Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Ignorant Adventure in Jerusalem

Ta-Nehisi Coates sees “apartheid” in having to wait to enter the Mughrabi Gate to the Temple Mount? But why was Ta-Nehisi Coates’ party kept waiting before being given permission to enter? First, there was all that photographic equipment which was surely unusual; how many visitors to the Temple Mount would be carrying such heavy equipment? It had to be thoroughly checked in case it contained explosives or some other kind of weapon. Or could it have wreaked religious havoc by suddenly letting loose a banner with a Hebrew prayer written on it, or it might even have contained a device that could play a pre-recorded message declaring that “the Temple Mount belongs to the Jews.” The guards would take their time to thoroughly inspect that equipment. They might also have been troubled by the Jordanian Muslim in the group. Shouldn’t he be using one of the other gates, and not the Mughrabi Gate, meant to be used only by Christians and Jews? Perhaps the guards were taking what Coates thought was too much time because of the need to communicate with their superiors and to await instructions as to how to deal with the Jordanian photographer. In any case, the whole party was ultimately let in through the Mughrabi Gate.

More on Ta-Nehisi Coates’ baseless outrage about access to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall can be found here: “Ta-Nehisi Coates book betrays his utter ignorance of what he is writing about on the Temple Mount,” Elder of Ziyon, February 16, 2025:

In 2013, they stopped me – a quite identifiable Jew – from bringing in various pieces of video and sound equipment for the video tour I made. I had to leave most of it with the guards and retrieve it afterwards, recording my visit with a single camera.

In other words, the guards who wanted to carefully examine the photographic equipment that the Jordanian in Coates’ party had with him, and wanted to bring up to the Temple Mount, were only following their protocol.

Muslims don’t have to jump through the hoops that Jews and Christians have to in order to visit. Coates’ observation that there were no Muslims is not evidence of anti-Muslim apartheid – it is evidence of anti-Jewish and anti-Christian apartheid!

It’s the Jews and Christians who were limited, not Muslims, both in their access to the Mount and in what they could do once on the Mount. It was they who can use only one gate to the Temple Mount, while the Muslims have exclusive access to twelve gates. It is Jews who are prohibited from saying prayers on the Mount, or even of bringing prayerbooks with them. The Muslims have no such limits. Ta-Nehisi Coates makes no mention of any of this. Was it ignorance, or did he deliberately omit such information from his account, because he had already decided the Israelis were the oppressors and the Muslims the oppressed?

Also, Israeli Arabs and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem can visit the Western Wall any time with no issues. West Bank Palestinians need a permit, just as they do to go to the rest of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Coates makes an assumption based on his hate of Israel and doesn’t bother to do the least amount of checking.

Coates breezily insists that no Muslims can visit the Western Wall. Did he even look? He could have seen Muslims walking across the broad plaza right in front of the wall every day of the week. Israeli Arabs and Arabs living in east Jerusalem can visit the Western Wall at any time; they need no permission. Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria can also visit after getting a permit, the same permit that they need to visit the Temple Mount and the rest of Jerusalem. The only Palestinians who might be denied a permit are those deemed to be a security threat; the Israelis don’t want any explosives going off in front of the Western Wall.

But this ignorant and presumptuous man will be seen, alas, by many, as a piercingly honest reporter, one unafraid to question the “Israeli narrative.” Coates couldn’t be bothered to find out how many gates provide access to the Temple Mount, nor to discover how many of them are open only to Muslims and how many only to Jews. He failed to understand that the guards he complains about were there not to block or intimidate Muslims, but rather, to prevent Jews from bringing prayerbooks in order to pray on the Temple Mount, which is strictly forbidden to Jews, but allowed to Muslims. He apparently thinks Muslims cannot visit the Western Wall, but when all he had to do is take a look at the Western Wall (or al-Buraq plaza) to see dozens Muslims walking undisturbed.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, the insect of an hour, is having his brief moment in the sun. Don’t look for signs of intelligent life in his vaporings. And for Coates, it will soon be sundown.