A Jewish ascender to the Temple Mount in an IDF uniform was arrested Tuesday morning for sitting on the steps and insisting on continuing to sit when a police officer demanded that he get up. Beyadenu,( the Temple Mount organization begun by the Israel Independence Fund), guide Eliasaf Ofan was arrested after he was attacked by an Arab woman on the holy site. “During his ascent to the Mount of Ascension, Ofan encountered an Arab woman who hit him with a sandal. On the way out, the police detained Ofan, stole his phone, and informed him that he was detained to be brought to the station,” Beyadenu CEO Tom Nisani charged in a statement to reporters. The interim Israeli government and the police have gone too far.
Sadly, as Beyadenu reports, Jewish ascenders have been targeted, arrested and ejected from the Temple Mount in record breaking numbers. Now a Jew, Eliasaf Ofan, was attacked by an Arab woman but is himself arrested – this is a blatant war declared on Jews reminiscent of a Nazi police state. The police assigned to work at the Temple Mount have become too empowered when they should only be overseeing the security and safety of all who ascend this holy site. Beyadenu’s Nisani urged that “The time has come for a civil administration on the Temple Mount.” This sounds like a very good idea but we would not want to see a civil administration put in place that ends up causing the same problems that affect Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. Implementing a civil administration to oversee the Temple Mount will only work if its stated purpose is carried out fairly across the board – minus political bias – without appeasing Arabs. Somehow, there must be an end to discrimination against a Jew’s fundamental right to be present and to worship there.