November 26, 1997
Two senior PLO officials have publicly declared that the
Western Wall in Jerusalem is a Muslim site, not a Jewish site, and that
Jewish access to the Wall should be restricted. The Zionist Organization of
America (ZOA) is calling on Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to demand that
Yasir Arafat condemn these attempts to de-Judaize the Jewish people’s holiest
sites and mock Jewish history.
The Arafat-appointed Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, who
is the PLO’s senior religious authority for the city, said: “The Al-Buraq
Wall and its plaza are a Muslim religious property, and the
Israeli government’s decisions do not affect it…The Al-Buraq Wall is part of the
Al Aqsa Mosque. The Jews have no relation to it.” (Al Ayyam , November 22, 1997)
Arafat’s Minister of Religious Affairs, Hassan Tahboob, said: “The
Al-Buraq wall is Muslim property and it is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque of
course.” Tahboob said that in accordance with a Muslim religious court
decision in 1929, Jews “are allowed to pray towards the Wall,” but they
must remain “two meters away from the Wall” and not touch it.
(Interview with the Israeli news agency IMRA, November 23, 1997)
Last year, Yasir Arafat himself remarked: “That is not the Western Wall
at all, but a Moslem shrine.” (Ma’ariv, Oct. 11, 1996)
Other recent statements by PLO officials concerning Jewish holy sites
or Jewish history:
- “THE JEWS NEVER LIVED IN ANCIENT ISRAEL.”
A program broadcast on PLO Television in June 1997 featured Palestinian
Arab historian Jarid al-Kidwa, who claimed that “all the events surrounding
Kings Saul, David and Rehoboam occurred in Yemen, and no Hebrew remnants
were found in Israel, for a very simple reason–because
they were never here.” Al-Kidwa said: “Most of the Khazars are the Ashkenazic Jews who
arrived in Palestine. As Allah is my witness, in my blood flows more of
the Children of Israel and the ancient Hebrews than in the blood of Ariel
Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu.” According to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz (July 6,
1997), al- Kidwa also said: “The stories of the Torah and the Bible did
not take place in the Land of Israel–they occurred in the Arabian peninsula,
primarily in Yemen. The identity of our father Ibrahim who is
mentioned in the Koran is clear. From the Koran’s description of him it
arises that he lived in the southern Hejaz , near Mecca.” - “JERUSALEM WAS NEVER A JEWISH CITY.”
“Jerusalem is not a Jewish city, despite the biblical myth implanted in
some minds…There is no tangible evidence of Jewish existence from the
so-called ‘Temple Mount Era’…The location of the Temple Mount is in
question…it might be in Jericho or somewhere else.” (Walid M. Awad,
Director of Foreign Publications for the PLO’s Palestine Ministry of Information,
interviewed by the IMRA news agency, Dec.25, 1996.)
“ABRAHAM WAS NOT A JEW.”“Abraham was neither Jewish nor a Hebrew, but was simply an Iraqi.
The Jews have no right to claim part of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron,
Abraham’s resting place, as a synagogue. Rather, the whole building should
be a mosque.” (Yasir Arafat, quoted in the Jerusalem Report, Dec. 26, 1996)- “RACHEL IS NOT BURIED IN RACHEL’S TOMB.”
“The Palestinian Authority is now claiming that Rachel’s Tomb in
Bethlehem is the traditional tomb of the Cushite servant of Mohammed.”
(Ha’aretz, Oct.9, 1996) - “THERE WAS NEVER A JEWISH TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM.”
“The people of Israel realize perfectly well that they have no temples
or ruins near Al Aqsa Mosque. According to the Koran, the people of Israel
lived somewhere to the west of Bethlehem…they were living in Bethlehem
and not in Jerusalem.” (Sheikh Ismail Jamal, the PLO’s Director of the Islamic
Wakf in Jericho, quoted in the Chicago Jewish Sentinel, May 18, 1995)
