The controversy surrounding Jewish pilgrimage to the Temple Mount, and the absolute prohibition of the elders of Israel on ascending the Mount, led Aryeh Erlich to publish an extraordinary call in Arabic in his column in the magazine "Mishpacha" - directly to the terrorists.
The appeal, loosely translated into Hebrew, states: "We, the Haredi public, have no interest in ascending the Temple Mount at this time. We strongly oppose it.".
The call also states that Jewish law treats aliyah severely and the penalty for doing so is "cutting off," and therefore there are no Haredi Jews who ascend the mountain except for "one, isolated family, which acts on its own accord, and is condemned for its actions.".
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""So if you have solid information about an Israeli desire to change the status quo at the Dome of the Rock - which is not true to the best of our knowledge - the Haredi public has nothing to do with it. So please, stop murdering us.".
A disgusting column
The reactions on social media to the appeal, which Ehrlich also described as "a little bizarre," were not long in coming, and ranged from amusement to anger toward the message indirectly expressed in the ad.
""The Haredim say: We have no connection with the occupation army, you will kill them and not us," wrote one user on Twitter. And another user suggested: "They are killing the soldiers and the Haredim because they are sure they are Jews. Instead of publishing an ad, just change your clothes." Journalist Aryeh Yoeli called Erlich's column "disgusting.".
In an interview he gave this morning to the Dagelsgal program on Galei Tzahal, Aryeh Erlich said that the appeal comes from anyone with a religious appearance: "The Islamic movement's attempt is to present the religious public as someone who is plotting to build the Temple on the Temple Mount tomorrow, and therefore there is a clear line of harm to anyone with a religious appearance. It is also possible that the fact that most of those who ascend the Mount wear kippahs also has an impact. They have no interest in secular people anyway, and the column is meant to say that we are not connected to that either.".
Erlich added: "The word 'us' is directed at every Jew, but especially at every kippah wearer because we have become the front line. We come and say that we are not affiliated - no kippah wearer, neither religious nor ultra-Orthodox, wants to take over the Temple Mount.".
On Twitter, Erlich added that in his column, he "tried, naively, it must be admitted, to tear the mask off the Palestinian aggression, which goes back decades, and to neutralize the false Islamic incitement.".
""Anyone who tries to take things to a different, populist place probably didn't read the column, at most saw the gimmick that appears at the beginning online, and chose the superficial option.".
