A large painting depicting a fantasy scene of Jews arriving in modern vehicles to a newly rebuilt shrine on the Temple Mounty, was the centerpiece on the stage during a recent gathering in Jerusalem or those wishing to reclaim the land for the Jews. Participants were religious Jews who hope to build the Temple in place of the Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosque.ASSOCIATED PRESS

A holy struggle

Movement to rebuild the Jewish Temple enters mainstream

Web posted October 17, 1998

By Laurie Copans
Associated Press

JERUSALEM -- At the foot of the Temple Mount, dozens of people waving Israeli flags and blowing rams' horns crowded around a man with a knitted skullcap shouting into a bullhorn.

The time has come to rebuild the Jewish Temple destroyed two millenniums ago, said Gershon Solomon of the Temple Mount Faithful, a group that advocates razing the Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques now on the site.

``We came to say to the whole world that the Arab occupation of the Temple Mount is finished forever,`` Mr. Solomon said before leading his followers up a ramp to the mosque compound's Moghrabi Gate during a rally on Oct. 7.

Underscoring his point, Mr. Solomon brought along a flatbed truck carrying a 41/2-ton marble ``cornerstone`` for a new temple.

Israeli police blocked Mr. Solomon at the Moghrabi Gate and prevented the truck parked about 200 yards away from unloading its cargo.

Only a decade ago, people like Mr. Solomon were dismissed as eccentrics on the fringe of Israeli society. Most observant Jews stayed away from the Temple Mount, heeding rabbis' rulings that they cannot tread on such holy soil unless they have undergone an extensive ritual of purification.

Going mainstream

However, in recent years those seeking to reclaim the Temple Mount for the Jews have increasingly moved into the mainstream, winning support from some rabbis and prominent politicians.

A Jerusalem convention of the movement in September drew some 1,000 people -- double last year's turnout -- who cheered speaker after speaker demanding the building of a new temple.

In the convention center, musicians in biblical costumes coaxed wailing sounds from replicas of silver trumpets played at ceremonies in the ancient Jewish Temple before it was torn down by Roman soldiers. A large oil painting depicted a fantasy scene of Jews filing out of 20th century buses into a new shrine.

The movement's growing legitimacy could encourage violence, warn experts who track extremist groups. Israeli police reportedly beefed up their watch over the Temple Mount recently amid warnings that Jewish militants were plotting attacks on Muslims worshipers.

Even the slightest confrontation can trigger violence over the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

When rumors spread one day in October 1990 among Muslims that Mr. Solomon and his followers planned to take over the mosque compound, Palestinian riots erupted. Israeli police stormed the site and killed 17 Palestinians.

In 1996, Israel's opening of an archaeological tunnel alongside the Temple Mount triggered Palestinian protests that escalated into gun battles that killed 80 people.

Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, said an attempt by Jewish militants to seize control of the Islamic shrines would lead to a bloodbath. ``They will start a fire in which they shall perish,`` Mr. Yassin said.

Planting the seed

The Temple Mount is in the walled Old City, which was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war.

Musicians play replicas of silver trumpets played in Temple ceremonies two millennia ago, at a convention for the movement to reclaim the Temple Mount for the Jews, Sept. 15, 1998, in Jerusalem. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Immediately after the war, then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan decided to give Muslim clerics from the Islamic Trust, or Waqf, autonomy in administering the mosques.

Jews were allowed to enter the compound, but could not pray.

At the time, Mr. Dayan did not want to provoke the Muslim world by taking control of the Temple Mount. He did not face opposition at home because of the rabbinical ban on Jews visiting the site.

Yet, the 1967 war planted the seeds for the movement to reclaim the Temple Mount for the Jews. Israel's capture of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, which is part of the biblical Land of Israel, was seen by some as a sign from God that the messianic age of redemption was drawing near, a time to rebuild the Jewish Temple.

At first, there were just a few firebrands, such as Mr. Solomon and Yehuda Etzion, who served four years in prison in the 1980s for plotting to blow up the mosques.

From time to time, usually on Jewish holidays, they would try to enter the compound. Police would bar them. Sometimes, they'd walk away. Sometimes, they'd get arrested.

But in recent years, the movement to reclaim the Temple Mount has gained a new respectability.

Uncertain future

In 1995, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the time the opposition leader, asserted the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. At the gathering of the temple movement in September, Deputy Education Minister Moshe Peled sent videotaped greetings.

``Without a doubt, there is an increase in numbers,`` said Hanan Porat, a legislator in Mr. Netanyahu's coalition and a patron of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank and Gaza.

Mr. Porat said he and Mr. Peled were helping to lend greater legitimacy to the movement. He said the immediate goal is to fight for permission for Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, until the day ``when, with the help of God, the Waqf won't be there.''

Mr. Porat said there was nothing wrong with dreaming about a new temple. He dismissed concerns that encouraging such ideas could tempt some to take violent action.

Ehud Sprinzak, an academic who studies right-wing groups in Israel, said that as long as Jerusalem's future remains uncertain, Jewish radicals will probably not feel compelled to take action.

However, this would change if Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat goes ahead with plans to declare a Palestinian state in May, with east Jerusalem as its capital, or if the Israeli government agrees in a future peace agreement to give up parts of the city, Dr. Sprinzak said.

Menachem Friedman, a sociologist at Bar Ilan University, said Mr. Porat and others are playing with fire. ``No one can be sure where it will end,`` he said.