Jewish activists want to practice ritual animal sacrifice at the Temple Mount, one of the holiest sites of Islam

By richardbrown // 2024-08-12

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In a bid to displace Palestinians from one of the holiest sites in Islam, Jewish activists in Jerusalem are demanding access to the Temple Mount to practice ritual animal sacrifice. According to Jewish tradition, the ritual purification required for the construction of the prophesied Third Temple in Jerusalem involves the use of the ashes of a perfect red heifer, which is a red female cow that has never been pregnant, been milked or made to work. Some radical Jewish groups say this third temple must be built on the Temple Mount, a raised plateau in Jerusalem’s Old City where the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine currently stand. Some believe that the construction of this temple could signal the arrival of the Jewish messiah and potentially the end of the world. The plan, according to the ritual, is for the red heifers to be slaughtered at the site, after which the ashes of the heifers would be used to purify Jewish people so they can perform religious rites and worship at the very site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Activists from the organization the Temple Institute have been working for years to be allowed to conduct this ritual. In 2022, they were able to import five red heifers from a ranch in Texas. These heifers are still alive and well and are currently housed in an archaeological park near Shilo, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank near the major Palestinian city of Nablus. The Temple Institute brought these heifers in hopes of using them for the ritual, after an extensive search for cows that were completely free of blemishes, with no stray white or black hairs.

Jewish extremist activists allowed to "practice" red heifer ritual near Al-Aqsa Mosque

While Israeli authorities refused to provide the Jewish activists access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself, they were able to get close by conducting a practice of the ritual right in front of the Temple Mount with a cardboard cutout of the red heifer. (Related: Former MIT professor and rabbi urges Jews to shed all “lingering” Christian morality and support ethnic cleansing of Gaza.) While Israeli authorities regularly violate the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the current status quo in Jerusalem prohibits Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount in occupied East Jerusalem. The site is traditionally believed to be the location of the two ancient Jewish temples. Jews are allowed to pray at the Western Wall, which is the last remaining part of the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. Since 1757, Ottoman regulations have restricted non-Muslims' access to the mosque. Additionally, the Chief Rabbinate of Jerusalem has maintained a ban since 1921, stating that Jews may not enter the Temple Mount unless they are “ritually clean,” a state considered unattainable without the ashes of a red heifer. Over the past century, extremist and religious Zionist groups, including the Temple Institute, have been advocating for the resumption of Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount, with some calling for the demolition of the mosque to make way for the new temple. Israel has been terrorizing Palestinians attempting to maintain access to the Temple Mount for decades. Watch this clip from 1990 discussing how Israeli civilians and security forces killed over a dozen Palestinians at the Temple Mount during the First Intifada. This video is from the channel Dies Irae on Brighteon.com.

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Jewish extremist activists allowed to "practice" red heifer ritual near Al-Aqsa Mosque

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