Kotel HaKatan…small step..big victory for Ateret Cohanim!

After years of ongoing endeavors, tens of tours with politicians and nonstop functions held at the Kotel HaKatan, Ateret Cohanim is starting to see rewards for its efforts.

MK Rafi Peretz who holds the portfolio of Jerusalem was recently on tour with Ateret Cohanim.

One of the upshots of the tour was his commitment to “care” for the Mini Kotel – Kotel HaKatan.

The Kotel (An outer holy retaining wall of the Temple Mount and not part of Temple itself) is 488 meters in length with most of its length being underground and hence the Kotel tunnel tours.

Some people may not be aware, but there is an open air section of the Kotel, closer and more adjacent to the place of the Temple itself – which is today in the old Jewish Quarter, the Moslem Quarter of today.

Mainly unknown and/or rejected and forgotten, Ateret Cohanim has taken on the Kotel HaKatan project for many years-trying to get government funding to oversee the holy site, to clean the site (for many years would Arabs would urinate and dump rubbish at the site) and to bring the Jewish public to the site.

We have seen success over the years with Channukah lighting, daily mincha prayers by a couple of nearby Yeshivot, and even a few private bar mitzvahs for our supporters at the spot.

We even managed to stop the Arabs from dumping rubbish at the site and pushed the police to place a surveillance camera at the Kotel HaKatan.

Now, following the tour with Rafi Peretz, the Government has decided to properly care and clean the area and have more input at the holy site.

Of course we must always remember that the essence and THE HOLY SITE is on the other side of the Kotel – on the Temple Mount itself, where both the Temples once stood, and where G-d willing, it will one day be rebuilt.

Sadly but realistically – given the fact that the Moslems “effectively run” the daily affairs on the Temple Mount –  together with the fact that there are various Jewish law considerations re: going to Har HaBayit – the Kotel still remains a “religious draw card” and a holy site for many.

As such we need to do everything possible to protect the Kotel in its entirety, and we need to make sure that it isn’t divided by splinter, radical, divisive left wing or anti-religious groups. 

The Kotel and the Temple Mount belong as a single unit (not to be divided) TO ALL OF AM YISRAEL !!!!

Toda raba MK Peretz !!!

Daniel Luria