JERUSALEM — Denis Michael Rohan, an Australian, set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Aug. 21, 1969, destroying the intricately designed 12th-century Minbar of Saladin and damaging the Qibli prayer hall's roof. The arson triggered a major crisis across the Muslim world, marking the most significant regional upheaval since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
Israeli authorities arrested Rohan on Aug. 23, 1969. A court found him insane during trial and committed him to a mental institution.
Rohan was born July 1, 1941. He had a history of mental health issues, including auditory hallucinations first documented in Australia in 1964 when he heard voices commanding him not to transport equipment for his employer. He was committed to Bloomfield Mental Hospital for four months.
After his release, Rohan moved to England and worked at a hospital in Middlesex. He traveled to Israel in March 1969 on a tourist visa and volunteered for several months at Mishmar Hasharon kibbutz in the Sharon Valley between Haifa and Tel Aviv.
At the kibbutz, residents reported erratic behavior, including wild shouts at night. Rohan told an American theology student he believed he might be Jewish and discussed the coming of the Messiah and construction of a new temple.
After reading Zechariah 6:12—"Behold the man whose name is the branch, for he shall grow up in his place and he shall build the Temple of the Lord"—Rohan became convinced he was "the branch" destined to build the Temple.
On May 14, 1974, Rohan was deported to Australia on humanitarian grounds for psychiatric treatment. He was transferred to Callan Park Hospital on the outskirts of Sydney.
Reports of Rohan's death varied for years, with some sources citing Oct. 6, 1995. However, a 2009 investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation found he was still alive. He died on March 20, 2013.
