Yisrael Ariel

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Rabbi Yisrael Ariel was the chief rabbi of the evacuated Israeli settlement of Yamit in the Sinai desert during the years when the Sinai was controlled by Israel. His brother, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, served as the rosh yeshiva in the yeshiva in Yamit and is currently the chief rabbi of the city of Ramat Gan. Rabbi Ariel is the founder of the Temple Institute (Machon HaMikdash). As a young man, he served in the paratroop unit that liberated the Western Wall (kotel) in the Six-Day War. For the 1981 Knesset elections, Rabbi Ariel ran as number 2 on the Kach list with Rabbi Meir Kahane as the leader and number 1. Kach is a religious and nationalist Jewish group originally led by Rabbi Kahane who was assassinated by Egyptian terrorist El Sayyid Nosair and hopes to transfer Arabs from the land of Israel. Rabbi Kahane had a seat in the Knesset on the Kach list from 1984-1988 before it was banned.

As of 2006, aside from being the head of the Temple Institute, he is also involved in an attempt to revive the Sanhedrin.

Rabbi Ariel maintains that the Pesach sacrificial service on the Temple Mount should be resumed as soon as possible, and that there are no reasons not to do so and that the Temple should be built ASAP.

In December 2006, he was briefly arrested and interrogated by Israeli police after confronting General Elazar Stern, before being released.