DEMONSTRATION IN PROTEST OF THE GOVERNMENT-SANCTIONED APARTHEID AGAINST JEWS ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT The day didn’t start out exactly well for me. I was in a taxi and we had just entered Jaffa Gate into the Old City, when we got stuck (along with lots of other cars) behind a large truck stuck on the narrow road winding its way through the Armenian Quarter. That meant that my cab driver (and the rest of the traffic) got signaled by the cops on duty to make a U-turn and high-tail it out of there. Meaning that Yours Truly had to get out of the cab and walk the rest of the way to the location of the demo. Small price to pay, and it was good exercise, after all. Passing near the whistle-protesters against the Women of the Wall, I headed for the narrow passageway to the checkpoint gate leading to the Mughrabi Gate entrance to Har HaBayit. 150-200 people were already gathered there to daven Shacharit for Rosh Chodesh Elul (among them Rav Chaim Richman, Nadia Matar and other notables), and we all recited and sang Hallel together. (It was disappointing to me, not to see “masses” of people stretching all the way back to Dung Gate, which I had really hoped would be the case.) I stayed at the fence near the women, who were closest to the locked gate. That’s when I noticed the sign in Hebrew taped on the wall, that the Mount was closed to tourists and visitors until after Eid-El Fitr (the last days of Ramadan, this week). Someone had hand-written at the bottom of the sign: We won’t forgive! The cops and border police were at first quiet and kept to themselves and the fences that kept us confined in the narrow passageway. It was a very hot day, I was tired from the heat and from getting up very early to be on time, so I went to sit down on the steps leading down from the buses. A cop insisted I NOT sit but stand where I was before, which was leaning on the fence (there was no other place to sit down). Telling them that I’m old enough to be his grandmother and that he should therefore show a little respect, did no good whatsoever. So up I stood and went over to a shady spot at the fence, where a border cop was already standing. He wanted me to move, but I used the same line on him and managed to stand my ground there. The cops were loathe to open the fence and let people out of the confines of the narrow passageway, except for a few ladies, one with a baby carriage. When I heard some yelling, I looked over towards the men and saw that a cop was carrying away a Sefer Torah that one of the men was holding. Being that the cops are rather robotic in their actions and their insistence, the taunts we hurled at them were in vain. But a couple of the guys had brought shofarot and to my knowledge, they were not interfered with when they blew them. There was talk from a friend of mine about chaining ourselves to the gate leading to the police checkpoint inside; unfortunately, nobody had a chain, or anything remotely resembling one. So we had to settle for singing within the confines of the narrow path that led to the locked gate. I decided at that point, since it was getting hotter, I had other commitments, and the crowd was not growing in size, it was time to leave. I sincerely hope and pray that, even though the gate is supposed to theoretically be unlocked to us come this Sunday, we will indeed resume our protests, much bigger than today’s, whenever the government and the police surrender to Muslim provocations on the Mount and close it to Jews and other non-Muslim visitors. Or maybe – just maybe! – in the future the police will do their job, obey the law on the books and remove the Muslim provocateurs from Har HaBayit, allowing Jews free, unproblematic access to the Mount. Well, I can dream, can’t I???
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 13:44:06 +0000
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