Half of Jewish Israelis support worship on Temple Mount, survey says

Half of Jewish Israelis support allowing prayers on the Temple Mount in Jerusalam, according to a new survey.

Up to 50 per cent support it, despite others claiming it is against Jewish Law – and a judge ruling last week that it is not a right and should give way to other rights.

The Israeli Voice Index for April 2022, published by the Israel Democracy Institute, found that 50 per cent of Jewish Israelis support allowing Jews to pray on the Temple Mount – which is also holy to Muslims and Christians.

A big majority of those who supported prayer there, 38 per cent, back it because of the message it sends about Israel’s sovereignty over the holy site.

And about a quarter of those who favour it, or 12 per cent of the total, say that prayer should be allowed there because it is a religious commandment.

On the other hand, 17 per cent who oppose it say it is forbidden by Jewish law. Most Haredim oppose Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount because they believe it is prohibited by halakha – 86.5 per cent.

An overall total of 40 per cent oppose Jewish worship on the Temple Mount – the other 23 because it might spark anger from the Muslim world.

A breakdown by self-identification in terms of religious observance found that m. The largest shares among national religious, traditional religious, and traditional non-religious respondents say that they support prayer because it signifies Israel’s sovereignty over the Temple Mount – 51 per cent, 54.5 per cent, and 49 per cent, respectively.

The largest share of secular respondents oppose Jewish worship on the Temple Mounty because they fear it might invoke a severe negative reaction from the Muslim world – 39per cent.

The Israeli Voice Index for April 2022 was prepared by the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research of the Israel Democracy Institute. In the survey, which was conducted on the internet and by telephone from 24 to 26 April 2022. A total of 601 men and women were interviewed in Hebrew and 150 in Arabic, constituting a representative national sample of the entire adult population of Israel aged 18 and older.

Jerusalem district’s Judge Einat Avman Muller ruled on Thursday May 27 that the right to freedom of Jewish worship on the Temple Mount “is not absolute, and it should be superseded by other interests, among them the safeguarding of public order,”

The Temple Mount, one of Judaism’s most sacred sites and also venerated by Christians, also includes the Done of the Rock, part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where Muslims believe Muhammed ascended into heaven.

Orthodox Jewish tradition maintains it is here that the third and final Temple will be built when the Messiah comes – and will not walk there because of the risk of unintentionally entering the area where the Holy of Holies once stood.

According to the rabbinic sages whose debates produced the Talmud, it was from here the world expanded into its present form and where God gathered the dust used to create the first human, Adam.

The Israeli Voice Index is a monthly survey conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research. Online survey: https://en.idi.org.il/articles/38824

The maximum sampling error for the entire sample was ±3.65% at a confidence level of 95%. The fieldwork was done by the Midgam Institute. Data is on: https://dataisrael.idi.org.il