The Rabbinical Congress of Peace which comprises over 300 prominent rabbis in Israel today issued a statement expressing shock and outrage at the news that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert approved Jordanian plans to build a minaret on the Temple Mount.

The mere fact of giving up sovereignty of the Temple Mount – the holiest site of the Jewish People- is an indication of how far the Israeli government has deteriorated and is prepared to forfeit Jewish rights and ownership of Israel granted in our holy Torah, the most authoritative book in the world,” said Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, son of the chief Sefardic authority on Jewish Law and Shas spiritual mentor Rabbi Ovadye Yosef .

Olmert's allowing the minaret to be built is a grave threat to the security of Israel. It will embolden the enemies of the Jewish state to believe their tactics of violence and terrorism are paying off, and that Israel is in retreat.We have already witnessed in the past the use of the Temple Mount as a pretence to launch violence and murder Jews.

The Rabbis have strongly protested PM Olmert’s move and compared it to the Talmudic adage: “the beginning of a downfall is flight.”

“PM Olmert has no moral or historic right to hand over even one inch of Israeli territory to foreigners and certainly not to our enemies,” said Rabbi Joseph Gerlitzky, Chairman of the RCP.

Rabbi Avrohom Shmuel Lewin, Executive Director of the RCP, who served as Secretary of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of USA and Canada (UOR) before he moved to Israel revealed that in the early 1980’s he consulted the President of the UOR at that time Rabbi Moshe Feinstien obm who was considered the chief Halachic Authority of his generation, concerning the Temple Mount.

He received a reply from Rabbi Feinstien that although he does not dictate or recommend policy to the Israeli government but as far as the issue of sovereignty over the Temple Mount is concerned it is absolutely forbidden for Israel to give up sovereignty over the Temple Mount of its own volition.