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May 29, 2009
Ancient religious strife
Jews and Muslims think Temple Mount is holy.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Martin Himel's 13-part documentary series for VisionTV, Twist of Faith, comes to a close on Monday with an examination one of the more controversial religio-political issues in the world: sovereignty of Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
Himel has been reporting on developments in the Middle East since 1983, starting as bureau chief and correspondent for CTV News. His credits include FOX News and Global Television, as well as several documentaries. His film Confrontation at Concordia (2003) won the award for best international documentary at the New York International Film Festival and his Jenin: Massacring Truth (2004) won a documentary award at the Houston WorldFest Film Festival.
In the half-hour program on VisionTV, The Temple Mount Controversy, Himel interviews people from the Palestinian and Israeli sides about the future of the site, which is the most holy place to Jews and the third most holy for Muslims. He also speaks with a Jewish and a Muslim representative of the group Jerusalem Peacemakers, who are advocating reconciliation and respect between their conflicting peoples.
The question arises as to whether anything short of divine intervention can settle the controversial issue and, by the end of the documentary, the answer seems, sadly, to be no. The main problem appears to stem from the fundamentalist Islamic influences in the region. Himel speaks more than once to Mohammed Hussein, mufti of Jerusalem, who repeatedly says the Temple Mount is "ours" and Jews better not set foot near it, if they want peace, and that Jews' "new claim" to the area is not based on any evidence. Israeli archeologists conducting digs and Western Wall renovations tell (and show) Himel otherwise, but nonetheless the mufti and Palestinian presidential advisor Adnan Husseini dismiss the proof and Husseini accuses Israelis/Jews of destroying the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque – and the "culture of the city" – in their archeological and repair work.
In contrast, the Israelis interviewed, while saying that they need to control access to the Temple Mount out of safety concerns, don't ever mention banning people of other faiths from the area. In fact, they stress that multifaith access to the holy site is one of the main reasons why Israelis must retain control – along with, of course, the fact that the First and Second Temples once stood there and so will the Third and last, whenever it may be built.
The peace advocates offer the most optimistic vision for the Temple Mount, even though they freely admit that people think they're very naive. But, as Sheik Abdel Aziz Bukhari points out in the documentary, people said that about Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela: "Let's see who's naive," he says.
The Temple Mount Controversy will be on VisionTV Monday, June 1, at 7 p.m.
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