U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain visited the Western Wall and met with the Western Wall, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz. During the meeting, Rabbi Rabinowitz told him: “Following difficult and bitter weeks during which we buried our dead who were brutally murdered, while constantly threatened by neighbors near and far, from the north, east and south – no calls for revenge were heard at the Western Wall. No violent marches emanated from the Western Wall. Not for one moment did it dawn on the pilgrims to turn the holy holiday into a day of bloodshed. How starkly different was the atmosphere at the Western Wall from that on the Temple Mount at the very same time.
Only a few meters separate the worshippers of the Western Wall from those who pray on the Temple Mount, but the distance between them is light years, or would it be more correct to say “years of darkness.” During the same hours when we gathered to read the Hallel, inflamed youth, incited by clerics, gathered in the plaza above us, accumulated firearms and other weapons and tried to harm the police officers and Jews who ascended to the Temple Mount, regardless of my firm opinion, which represents the position of the Chief Rabbinate throughout the ages, that it is absolutely forbidden to enter the Temple Mount. During those hours when we prayed, “Establish peace, well-being and blessing, favor, loving-kindness and compassion upon us,” calls of incitement were heard on the Temple Mount praising those who murdered men, women, and children in cold blood.”
Rabbi Rabinowitz added that he knows full well that this harsh comparison does not do justice to tens of thousands of Muslim believers who wish to pray as usual out of respect for worshippers of other religions. But as long as they do not condemn and banish the violent and extremist minority, with its leaders and preachers, out of their communities, their violent behavior will continue to tarnish the entire Muslim religion.
Rabbi Rabinowitz noted that there has never been a time in Jerusalem’s history with such religious tolerance for all believers like this period of Israeli rule. There has been no other nation that respected the right of every believer to pray according to his faith like the Jewish people. The hundreds of thousands of Muslims who ascend the Temple Mount uninterrupted daily, and even more so throughout the blessed days of Ramadan, can testify to this.
The ambassador also raised the issue of the Jewish groups that wish to change the traditions customary at Western Wall. Rabbi Rabinowitz presented the ambassador with the complex picture and the proper conduct at this time and the ambassador accepted his opinion.
