of Islam.
At that moment in his dream, he flies back to earth in an instant —The Muslim people have accepted many myths and interpretations of the Koran as they suit their needs.

Revision of the Myth

During the military campaign of Saladin, (a Muslim and a Kurd who conquered Jerusalem) in 1187 CE against the Christian Crusaders, the myth of Muhammad’s flight to a heavenly mystical Al Aksa was revised to state that his dream flight was to an earthly Al Aksa on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Saladin used the myth as a political excuse to attack the Christian infidel Crusaders who had previously conquered and occupied Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

A Brief History of the Muslim Claim to Jerusalem

After the destruction of Herod’s Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, and the institution of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine in 312 CE, there were several attempts by different emperors to build structures on the Temple Mount. In 613 CE, King Khosru II of Persia invaded Jerusalem and permitted the re-establishment of a Temple by building a holy altar on the Temple Mount.

In the early years of Muslim rule, when Jerusalem was conquered by Arab forces in May 638 CE, Caliph Umar declared the right of Jews (and others) to continue praying on the Temple Mount, without interference, in return for assistance in the taking over the city. Jews actually even received permission to build a small wooden structure on the Mount.

In the beginning stages, while the gradual change of the Mount into Islam’s third holiest site was in progress, it didn’t require a total exclusion of Jews from the location. The place remained active during most of the early Muslim period, and also from approximately 1100 CE up until the conquest of the Crusaders. There are even Hebrew writings found on the internal walls of the eastern Golden Gate written by Jewish pilgrims about 1,000 years ago that can still be seen today.

Before the days of Muhammad, the Christian Byzantine Empire conquered and occupied Jerusalem. They usually built their holy places on top of holy places they had conquered to show that both their armies and their religion were superior to those of their victims, and also to use it as a reason to convert them to their religion. That’s what the Christians did on the Temple Mount. Even under the threat of the death, the Jews refused to convert.

Muhammad, the creator of Islam died in Saudi Arabia in 632 CE, there were no mosques in Jerusalem in 632 CE.
Jerusalem was still a Christian city within the Byzantine Empire. In their quest to conquer the world for Islam, the Muslims, under Khalif Omar’s leadership captured Jerusalem in 638 CE, six years after Muhammad’s death. There were only churches in Jerusalem at that time, including a church in Byzantine architectural style built on the Temple Mount, called the Church of Saint Mary of Justinian.

In 691-692 CE the Dome of the Rock was built by Khalif Abd El Malik. About 20 years later, in or around 711 CE, about 80 years after Muhammad died, Malik’s son, Abd El-Wahd – who ruled from 705-715 CE converted the Christian-Byzantine Church of St. Mary on the Temple Mount into a mosque. He left the typical Byzantine “basilica” structure as it was, with a row of pillars on either side of the rectangular area in the center. All he added was a dome on top of the building to make it look like a mosque. He then named it Al Aksa, so it would sound like the one mentioned in the Koran. It is clear therefore that three generations after Muhammad’s death in Saudi, without any connection to the land of Israel or Jerusalem, the Muslims created a myth of the connection between the dream Muhammad had in the middle of the night about this “farthest mosque” and Jerusalem.

Later on, under the occupation of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, subsequent Ottoman rulers invested little to no effort in the upkeep of the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa Mosque, there was never any record or precedent of Muslim clerics ever visiting the Temple Mount or of evicting Jews from those places.

Jihad

In 1929, while under the British Mandate rule, the Arabs responded to Husseini’s “rumor” and rioted in Jerusalem, and many cities of what was then British Mandate Palestine. The Arabs murdered a total of 133 Jews, wounding more than 300 wherever they could find them. In Hebron 67-69 Jews were murdered, with 58 wounded and women were raped; in Safed 18-20 were murdered with 80 wounded.

In 1947, after the UN suggested the partition of the land between the Jews and the Arabs, the Saudis called the Muslims to “Jihad” holy war against the Jews of Israel in a “Fatwa” (religious ruling) supposedly to save the Al Aksa mosque on the Temple Mount from the Jews. The day after Israel was declared a new nation, all the Arab nations around Israel attacked the newborn State of Israel. Miraculously, Israel won the war of Independence but lost East Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, and Judea and Samaria, which remained in Jordanian hands… Jews were forbidden to visit the holy sites under the Jordanian rule.

However, only since 1967, after Israel won the six-day war and liberated the old city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, Yassir Arafat started to claim that Jerusalem is the Muslim’s third holiest city and invented another myth, of a non-people (the Palestinians) as a nation with a history. Although the fact is that Jerusalem was never the capital city of any Muslim nation, now this newly created people, the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital.

While under the control of the Muslims, before 1967, the Temple Mount was a neglected site. The crowds of Muslims didn’t fill the place until the leaders started the propaganda that Jerusalem is their third holiest city.

The 13th Century Arab biographer Yakut wrote: “Mecca is holy to Muslims; Jerusalem is holy to the Jews.”

There is a religious war raging against the Jewish people, the Jewish State of Israel and Israel’s 3000 year old Eternal Capital, Jerusalem.

The Arabs’ claim to the Holy Jewish Temple Mount and Jerusalem is based upon one extraordinarily huge lie told over and over again. The Nazi Goebbels said, “If the lie is big enough and told often enough, it will be believed.”

At the time of Muhammad, In order to convert Jews to Islam, he used the trick of a temporary truce (permitted in Islam) to make a treaty with the Jewish Koraish tribe. But, in 628 CE at the Khaidar Oasis, Muhammad killed them. Arafat often claimed that the Oslo Treaty was similar to that treaty which Muhammad violated with impunity when he became militarily stronger.

Muhammad never mentioned the word Jerusalem in his completion of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, and directed the Muslim “quibla” (prayers) to Mecca. A visit of a Muslim to Jerusalem was called a “ziyara”, unlike the holy pilgrimage to Mecca, which was called by the honorific “Haj”. A Muslim who made the mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca was allowed to add the honorable “Haj” to his name.

For Muhammad, Jerusalem was a despised place of the Jews and had no place in his vision for his Islamic religion.

Muhammad spent his early years among the Jewish tribes particularly in and around Yathrib (Medina). It was, therefore, not unusual for Muhammad to include a pilgrimage to Mecca since the Jews were commanded to make three pilgrimages to Jerusalem each year on Sukkot, Pesach, and Shavuot. There is much in the Koran that finds its source in the Jewish Bible.

Yassir Arafat’s Claim

The Jewish pilgrimages were the basis of Yassir Arafat’s claim to the Jewish Temple Mount (and to all of Jerusalem) as the third holiest place for Islam after Mecca and Medina. He called his terrorism against Israeli Jews, the Aksa “intifada” (uprising) and renamed the Western Wall: the “El-Buraq Wall”. The Muslim “Waqf” (caretakers of the holy sites) have been excavating and destroying all evidence of Jewish artifacts under the Temple Mount, and Arafat claimed there is nothing in, on or under the Temple Mount to prove its Jewish history. The Arabs’ massive excavation under the Temple Mount is about more than removing all traces of Jewish presence but was a virtual displacement by Arafat of the Jewish religion to Islam.

Unfortunately, the Israeli Prime Minister at that time, Ehud Barak, did not object to this de-Judaizing of the Jewish Temple and didn’t stop these illegal excavations.

Arafat proclaimed almost daily from the time of the signing of the Oslo Accords, that “With the children of the stones, I will fight until all of Israel is the new State of Palestine and its flag flies over the churches and mosques of Jerusalem, the capital of that State and only that State.” Arafat and the Arab nations took the liberty of incorporating a distorted mythical folktale into the substance of their religion’s claim on the Jewish Temple Mount and of all Jerusalem. The World Media and the Nations hostile to Israel as a Jewish State accepted this El-Buraq myth* and its attendant lies which supported Arafat’s claims, justifying the displacement of the Jews. Arafat undertook the task of literally erasing the past of the Jews. In essence, denying the use of the Jewish name for Temple Mount he delegitimized the reason for having a Jewish State. His successors continue this legacy up to the present.

On April 15, 2016, the executive council of UNESCO adopted a new resolution that specifically called the Western Wall only by a Muslim name (ignoring any Jewish ties to the holy site). When the text mentions the Western Wall Plaza, they used the Arabic “Al-Buraq Plaza” as its official name. Further in the resolution, only the Arabic term for the Temple Mount, Al Aksa Mosque/Al-Haram al-Sharif, is used.

The PA (and the UN) doesn’t want any connection to the Jewish name “Temple Mount” that will admit the existence of the actual temple. They fear that the Jew might desire to build a third temple sometime in the future. Therefore any Jewish ties must be somehow delegitimized. If they succeed in erasing the Jewish holy sites from existence, it will be much easier to eliminate Israel from existence.

The Truth according to the Word of God and History

In the Word

Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible 811 times – not once in the Koran;

The word “Zion” refers to Jerusalem 152 times;
Jerusalem is called the “holy city” 10 times and the “city of God” twice;
It is called the “city of truth” and
“the city of the great King” and
“the city of Judah” and also
the “city of David.”

It has PRIORITY above all cities.

Psalm 48:2 – “the joy of the whole earth, the city of the great King.”
Psalm 137:5 refers to it as “my chief joy.” Psalm 87:2 says, “The
LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”
Its PRAISE in the earth
Isaiah 62:7 – “give Him no rest, till He establish,
And till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

Its PLACE in Jewish history

The place where Abraham was blessed by a king and priest named Melchizedek over 4000 years ago – Genesis 14:18-19
The place where Adonizedek was king when Joshua entered the land – Joshua 10:1
The place which was given to the tribe of Judah by Joshua – Joshua 15:1, 8
The place which Judah and Benjamin could not conquer from the Jebusites – Joshua 15:63; Judges 1:21
The place which King David took from the Jebusites 3000 years ago – II Samuel 5:4-9
The place where King David purchased the site of the Temple Mount from Aravnah the Jebusite and built an altar there – II Samuel 24:18-25
The place where King David ruled for 33 years
The place where King Solomon built the temple – II Chronicles. 3:1
The place where King Solomon ruled for 40 years – I Kings 11:42
The place where the kings of Judah ruled for over 400 years and the place where they were buried.
The place where Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city and its temple in 586 BCE – II Kings 24:10, 14; 25:9-10.
The place to which Jewish captives returned through the kindness of Cyrus, King of Persia.
The place where Jewish refugees came under the leadership of Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, and Joshua the high priest and rebuilt the city and its walls.
The place where Antiochus Epiphanes of the Seleucid dynasty defiled the rebuilt temple, and a great Jewish revolt took place under Judas Maccabeus and cleansed the temple, giving us the celebration of Hanukkah – in the middle of the 2nd century BC…

In order to understand the situation in the Middle East in the present, we have examined the past. History plainly shows how and why the enemies of Israel have contrived to reinvent Islam to suit their political aspirations.

There was no focus on Jerusalem in Islam until the 19th – 20th century.
There was no people group called Palestinians until the 20th century.
There is no early “history” of a people called Palestinians.
There is no “history” whatsoever of Jerusalem in Islam.

Ultimately, this is a spiritual war. The Muslim people involved are just pawns enslaved for the purpose of destruction. It bears all of the earmarks of an invention of satan, once again, to destroy the mark of God’s presence on the earth: the Chosen Land and the Chosen People.

The Story of Purim

February 28, 2018 By Bella Davidov Leave a Comment

The year in which the story of Purim occurs is 357 BC. There were many Jews who decided to stay in exile in Persia after the return of the rest of the Jews to the Land. The king of the Persian Empire, Ahasuerus (Xerxes) was showing off all his splendor and great riches in a big banquet and wanted also to show off the beauty of his queen Vashti, who made a banquet of her own for the women. Vashti refused to come and aroused the king’s anger, who decided to get rid of her and choose another queen.

Of all the beautiful virgins of the empire, the one whom the king fell in love with and chose to be his queen was a stunning beautiful Jewish young orphan, named Hadassah, known by her Persian name, Esther. Her uncle who raised her, Mordechai the Jew urged her not to reveal her nationality, and Esther joined the king’s royal harem.

The king raised to power Haman the Agagite (descendant of Amalek) to a position above all the other princes and ordered that all who were at the king’s court had to bow down to him. Mordechai the Jew, who sat at the king’s gate was the only one who refused to bow down to Haman and aroused his anger. When Haman learned that Mordechai was Jewish, he manipulated King Ahasuerus into ordering the genocide of all the Jewish people throughout the empire.

Haman said to the King Ahasuerus: “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom, their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not worthy for the king to let them remain…let a decree be written that they be destroyed…” (Esther 3:8-9)

The Pur (dice or lot) was cast and fell on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, in one day all the Jews were to be, according to the words of Haman’s decree, “killed, destroyed, and annihilated.” (Esther 3:13) It was done, a decree that cannot be changed because “in the name of King Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king’s signet ring.” (Esther 3:12c)

A big cry and mourning were heard throughout the Jewish communities, and when Mordechai heard the terrible news he tore up his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes on his head, went out to the center of the city and cried out a loud and bitter cry. He sent a message to Esther telling her that she must go to the king and plead for him to change the decree. Even though the king loved Esther, he didn’t send for her in thirty days. She said that everyone knows that if anyone goes to see the king without being invited, he or she must be put to death by law unless the king extends to him or her his royal scepter.

Mordechai sent a message to Esther in reply, “don’t think that you alone will be saved out of all the Jews just because you are in the king’s palace. If you keep silent at this time…relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another source…”

Mordechai had faith in the God of Israel that He would not let his people be exterminated. He knew that God had a purpose and plan for Israel. He told Esther “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)

Esther decided right away to take a courageous step of faith and go to the Higher Authority in prayer and fasting. She called for the entire Jewish community in the capital city to stand with her in prayer and fasting for three days as she risks her life for the chance of saving her people. She is going to go unlawfully before the king uninvited. and “if I perish, I perish.”

On the third day of the fast, Esther put on her royal robe and stood across the King’s royal throne. When the king saw her, she found favor in his eyes and he extended to her his royal scepter as an invitation to come to him. As she came and touched the scepter, he asked what her request was, and he would give her up to half the kingdom. All she asked was to invite the king and Haman to a royal banquet she prepared for them. After the banquet, the king repeated his question to know what she really wanted of him, as he was willing to give her half the kingdom. Again Esther replied that she was inviting him and Haman to another banquet. Haman was so elated and proud that the queen chose to honor him, but when he passed by Mordechai who wouldn’t bow down to him, his joy turned to rage. He listened to his wife’s suggestion and built a tall gallows to hang Mordechai on, after getting the king’s approval.

Here is where the story takes a twist and turn, and we see the hand of God.

That night the king couldn’t sleep. He asked that his servant read to him from the book of remembrance. The account he heard was how Mordechai saved his life by exposing the plot to assassinate the king by two servants, who were caught and executed. He found out that Mordechai was not rewarded for this act. In the morning he ordered to bring to him the first person who came into the court to use in order to honor and repay Mordechai for saving his life. The first person who walked into the court was Haman, who wanted to get the approval of the king to hang Mordechai. When the king asked him what should be done to the person the king wants to honor, Haman in his pride was sure the king meant him. He told the king that that person should be dressed in royal attire, someone should parade him on a royal horse through the streets in the center of the city and announce that this is what is done to the person whom the king favors. King Ahasuerus ordered Haman to do it to Mordechai. When Haman came home shamefully and told his wife what happened, she said to him, “If Mordechai is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him but surely fall before him.” (Esther 6:13)

At the end, in the second banquet, Esther revealed to the king her being Jewish and the plot of Haman to annihilate all of the Jews. The King ordered to hang Haman on the very gallows he built for Mordechai and promoted Mordechai to a high position in the kingdom. The king gave him his signet ring to write a new decree for the Jews to destroy all those who would seek to kill them. That is how the Jewish people were saved from annihilation. In the end, God gave His people the victory over all their enemies. Once again God proved that His promise and covenant with Israel is everlasting.

Sovereignty Over the Temple Mount

July 27, 2017 By Bella Davidov Leave a Comment

The tension in East Jerusalem has to do with the issue of sovereignty over the Temple Mount. With the escalating violence and tensions in Jerusalem recently, the Temple Mount has become a major item on the social, religious and political agenda. The international community, including Israel, keep repeating the mantra “to maintain the status quo** there.” which states that the Muslim Waqf* manages the Temple Mount, as they have since the Muslim re-conquest of Jerusalem from the Christians in 1187.
This one-sided status quo ignores and denies the divine heritage of the Jews, their return to their land and the establishment of the State of Israel against all odds. To the Jews, it is the most sacred ground on earth. It’s the only Holy Mountain in the world because the Holy God of Israel says it’s His mountain.
In fear of Muslim reaction and threat of an Islamic Arab riot, as well as world criticism, most of Israel’s leaders are reluctant to take a stand for the spiritual right of the Jewish people to “worship the God of Israel on His Holy Mountain, the place He chose for His dwelling place”.

Israel is told in Psalm 9:11: “Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion! Declare His deeds among the people.”
Isa. 60:14 “and they shall call you The City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
Joel 3:21: “for the LORD dwells in Zion.”
Ps. 132:13-14: “For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for His dwelling place: ‘This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.’”
Ps. 87:1-3: “His foundation is in the holy mountains. The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God! Selah.”
Also see: Psalm 48; Ps. 87:5; Ps 149:2; Song 3:11; Isa. 33:14; Isa. 33:20; Jer. 9:19; Jer. 30:17; Zech.9:13; Isa. 59:2

History

According to the Hebrew Bible Solomon’s Temple was built atop what is known as the Temple Mount in the 10^th century BCE. Solomons’ Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the Second Temple was built by the Jews, completed and dedicated in 516 BC.
Around 19 BCE Herod the Great began a massive expansion project on the Temple Mount. In addition to fully rebuilding and enlarging the Temple. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.
According to Wikipedia history encyclopedia, the history of the Temple Mount starts and ends with Israel.
Israelite period – Jerusalem was a Canaanite city called Jebus, established around 1850 BCE in the vicinity of the Temple Mount. The Jewish King David bought the area for fifty pieces of silver from the Jebusite Araunah who owned the area and used it as a threshing-floor (2Sam. 24:24). David wanted to build a sanctuary to the Lord, God of Israel, but the Lord said that David’s son would be the one to build Him the Temple. King Solomon, David’s son built the first Holy Temple on the site, outside Jerusalem’s wall on the northern edge of the hill.
Persian and Herodian periods – Solomon’s temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II king of Babylon in 586 BCE and was rebuilt by the Jews under Persian rule around 516 BCE. Herod the Great expanded the Mount and renovated the temple. The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans.
Roman and Byzantine periods – Roman emperor Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem and changed the name of the city to Aelia Capitolina and built a temple to Jupiter on the site of the former second Jewish temple on the Temple Mount. All Jews were forbidden to enter the city or the surrounding territory around the city.
In 325 CE, Emperor Constantine I, who promoted Christianity, destroyed the Jupiter shrine on the Temple Mount. Jews were allowed to come to Jerusalem once a year, on Tisha b’Av (9^th of the Jewish month of Av) to mourn the destruction of 2 temples.
In 534 CE Emperor Justinian built a huge substructure as a foundation for the new Church of St. Mary over the site of Solomon’s temple. Other than that, the Temple Mount was neglected by the Romans.
Byzantine period – The Byzantines built elaborate church buildings, monasteries and other public buildings on the Temple Mount.
Muslim period – In 637 CE Muslim Arabs conquered Jerusalem from the Byzantine Empire. Caliph Umar found the Temple Mount covered with rubbish. He built a mosque to the south of the rock over some ruins, known as the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The mosque was completely destroyed and rebuilt several times, the last one in 1035 CE is the one that still stands today.
In 691 CE Caliph Abd al-Malik built around the rock the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat as-Sakhra). The dome was covered in gold in 1920 [with textual and architectural narratives reinforced one another] ??.
For Muslims, the importance of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque makes Jerusalem the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. The Dome of the Rock is located close to the area where the Holy Temple of Israel previously stood. The mosque and shrine are currently administered by a Waqf* (an Islamic trust).
The Crusaders – In 1099 the First Crusaders captured Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. The Dome of the Rock was converted into a church called Templum Domini (the Temple of the Lord) and al-Aksa became a church called Templum Solomonis (Solomon’s Temple.)
Back to Muslim rule – In 1187 Jerusalem was re-conquered by Saladin, and The Dome of the Rock and al-Aksa were changed back into Muslim houses of worship, and have remained so ever since.
The Ottoman Empire – with the expansion of the Turkish Ottoman Muslim Empire, Palestine was included in their conquests in 1516. They prohibited non-Muslims from setting foot on the Temple Mount until the early 19^th century, when non-Muslims were again permitted to visit the site.
British Mandate – After WWI, the entire area, including Palestine (today the land of Israel) and Trans-Jordan (today Jordan), was given to the British Mandate, including the Old City of Jerusalem. It maintained the Muslim status quo of the Temple Mount sites. Later, when Jordan became an independent state, it established the current Waqf (religious Muslim Council of the holy places on the Temple Mount.)

After 1948

The State of Israel was established in 1948 after winning the war of independence against its five neighboring Arab nations. East Jerusalem and the West Bank remained in Jordanian hands. Under Jordanian control, Jews were completely expelled from the Old City including the Jewish quarter, and Jews were barred from entering the Old City for 19 years, effectively banning Jewish prayer at the site of the Western Wall.
Israel period – On June 7, 1967, Israel won the Six Day War against the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. In the fighting against Jordan, Israel gained control of The West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount.
The Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) passed the Preservation of the Holy Places Law, ensuring the protection of the Holy Places against desecration, as well as freedom of access thereto. The site remains within the area controlled by the State of Israel, with the religious administration of the site remaining in the hands of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf. Arabs can enter the Temple Mount through one of ten different Muslim-only gates from various sites in the Old City. Tourists and Jews are only allowed access to the site through the Mugrabim Gate (via the Mugrabim Bridge) which is located just above and to the left of the Kotel, (Western Wall) plaza. Non-Muslims are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount.

Insight

As we see, God has fulfilled His promises and closed the cycle. Now that Israel has come back to the Land, the Temple Mount is in Israel’s hands. For now, God allows it to be religiously administered under Muslim control. If Israel had taken control of the Temple Mount religiously, the Jewish religious leaders would have started building the third Temple, and it is not God’s time, it’s not His purpose yet for Israel. Mean through the Muslim Arabs, the enemy is doing everything he can to cause Israel to completely lose sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

What is the Waqf?

July 27, 2017 By Bella Davidov Leave a Comment

The Jerusalem Islamic Waqf is an Islamic religious trust organization, controlling and managing the current religious governing issues on and around the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It was instituted by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan after its conquest of the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the War of Independence in 1948. The King of Jordan is still supplying all of the funding needed to operate the Waqf. After winning the Six Day War in 1967, Israel has political and military sovereignty of the Temple Mount but allows the Waqf to retain the civil administration and religious authority for the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount.

What is status quo on the Temple Mount?

In the 18^th century, the land of Israel (then called Palestine) was occupied by the Muslim Turkish Ottoman Empire. The leader Sultan Osman III decreed that the status quo be established to preserve the division of ownership and responsibilities of the holy sites in the Holy Land between the various sites important to Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

This status quo for Jerusalem meant that certain statuses for the holy sites would be kept and were recognized as being permanent or at least the way things should be. The city was divided into four quarters. The Temple Mount became a Muslim holy place, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as well as other various Christian sites were recognized as belonging to the Christian world. Despite the arguments over who would control what aspects of these sites, the status quo has remained largely intact from the 17th century to the present and for the most part has not been changed.

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the status quo was not respected by Jordan who took control of the Old City of Jerusalem and expelled Jews prohibiting them from visiting their Holy Places in the city.

Now that God has given the Temple Mount, Western Wall and Judea and Samaria back to Israel, the enemy of God and Israel is working very hard to take them away from Israel and he is using the Muslim Arabs.

Even before Israel became a nation, at the time that Jews started to come back to the land as pioneers, the Arabs objected to their coming back and especially going up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. From the beginning, Jews were accused of attempting to take the Temple Mount from the Muslims.

On June 17, 1967, a meeting was held at the al-Aqsa Mosque between Moshe Dayan (Israeli Chief of Staff at that time) and Muslim religious authorities of Jerusalem reformulating the status quo. Dayan offered that the Jews be given the right to visit the Temple Mount unobstructed and free of charge if they respected Muslims’ religious feelings and acted decently, without being allowed to pray. ‘Religious sovereignty’ was to remain with the Muslims while Israel retained ‘overall sovereignty’.

The Muslims rejected Dayan’s offer, as well as totally rejecting the Israeli conquest of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. The Military Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren and a group of other Jews also objected to the proposal, claiming that praying on the Mount symbolizes freedom and the return of the Jewish people to their homeland.

The High Court of Israel suggested that even though it is the right, as part of the freedom of expression, for Jews to enter the Temple Mount, to pray there and to have communion with their God, if it will most certainly cause injury to the public “it is possible to limit the rights of the person in order to uphold the public interest.”

Israeli police continued to forbid Jews praying on the Temple Mount. Several prime ministers have attempted to change the status quo but failed.