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The Southern Israelite The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry • Since 1925 > s —i .> x — m 2: c r~ Voi. I,XII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, January 17, 1986 Nc ex MKs’ return visit sparks melee on Temple Mount by Gil Sedan JERUSALEM (JTA)—A return visit to the Temple Mount by right- wing Knesset members Tuesday touched off a stone-throwing melee which ended with the arrest of 17 suspects after police used tear gas to disperse an angry Arab crowd. The visit also triggered acrimonious exchanges in the Knesset where rightists and leftwing M Ks accused each other of the incitement. The Temple Mount in East Jerusalem is the site of the A1 Aksa mosque and the Dome of the Rock (Mosque of Omar), two of the holiest shrines of the Moslem faith. A visit there last week by members of the Knesset Interior Committee headed by its- chairman, Dov Shilansky of Likud, provoked a confrontation with the Moslem religious authorities in charge of the site where Moslems alone are permitted to worship. The MKs, threatened by a crowd, were safely evacuated by police but Shilansky vowed to return to com plete what he said was his committee’s legitimate business- to investigate allegations that the Moslem religious authorities were allowing illegal construction at the site. The return visit passed almost without incident until a Moslem leader barred the M Ks from entering a building known as Solomon’s Stables, the scene of last week’s altercation. He warned them “blood would be spilled” if they tried to enter. The Knesset members caucused on the spot and decided, prudently, to leave. The Moslem official was incensed because one of the visitors, Tehiya MK Eliezer Waldman, demonstratively chanted prayers on the site reserved only for Moslem prayer. Meanwhile, Arab youngsters out side the area threw rocks at police and chanted Palestinian nationalist slogans. The police fired tear gas and temporarily sealed off the entrances to the Temple Mount. The Ministerial Committee on Jerusalem convened later Tuesday to discuss the situation. Prime M inister Shimon Peres stressed that Israel’s sovereignty over all parts of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, was an undisputable fact. At the same time he insisted that the regulations imposed by all Israeli governments, past, and present, must be observed. Those regulations, aimed at preserving order, allow the Moslem religious authority, the Waqf, autonomy over the Islamic shrines. Jews arfc permitted to pray only at the Western Wall, a situation that rankles ultra-nationalist Israelis. Peres decried the incitement of the Arab public which, he said, “was intended to destroy the atmos phere of coexistence between the communities.” Tehiya MK Geula Cohen charged in the Knesset that the latest incidents made clear that “on the Temple Mount there is a Palestinian state.” Cohen, though not a member of the Interior Committee, had been invited by Shilansky to accompany it to the Temple Mount last week and See Temple, page 16. The Mosque of El Aksa on the Temple Mount. —Operation Moses— One year later by Wendy Elliman I'JA Press Service The difficult and dangerous march through the desert. . .disease and death in the refugee camps. . .the tense clandestine airlift and the dramatic homecoming—they are alia year ago now. Fifteen thousand Ethiopian Jews have reached Israel; thousands of others remain in Ethiopia. One year later, how are Israel’s Ethiopian Jews faring? The first year has been a success, according to both the Absorption Ministry and the Jewish Agency. The Agency receives most of its funds from the United Jewish Ap^eal/Federation Campaigns including Operation Moses. It received $60 million from American Jews to aid in Ethiopian Jewry’s initial absorption through Operation Moses—funds put to good use. “These 12 months were designed to equip Ethiopian Jews for life in Israel," says a representative of the Jewish Agency. “The majority of Ethiopian Jews are now comfortable in Hebrew, the children are in school, and the adults working or retraining. And the community is learning to use communal, com mercial and municipal services.” As the initial year ends, however, the real absorption of Ethiopia’s Jews begins. “Until now, they’ve been sheltered in the absorption center,” says a Jewish Agency field worker. “Gas, water, electricity, food and even pocket money have been regularly provided. Advice and support have been on hand. Now, they’re going to be on their own." Some 750 families (3,000 people) have already left the absorption centers and have been allocated permanent housing in towns through out Israel. The housing plan places groups of 20 families in 40 to 50 neighborhoods. Availability of housing, however, is inevitably the determining factor. A major concern, as Ethiopian Jews move out of the absorption centers, is to ensure that they enter into the mainstream of local life. Israel’s 160 community centers, developed largely by the Joint Distribution Committee (funded by UJA/Federation Campaigns), are to be the main vehicles. Veteran Israeli and newcomer Ethiopian families are being paired. “This pairing is to bring Ethiopian Jews into the neighborhood social framework, and to help them use local facilities. We want to prevent a build-up of frustration within the Ethiopian community, or tension between Ethiopians and others in the neighborhood," says a community center worker. Over half the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel (54 percent) is See Moses, page 16. Groups denounce Kahane Statement from Jewish organizations The following statement was issued by Atlanta's organized Jewish community in conjunction with the visit of Rabbi Meir Kahane to Atlanta this week. Atlanta Jewish Federation president Gerald H. Cohen said, “It is important that the major organizations in the Jewish com munity publicly disavow the policies and message of Rabbi Kahane as an affront to Jewish teachings and to human rights. ” Statement from National Conference of Christians, Jews The following statement was issued this week by the Georgia Region, National Conference of Christians and Jews: The presence of Meir Kahane in Atlanta is of concern to the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Mr. Kahane has resorted to the language of racism and religious bigotry in his anti- Arab statements. This is tragic and counter productive. Neither dignity nor liberty is well served by the tactics and rhetoric of prejudice. The Georgia Region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews promotes serious reli gious trialogue among Jews, Christians, Muslims and others. Such conversations respect the integrity of each faith. The Georgia Region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews appeals to the steady voices in our area not to allow intemperate remarks by Mr. Kahane to produce divisiveness or distrust. The presence of Meir Kahane in the United States presents the organized Jewish community of Metropolitan Atlanta with the opportunity to condemn and repudiate, emphatically and publicly, the anti-Arab racist statements of Meir Kahane and his Kach political party. In issuing this release, we join not only with Jewish communities across the U nited States, but also with the overwhelming majority of Israelis who find Kahane’s views to be a mockery of Jewish law and tradition and a scourge of common decency and human rights. Kahane and Kahanism have been rejected by Israel’s governmental leaders and the Knesset (Israel’s parliament). Israel’s president, Chaim Herzog, pointedly refused to meet with Kahane, whose ideology he considered repugnant to the democratic principles upon which Israel is based. The Knesset has limited the parliamentary immunity of Kahane and has legally barred him from entering Arab villages. This past summer, the Knesset passed a bill banning from parliamentary elections any party that incites people to racism or negates Israel’s democratic character. Kahane is not representative of Israelis. He is not representative of American Jewry. His words and actions are alien to Judaism; they are anathema to traditional Torah teachings. We reject this affront to our people, to our tradition and beliefs, and to our abiding commitment to brotherhood and peace. Atlanta Jewish Federation B’nai B'rith Women American Jewish Committee Hadassah National Council of Jewish Women Jewish War Veterans Ann-Defamation League of B’nai B'rith Women's American ORT B’nai B'rith Grassroots Action Setwork American Jewish Congress BOH I’tCvj Anri u ->Gi C;iH I JTI ME C OA h ct'< BP A Pli a PMJJtCr