Mourning in Jerusalem August 1st, 2017 – The 9th of Av.

Robin Rowan 8/1/2017

August 1^st, 2017 was Tisha b’Av, the 9^th of Av on the Jewish calendar. It is a sacred day of remembrance of the destructions of the Holy Temple, the most sacred site of Judaism. Each time it was followed by the expulsion of the Jewish people from their promised land.

The destructions of the Temple happened on the same day on the Jewish calendar hundreds of years apart.

Babylonians destroyed the first Temple in 587 B.C.

On the 9^th of Av in 70 A.D. or (69 C.E. on the Jewish calendar), Romans destroyed of the Second Holy Temple.

It is known as the saddest day of the entire year in the Jewish calendar.

The destructions of the Temple is well documented throughout history and proven without doubt by archeology. However in current times, the Jewish people have not only lost the Temple as a Holy place to pray, the very Jewish history of the sacred land is being erased.

Since the 1967 Six Day War, the Temple Mount has been jointly administered by the Jordanian government and the Wakf Muslim religious trust. Israel provides security and oversees order. There are restrictions on non-Muslims who want to enter the site and Jews are forbidden to pray there. Time and time again in history, the Jews have been expelled from their Temple and land.

This year it was a political onslaught, as well as a terrorist one.

In mid-July, 2017, riots erupted as fake news of a change in status that Jews might actually be allowed to pray in the area infiltrated the Arab populations resulting in horrific terror attacks.

Arabs who have claimed the Temple Mount as their own, and placed a mosque on top of the Holy Temple of God, hid weapons in the Mosque and murdered Israeli security guards.

Israel put up metal detectors in response to the murders of the security guards to prevent any weapons from being hidden in the mosque. Riots, terrorist threat and acts, as well as international political pressure made the Jewish leadership back down, removing the security devices and even cameras.

The most holy sites in Islam in Saudi Arabia have their own metal detectors, but the protests and political pressure on the Israeli government prevailed.

The Arabs have taken this as a tremendous victory, proof that they can intimidate the Jewish State into submission, strengthening Arabs claim over the Temple Mount area as well as the rest of Jerusalem.

Today it is a political expulsion of the Jews from their Temple and land. Even though there is a strong Jewish State with security control over the area, and the policy of the Israeli government is freedom of all faiths to visit the Holy Sites, Jews are not allowed to pray at the Temple Mount and their presence brings violence.

The government backs down repeated giving the Arabs what they want. This is to appease the other Arab nations, to convince them that will be no change in the status of the Temple Mount. Do they realize how this empowers the terrorists and rioters to do more?

The United Nations and leaders of nations throughout the world are attempting to erase Jewish history with many calling the site by its Muslim title only, ignoring all Jewish history, and rebuking Jewish claim to the sacred Temple site and much of Jerusalem.

On a good note, in record numbers, over 1,000 Jews ascended the Temple Mount on the 9^th of Av, for this special remembrance day. However, they were not allowed to pray and had to go through metal detectors. The Muslims who are allowed to pray there did not have to go through security checkpoints as the Jews did. How ironic. But at least the Jews were allowed on the Holy site this special day.

It is a day of mourning to see Israel bow to their aggressors and allow the forbidding of Jews to worship near the Temple as has been the case for far too long.

We grieve with you, our Jewish brothers and sisters. We pray God will reestablish Jerusalem in her wholeness. We grieve the Temple Mount with you, as Christians, as it is also part of our history.

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