Police ban Jews from Tisha B'Av visits to Temple Mount

Fearing possible riots, Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Frenco decided Tuesday that Jews would not be allowed on the Temple Mount to mark the Tisha B'Av fast day. The decision includes members of the Temple Mount Faithful group, who requested permission to conduct a ceremony at the holy site.

The decision was made in the wake of recent warnings by Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi that the security establishment had identified rising intent among right-wing extremists to carry out a Temple Mount attack.

Some 15 right-wing activists were demonstrating Tuesday in front of Hanegbi`s house to protest the police decision.

Tisha B'Av, the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av, is the traditional date of the destruction of both the first and second Temples. The day of mourning began at sundown Monday and ends at sundown Tuesday.

Gershon Solomon, who heads the Temple Mount Faithful, said the police decision to keep Jews out of the holy site was disgraceful.

"This is a total retreat from our soverignty over the Temple Mount," Solomon said Tuesday. "It's another dishonor to the Jewish nation by the weak leadership that doesn't understand the significance of the hour."

The High Court of Justice on Monday heard a petition by the Temple Mount Faithful to instruct police to declare in advance that it will permit entry to the site. The state countered that the Temple Mount has been open to Jewish visitors for about a year, and that police do not distinguish between members of the Temple Mount Faithful and any other Jewish visitors.

Under an agreement with the Waqf Islamic Trust, non-Muslims can tour the site, as long as they do not conduct public ceremonies, such as those intended by the Temple Mount Faithful, who want to rebuild the Temple. Traditionally, the police deny the group entry to the plaza.

The court left the decision up to the police.

Hanegbi, the minister in charge of the police force, said last Saturday that extremists could try to carry out a Temple Mount attack.

"There is no information about specific individuals, because the Shin Bet and police would not let them continue [with their plot]," he said.

"But there are troubling indications of purposeful thinking, and not detached philosophy ... There is a danger that [extremists] would make use of the most explosive site, in the hope that a chain reaction would bring about the destruction of the peace process."

Security forces bolstered their presence at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday as thousands of worshippers congregated there. An estimated 8,000 worshippers gathered at the Western Wall for prayer services Monday night.

At synagogues around the country, the Book of Lamentations was read Monday night.

Alternative religious ceremonies heldAlternative religious ceremonies were held nationwide Monday night. The Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel conducted its central lamentation event at a section of the Western Wall south of the main plaza. Young members of the Movement for Progressive Judaism also took part in the event.

Politicians, journalists, writers and public personalities took part in reading the Book of Lamentations and discussing current issues in dozens of community centers and centers for immigrants from the former Soviet Union around the country. These events were organized by the community centers umbrella group with the office of the minister for Diaspora affairs as part of the Judaism For All project.

A "torch extinguishing" ceremony was held in Jerusalem's Zion Square on Monday night to protest growing racism, discrimination, abuse, extremism and violence in the Israeli society. The ceremony was performed by Jewish Voice, a coalition of organizations with a Jewish-social orientation.

Politicians from the National Religious Party and the National Union Party took part in the annual march around the Old City's walls, which was organized for the tenth time by the Women in Green Movement.

The Israel Religious Action Center of the Movement for Progressive Judaism published a new lamentation for Tisha B'Av that relates to current events. The lamentation mentions Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, denounces Orthodox Jews for evading military service, condemns threats aimed at the legal system and criticizes settlers for harassing their Palestinian neighbors.

The Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality has announced that as in the past two years, restaurants and places of entertainment must close.

Businesses that remain open will be subject to a NIS 600 fine. Last year, 26 citations were handed out by municipal inspectors against businesses that remained open on Tisha B'Av against the law, a smaller number than in previous years.

	Jewish men praying at the Western Wall on Monday night at the start of the fast of Tisha B'Av. Some 8,000 attended the service. (Olivier Fitoussi / BauBau)