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Friday October 16, 1998

Temple Mount Faithful clash with other religious groups

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- Fervently religious Jews scuffled with the Temple Mount Faithful group last week at the Western Wall, as the
Police prevented the group of about 50 from entering the Mugrabi Gate to the mount.

A dozen fervently religious Jews gathered around and taunted Salomon and his group, some of whose members carried replicas of instruments once used in the Temple.

"Fool, leave this place!" a rabbi from a Givat Shaul yeshiva shouted.

"A majority of the Orthodox people don't support this group," said a yeshiva student. "You can't walk on the holy place of the Temple Mount. Only after the Messiah comes can the Temple be built."

The Temple Mount Faithful believe that Jews can enter the site in order to rebuild the Temple because it was originally built by impure people, said organization director Ze'ev Bar-Tov.

"We cannot walk on the section where the Holy of Holies was located, but we know where that is," he said.

After they were turned away from the Temple Mount, the Faithful walked to the Silwan Pool, where the Simhat Beit Hashoeva (Feast of Water Drawing) took place during Temple times.

The psalms for that ceremony were read aloud. Some drew water from the pool to pour over the cornerstone.

The Temple Mount Faithful regularly try to ascend the Temple Mount on holidays to pray there and are routinely blocked by police. This is the eighth year they have brought the cornerstone. A flatbed truck carried the 4.5 ton stone.

"I am not tired of this," Salomon said. "We will not stop the struggle until the flag of Israel waves over the Temple Mount," Salomon said.

Several Christian women here for 19th annual Feast of Tabernacles convention accompanied the group. Jean Mabry of Tennessee, however, said she's not sure she actually supports the Temple Mount Faithful's cause.

"I don't know if God has told them to rebuild the Temple, or if they are ahead of their time," she said. "Maybe they are a forerunner of things to come."

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