As a Christian-American member of the Temple Mount Faithful Movement, I had been privileged to participate in their legal demonstrations during my 10-month stay in Jerusalem awaiting dual citizenship. Israeli television often showed me with my Jewish friends carrying Israeli flags throughout the Old City.

I have also been published in The Jerusalem Post, The Traveller and other publications about the burning issue of the Temple Mount: the Temple Mount suffers under a militant Muslim occupation that illegally forbids Christians and jews from praying or reading the Bible there.

This deplorable situation exists despite the fact that both biblical Temples stood there, and it is the location where Jesus and His disciples taught and prayed. Israel has a holy places law against such violent religious discrimination, but they're afraid or unwilling to enforce it. Such shameful appeasement rewards the Muslim aggressors and punishes the innocent! A growing number of Christian and Jewish groups and organizations demand an end to this injustice.

In my book, Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall, I've called for the Israeli government to exercise its biblical responsibility to build the Temple. I wrote that book in the United States before my umjust deportation for highlighting the plight of the Temple Mount. It clearly explains that I'm not calling for any individual to remove the mosques, but rather expecting the GOVERNMENT to fulfill their historic obligations.

I mentioned this to the police during my six and a half hours of night-time interrogation by six different men for alleged involvement in a plot to "damage the mosques.". Later I was imprisoned in Jerusalem's rotting Russian Compound (built by the Turks) for several weeks until my heartbreaking deportation (for highlighting the plight of the Temple Mount). Further details are available within "From Toledo to Jerusalem."

As my attorney in Israel, Naftali Warzberger, has written: my future is linked with the Jews and Israel. That is why I'm confident justice will prevail.

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.

¶ 2:21 PM