On June 17, 1967, today 55 years ago, then Israeli Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan solely made one of the most important and fateful decisions in the history of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Just days after the end of the Six Day War, Dayan agreed to establish the new “Status Quo” regarding the Temple Mount. Fearing open discussion about his decision, Dayan’s agreement was not positively ratified by Israel’s government of the day or by any government since.
The Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site. It is the biblical Mount Moriah where Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac. It is the site at which King Solomon built the first Jewish Temple, destroyed in 586 BCE. It is the site at which the Jews, 70 years later, built the second Temple. As a pamphlet for tourists published in 1924 by the Supreme Muslim Council openly declares: “This site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.”