JERUSALEM — Israel’s war on Gaza has escalated religious tensions — in many directions. One particularly troubling way is the momentum since October 7 from a group of extremist Jews and their evangelical Christian allies, who were determined to rebuild an ancient temple in the holy city of Jerusalem.
Defenders of the so-called Third Temple were preparing for the day when the temple could be rebuilt, which will be completed with the arrival of red Angus cows shipped from Texas, for use in sacrificial purification rituals, according to the Jewish belief.
“Our holy warriors fighting in Gaza are actually fighting to build the Temple,” a rabbi said recently during a controversial visit to the site that ultra-Orthodox Jews believe contains two former synagogues in Jerusalem.
Marina Sokol, an Israeli mother whose son was killed while fighting with the Israeli military in Gaza, spoke at a rally in front of the Al-Aqsa mosque, one of the main Muslim holy sites that is contested by Jewish extremists. “The war we are waging is a war that has no end,” Sokol declared. “It is a war for the Temple Mount.”
As Jewish celebrated Passover, the extremist “Temple groups” tried to escalate their attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque by carrying out massive incursions and trying to bring “Passover offerings” into its courtyards. A group, named “Return to the Temple Mount,” allocated financial rewards up to 50,000 shekels ($13,000) for anyone who succeeds in smuggling the sacrifices and slaughtering them inside Al-Aqsa.
Reports on Sunday said more than 1,000 Israelis forced their way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex. “More than 500 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa from the Mugharbah Gate and carried out provocative rounds and performed Talmudic rituals in its courtyards,” the Islamic Endowments Authority in Jerusalem said in a statement.
These groups were aiming to fulfill all Jewish rituals inside Al-Aqsa Mosque. They want to ensure the moral construction of the “Temple” by establishing all its worship and rituals, before they proceed to build it physically, according to their vision.
These developments come amid growing talk about the approaching date of slaughtering the “Red Cow,” or “Red Heifer” an obscure and controversial rite linked with the Temple Mount where Al Aqsa is located.
The story of the Red Cow
Abdullah Marouf, professor of Jerusalem Studies, said talk about the Red Cow dates back to early interpretations of the Torah. It stipulates the necessity of freedom from the impurity of the dead, as the Jews believe that when the soul leaves the dead person, it becomes impure, and therefore touching or approaching a dead person afflicts a person with what is called “the impurity of the dead,” he said.
Impurity prevents them from entering sacred places
“This impurity prevents them from entering sacred places, especially the Temple Mount,” he told Daraj in an interview.
He said that there have historically been religious decrees from rabbis prohibiting entry to the Al-Aqsa area until purification. He said that the ultra pious Haredim Jews have abstained from entering Al-Aqsa in compliance with the rabbinical edict.
Therefore the Red Cow is considered the signal for them to enter Al-Aqsa, he said.
Tzachi Mamo, a settler rabbi living on the occupied West Bank, says he has created five red cows using genetic engineering, with the help of an American friend in Texas. Mamo claims these five cows meet the specifications, and they were brought to Israel a year and a half ago.
Haredi religious authorities said that genetically-modified cows are considered manipulation, and that the Red Cow should not appear through human intervention. The five cows are now in the Shilo settlement, north of Ramallah, with religious rituals being prepared for performing this operation. The operation should have been conducted earlier in April, but the extremists were not able to perform their rituals for fear from Israeli security agencies.
Why did the Red Cow gain momentum this year?
Although the talk about slaughtering the Red Cow is not new, the uproar that accompanied it this year is different. Professor Marouf explained that the heightened awareness is less about the cows, and more about the extremist groups themselves in the current context.
Marouf noted that many unprecedented factors that gave the issue of the Red Cow a momentum this year. They included raising the issue at an official ceremony in the United States at the Bible Museum in Washington D.C. earlier this year, with House Speaker Mike Johnson in attendance.
Marouf also noted media reports that a piece of land close to the Western Wall, or the Kotel, on the Mount of Olives, is supposed to be the most appropriate area to perform these sacrificial rituals. And that strip of land has been given to a settlement organization headed by Rabbi Mamo, who is also held responsible for trying to confiscate homes of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem. Add to that a first-ever call for holy men to be trained for the ceremony.
Some fear that slaughtering the Red Cows will occur secretly or suddenly
All the activities have raised fears that slaughtering the Red Cows will occur secretly or suddenly, leading to massive incursions into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.
Marouf noted that Israel’s ruling government has two political levels:
The first represented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the “Religious Zionism” movement supporting him, which includes the extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir.
The second is a strategic movement represented by the Shin Bet intelligence, security services, and secular ministers. They consider that this religious madness could set the whole Middle East region aflame.
After the slaughter
According to Marouf, if the cow is slaughtered in the “purification” rituals that many, including Smotrich, are waiting for, the door will be opened to storm Al-Aqsa.
It is a multi-stage operation that includes immediate actions and long-term ones. That will be measured in the near future, during the Jewish holiday season which includes storming the Al-Aqsa mosque by massive numbers of settlers especially during the religious holidays.
When this gradual process is achieved, it will result in a numerical victory through which the settlers’ demands to divide the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque will be implemented.
Settler attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque will increase, specifically the Dome of the Rock, with the aim of starting the construction of the Third Temple. Therefore the slaughter of the Red Cow is a step forward in achieving this prophecy.
It is noteworthy that the extremist groups have already cut the stones that will be used to build the temple. Videos have spread of men engraving the names of settlers killed in Gaza on the stones, which they believe will be used to build the temple, and that the entire area of Al-Aqsa must be purely Jewish.
A new “status quo” for Jerusalem?
Dalal Erekat, professor of Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at the Arab-American University, said the “status quo” in Jerusalem means the international legal system that governs Jerusalem before the recognition of the “State of Israel” and before the Nakba, or the Palestinian catastrophe in 1948.
The “status quo” includes a diplomatic representation for a group of countries around the world that were present in Jerusalem before the Nakba, she said.
She said the holy sites in Jerusalem are under Jordanian guardianship. “When we talk about the holy sites we mean Christian and Islamic,” she said. “And these sites must be protected at the state level based on international resolutions.”
She said the Palestinians have the right to an independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem its capital, according to international legitimacy.
Erekat said that the “slaughtering of sacrifices” is considered a clear legal violation according to international law.
What has become more clear is that Israel has exploited the Gaza war to isolate Jerusalem, implementing a plan to separate the city from its surroundings, and pursuing policies that lead to the voluntary displacement of the residents of the holy city.
