A group of right-wing MKs led by Religious Zionist Party MK Itamar Ben-Gvir held a discussion in the Knesset Tuesday about replacing the deteriorating Mughrabi Bridge, which Jews and non-Muslims currently use to enter the Temple Mount.
“The situation is very far from what it should be,” Ben-Gvir said about the bridge and the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. “On the one hand, we should see the glass as half full. It’s so great that we can go to the Temple Mount! But on the other hand we need to improve. We’re not satisfied with what we have. It’s a good situation but it can be better.”
Right-wing Israeli Temple Mount activist Yehudah Etzion, who was arrested in 1984 for plotting to blow up the Dome of the Rock, suggested reviving a sealed underground passageway beneath under the women's section of the Western Wall called Barclay's Gate. It's 10 meters underneath the side room in the section. The entrance to the gate is currently a Muslim prayer room. However, entry is prohibited without the approval of the Wakf, the Muslim Jordanian religious trust that controls the Temple Mount.
The plan would first excavate the Western Wall prayer space, creating a permanent staircase leading up to the gate. Then, there would be two additional staircases behind the Western Wall leading to the main Temple Mount compound.
"It's not just an engineering issue," Religious Zionist MK Simcha Rotman said. "[How can] the entrance to the Temple Mount [be] a temporary structure? We returned to our land. We need to think about how people will go the Temple Mount once the Temple will be rebuilt."
It’s not the first time a plan has been proposed to replace the Mughrabi Bridge. Since the building of the temporary structure, there were two plans to build ramps from both the Dung Gate, the Old City gate closest to the Western Wall, and from the entrance to the current security checkpoint to ascend the bridge. Additionally, Israel began building a supplement to the bridge in 2014, but it was dismantled at the wishes of the Jordanian government.
“There’s no bigger embarrassment than the fact that we need approval from [a foreign country] to [replace] the Mughrabi Bridge,” said Bentzi Gopshtein, director of the far-right religious group Lehava.
The plan came in the context of increasing a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. Sunday, July 18 is the fast of Tisha Be’av, the day on which the First and Second Temples were destroyed. The three weeks beforehand, and particularly the nine days between the first day of the Jewish month of Av and Sunday, is a period of mourning and sadness over the destruction of the Temple.
Gopshtein said this should be an opportunity for Jewish action on the Temple Mount.
“With the graciousness of heaven, we returned to our land, and we’re sitting in the Knesset,” he said. “We can’t cry [anymore]. If you choose to cry when you’re able to [take action], you’re sinning.”
Throughout the discussion, speakers affirmed the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, their desire to build the third Temple, the need for more education about the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and increasing education about the halachic rules of going to the Temple Mount.
There were also calls to make Temple Mount more accessible for Jews. Currently, the Mughrabi Bridge entrance is open between 7 and 11 a.m. and is closed on Fridays and Saturdays. Jewish and Christian prayer on the Temple Mount is also forbidden.
According to Likud MK Miri Regev, the status quo is dangerous. She said on Monday that the bridge has the potential to collapse on the women's section.
“It is forbidden to wait another moment with the demolition of the bridge and the construction of an appropriate replacement,” she said. “The writing is on the wall, and the blood [of the victims] will be on the hands of all those who [did not act] and remained silent.”
The MKs also noted the importance of the issue in the wake of April's Meron disaster, which left 45 people dead.