JERUSALEM, Jan.23:Tensions between Moslems and Jews at two sites, holy to both religions have sharply underscored how the tenuous co-existence that has prevailed in recent years at their common spiritual shrines can be broken at the slightest hint that the status quo is being altered,

In one case, an unfounded report of illegal construction starting on the Moslem-controlled Temple Mount in East Jerusalem brought an inspection visit by members of Israel’s parliament that ended in a scuffle with Arabs protesting the visit. That Jan. 8 incident has been followed by another parliamentary visit, an attempt to hold Jewish prayers on the site, an Arab demonstration that was dispersed by police using tear gas and truncheons and, most recently, an attempt by followers of extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane to plant an Israeli flag on the site, blocked by police who arrested two of the demonstrators,

In the other case, a request by Jewish settlers in the predominantly Arab West Bank city of he born to hold unprecedented Friday evening prayer sin the main hall of the Mosque of Abraham led to a confrontation last week with local Islamic leaders that ended with Israeli soldiers backing the settlers. Friday is the sabbath for Moslems, who normally pray five times a day in the mosque, and Friday evening to Saturday evening is also the sabbath for Jews.

Mount Moriah, site of the First and Second Temples of Judaism in the 10th and 6th centuries B.C., also has been sacred to Muslims for 1,300 years as Haram Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary. The mount, with its stunning Dome of the Rock Mosque, is regarded by Moslems as the third holiest shrine of Islam after Mecca and Medina -and is the place from which Moslems believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to Heaven.

After the 1967 war, in which Israel captured East Jerusalem, then-defense minister Moshe Dayan ordered the removal of an Israeli flag that soldiers had raised ‘over the mount, and ordered control of the area returned to an Islamic committee called the Waqf, or Moslem Trust.

Since then, successive Israeli governments have barred Jews from praying on the Temple Mount. The Wagf was allowed to retain the keys to all of the gates to the mount except for one adjacent to the Western Wall, an arrangement that symbolized Israel’s un-asserted sovereignty over the holy site,

In 1970, Israel’s High Court of Justice rejected a petition by a group of Jewish ultranationalists to pray on the Temple Mount, The attorney general arguing the case for the government asserted then that the mount is within sovereign territory annexed by Israel 1967, but he noted the Moslems’ ancient attachment to the site and the likelihood that Jewish prayers the would offend the sensibilities of Arabs.

Deep-seated religious passions over the mount were inflamed throughout the Moslem world on two occasions, once in 1968 when an arsonist set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and again on Easter Sunday 1982, when an apparently berserk Israeli soldier shot his way into the Dome of the Rock Mosque with an automatic rifle, killing two Arabs and wounding nine person.

When members of the parliament’s Interior Committee visited the site on Jan. 8 and again on Jan 14, ostensibly to investigate reports of illegal construction there, many Moslems in the Old City feared that a government-supported effort was under way to charge the status quo of Haram Sharif by establishing a precedent of Jewish prayer.

The committee members brought with them Knesset member Geula Cohen, who long has battled for Jewish control of the Temple Mount, and Gershon Solomon, head of a group called the Temple Mount Faithful, whose members frequently have been arrested while trying to pray at the site, The demonstrations and counter-demonstrations followed.

Faisal Husseini, a member of the Waaf, said, “We all know Gershon Soloman, We also remember Geula Cohen and her visit to Hebron, which marked the beginnings of Jewish settlement in the heart of the town. They (the Moslem worshippers) were afraid that this was not just a visit of Knesset members, but that they would stay there or take some further action. Just imagine that a group of Moslems goes to pray near the Wailing Wall. Can you imagine the reaction?”

Article extracted from this publication >> January 31, 1986