Tisha B'Av in the Machkama

As I did last year and three years ago, I participated in the "Rav Goren Minyan" for the Mincha service on the Tisha B'Av fast located in a building which abuts above the Temple Mount compound.

The pictures:

a) at the window overlooking the Temple Mount compound below:

(Photo Credit: R. Sadan)

b) inside the small synagogue:

(Photo Credit: R. Sadan)

c) reading from the Torah:

(Photo credit: Y. Medad)

d) the raising up of the Torah scroll:

(Photo Credit: Y. Medad)

e) the view from another section of the building looking down to the Western Wall Plaza:

(Photo credit: Y. Medad)

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And on the Temple Mount:

Under armed police escort, Danny Danon, a deputy parliament speaker, toured the site of an ancient Jewish temple, a plaza home to the al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, and said he thought Jews should be permitted freer access there.



A group of Muslim protesters shouted "Allahu Akhbar", or God is Greatest, as Danon, trailed by armed police and dozens of Israeli and Western tourists, strolled around the area known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

But despite the tense atmosphere there was no violence or confrontations during the lawmaker's hour-long visit.

Danon told reporters at the nearby Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, before climbing up to the Temple Mount, that his visit was to mark Tisha B'Av, a day of fasting marking the day the Roman-era Jewish temple was destroyed.

..."There is full religious freedom for Jews and Muslims on the Temple Mount," Danon said. "But it is more difficult for the Jew than the Muslim to go and pray on the Temple Mount. This is a distortion that must be corrected."

"If Jews want to go and pray on the Temple Mount then they should be allowed to do it," he added.

See, too, this

and this:-

Poll: 74% follow Tisha B'Av tradition

Ynet-Gesher poll reveals some 22% of Israelis will fast on commemoration of destruction of First and Second Temples; another 52% will honor day by not going out with friends