Hamas broadcasts from Temple Mount on Jewish holiday
Pastor Dale Morgan
Hamas broadcasts from Temple Mount on Jewish holiday*
Terror group announces daily streams as Israeli police ban Jews,
Christians from ascending site
Posted: December 19, 2007
News from Israel
JERUSALEM – The Hamas terror group today broadcast live from the Temple
Mount – Judaism's holiest site – and announced it would commence daily
programming from the site while Israeli police banned all Jews and
Christian from ascending the Mount.
Jewish Temple Mount groups had wanted to lead tours this morning, which
marked the start of Jewish fast day of the Tenth of Tevet, mourning the
First Temple's destruction and the siege placed on Jerusalem leading up
to Temple's destruction during the reign of the Babylonian ruler
Nebuchadnezzar.
"Our broadcast is a victory for the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is suffering
from Judaization efforts imposed by the Zionist government. Broadcasting
daily radio is a way to bring Al Aqsa to the Gaza Strip and challenge
the siege imposed on us by the Zionist entity," said Rami Kaoud, a
manager at Al Aqsa Radio, Hamas' official radio network.
Along with the Jewish fast day, today also marked the start of Muslim
holiday of Ein ul-Adhaa, which commemorates the Islamic belief of
Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah. According
to Jewish and Christian tradition, Abraham nearly sacrificed his son
Isaac, not Ishmael.
We broke the story Monday that Hamas was planning to exclusively
broadcast the Ein ul-Adhaa morning prayers and sermons from the Al Aqsa
Mosque.
Hamas' Al Aqsa radio network routinely broadcasts sermons and speeches
from Hamas leaders and Hamas-affiliated sheiks calling for the
destruction of Israel and murder of Jews. It has been airing commercials
the past few days promoting today's Temple Mount broadcast.
Asked if the police approved the Hamas broadcast, Jerusalem Police
spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby said, "As far as I know, the Israeli police
is not engaged with this issue."
Spokesmen for both the Jerusalem Police and Israel's National Police
said their respective departments were not aware of Hamas' planned
broadcast until the publication of the story Monday.
A senior National Police source said if indeed Hamas was planning
programming from the Temple Mount such a broadcast would be halted.
But today, Hamas' Al Aqsa Radio broadcast services from the Temple Mount
from 5 a.m. Jerusalem time until 8:20 a.m. During the program, a Hamas
official announced the group's station would exclusively broadcast
services from the Al Aqsa Mosque every day.
Hamas would not say how it coordinated today's broadcast, but
Palestinian security sources said the stream was fully coordinated with
the Waqf, the Islamic custodians of the Temple Mount.
All broadcasts from the Mount must be approved by the Waqf, which guard
the Muslim entrances to the Temple Mount along with the Israeli police.
Broadcasts in theory must also be approved by the Israeli police, but
cameramen and reporters routinely enter the site from Muslim gates to
broadcast without prior police approval as long as Waqf agents allow the
entry.
While Israel did not act to halt today's Hamas broadcasts, it barred all
non-Muslims from ascending the Mount for the rest of the week.
Jewish organizations and Temple Mount activist groups here were planning
visits to the Temple Mount in observance of today's Jewish day of
mourning. Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department
at Israel's Temple Institute, a Mount activist group which planned to
lead a tour of the site today, said Israeli police informed his group
earlier this week that they had decided the Mount would be closed today
to non-Muslims for fear of offending Muslims on the Islamic holiday.
Due to Israeli restrictions, the Temple Mount is open only to
non-Muslims Sundays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 12:30
p.m. to 1:30 p.m., and not on any Christian, Jewish or Muslim holidays
or other days considered "sensitive" by the Waqf, the Mount's Islamic
custodians.
Ben Ruby confirmed the Mount would be completely closed to non-Muslims
for the rest of the week due to the Islamic holiday.
Rabbi Richman called today's Hamas broadcast "astounding."
"The siege of Nebuchadnezzar is recurring again in our time, this time
through the Israeli government, which is banning Jews and Christians but
is allowing Hamas, who will defile God in our holiest place. There is no
greater demonstration of the total spiritual bankruptcy of the Israeli
government," he said.
Today's Hamas broadcast was not the first by a terror group.
In September we broke the story that the Islamic Jihad terror
organization exclusively broadcast daily Ramadan prayers from the Mount
on their official station, the Al Quds Network. The radio network
regularly features Iranian and anti-Semitic propaganda and death threats
against Jews.
According to Palestinian security sources, Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds radio
used technicians from the Voice of Palestine, the official radio network
of the Palestinian Authority, to facilitate the Temple Mount broadcasts,
even though the program is not aired on PA radio. The Voice of Palestine
has a permit to broadcast from the Mount.
The Palestinian sources said the Waqf as well as the PA were "well
aware" Islamic Jihad was broadcasting from the Mount.