Muslims and Jews on the Temple Mount

According to anti-Israel propagandists, the Jewish state severely restricts Muslim access to Al-Aqsa Mosque, while there are no restrictions on Jews who visit what they call the Temple Mount. This is the very opposite of the truth. More can be found here: “The story isn’t ‘Israeli restrictions on Al Aqsa.’ It is how unbelievably tolerant Israel is towards Muslims in Judaism’s holiest spot.” Elder of Ziyon, March 6, 2025:

On Thursday night, 85,000 Muslims worshipped at the Al Aqsa Mosque complex for Ramadan night prayers.

Lots of Muslims have been complaining about Israeli restrictions. According to reports, during Ramadan Israel would allow 10,000 Arabs from the West Bank, with permits, to travel there, excluding men under 55 and women under 50.

However, there are no restrictions on Israeli Arabs and Arab residents of Jerusalem in attending. Here’s a detail of the crowd Thursday night, showing lots of young men.

I expect the Friday morning crowds to exceed 150,000, in line with previous Ramadans.

Now, let’s think for a minute about how incredibly liberal Israel is in allowing so many Arabs to enter the complex:

– It is the holiest site in Judaism. According to Jewish law, no one should walk in the area around the Dome of the Rock nowadays at all because of its intense holiness. The Jewish state is violating Jewish law by allowing tens of thousands of Muslims to desecrate the most sacred spot in Judaism.

Jews who visit the Temple Mount stay away from both the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. But Muslims visiting Al-Aqsa make it a point to walk all over the Temple Mount, knowing that they are thereby desecrating the most sacred place in Judaism.

– Israel is currently in a low level war in areas of Judea and Samaria. Palestinian sites keep running totals of how many times they shot at, stabbed, rammed their cars or threw stones at Jews. Even so, Israel is allowing tens of thousands of Arabs to enter even during wartime.

– In every Muslim holy place that they took from Jews under Muslim rule – the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Joseph’s Tomb, the Temple Mount, Samuel’s Tomb  – Muslims forbade Jews to enter altogether when they were under Arab control. The Jewish state gives rights for Muslims to pray in sites that both claim (and, let’s be frank, sites that Muslims stole from the Jews), the Arabs never gave the smallest amount of similar rights to Jews. (Under the Ottomans, Jews were allowed to worship at the Western Wall with severe restrictions; under Jordanian rule, Jews were not allowed in the Old City at all, even if they were not Israeli.)

Whenever Muslim Arabs came into possession of sites that were holy to the Jews, they would forbid them to enter. Every single site that is considered holy by the Jews, once it fell under Arab control, became off-limits to Jews. These sites included Joseph’s Tomb (which Palestinians have tried to destroy), Rachel’s Tomb (ditto), Samuel’s Tomb, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the Western Wall (in front of which Muslims dumped tons of. garbage), and the Temple Mount itself.

– Muslims are allowed to publicly pray, to bring in political flags, to play sports, to have picnics, to have summer camps for children on the holy site. Jews are highly restricted in what they can do there, when they can visit, and what they can bring in.

The Israeli government allows Jews to visit the Temple Mount only for four hours a day, five days a week, while Muslims can visit the site, and pray at Al-Aqsa, at all hours of every day. The Jews, furthermore, are forbidden from saying prayers, aloud or mouthed silently, while on the Mount. They may not bring prayerbooks with them onto the Mount, or prayer shawls, or any other religious artifacts. Israeli police strictly enforce this prohibition, and Jews caught praying will be stopped and admonished.. If they persist in attempting to pray, they will be escorted off the Mount.

– More Muslims visited the Temple Mount Thursday night than the number of Jews who visited the site in all of 2024….

Far from the Jews keeping Muslims off the Temple Mount, it is the Muslims who pray in huge numbers at Al-Aqsa, at times reaching 150,000 to 250,000. On just one night — March 6 — 150,000 Muslims prayed at Al-Aqsa, which Elder of Ziyon points out is more than the number of Jews who visited Temple Mount in all of 2024. Israel strictly limits to fifty the number of religious Jews who can visit the Mount at one time.

In times of great insecurity, when the Israeli authorities worry about anti-Jewish riots on the Temple Mount, there are — most temporarily— restrictions placed on which Muslims can visit. People less likely to be volatile, and violent, are allowed in —Muslim males over the age of 55, Muslim women over the age of 50, and children under the age of 12. This is done purely for security reasons, and the age restrictions are lifted as soon as the danger of violence has passed.

Unlike the Muslims who when they controlled Judea and Samaria, and the Old City of Jerusalem, prevented Jews access to all of their holy sites, the Israelis do not deny Muslims access to any of the sites they consider holy. They can visit the Temple Mount at any time. On the Temple Mount, hundreds of thousands of Muslims may worship at Al-Aqsa at one time. Occasionally there are age restrictions, most temporary, placed on Muslim visitors, which are imposed only for security reasons. The Muslim visitors can walk all over the Temple Mount, thereby desecrating this holiest of all Jewish sites. Meanwhile, the Jews are severely limited in when they can visit the Temple Mount — four hours a day, five days a week. Religious Jews can visit, but only in groups of under 50. All Jews on the Temple Mount are severely restricted in what they can do: they cannot pray, either openly or silently. They cannot blow a shofar. They cannot even bring prayerbooks or prayer shawls with them to the Temple Mount. If these rules are violated, Israeli police will may make them leave.

This is the real story: when Muslims controlled the Old City (which includes the Temple Mount) and Judea and Samaria, the Jewish holy sites — the Western Wall, the Temple Mount itself — were off-limits to Jews. Now that Jews control the Old City, Judea and Samaria, Muslims have access to all the sites that they consider holy, and above all, to the Temple Mount, where they can visit at any time of day or night, can walk all over the site, desecrating ground that is holy to the Jews, and can pray at Al-Aqsa whenever they like. But do the Jews of Israel, so accommodating to those who have been so intolerant of them, receive any credit for this? Of course not.