By Joseph Farah, August 6, 2003
Islamic officials in Jerusalem now contend the Temple Mount has no connection
to the First and Second Temples referenced in the Bible.
For instance, Palestinian Authority Mufti Ikrima Sabri told a German
publication just last week, “There is not the smallest indication of the
existence of a Jewish temple on this place in the past. In the whole city, there
is not even a single stone indicating Jewish history.” Similar statements have
been made by Yasser Arafat.
He made the assertion again recently in the London Arabic paper Al Hayat:
Archaeologists, he said, “have not found a single stone proving that the Temple
of Solomon was there because historically the Temple was not in Palestine.”
It seems very important to the Palestinian Arab authorities to deny the Jews
any history in the region. It’s all myth, they say. It’s all conjecture, they imply.
It’s all part of a big conspiracy, they suggest.
But, not only is there overwhelming – even indisputable – archaeological proof of
the temple’s presence in Jerusalem, Muslim authorities in Jerusalem once
acknowledged it themselves.
In 1930, the supreme Muslim body in Jerusalem during the British
mandate period, stated categorically in a booklet about the site that the Temple
Mount’s identification with the First Temple is “beyond dispute.”
The nine-page English-language tourist guide, titled “A Brief Guide to al-Haram
al-Sharif, a copy of which was recently obtained by the Jerusalem Post, states:
“The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest
times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This,
too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which David built there an
altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.”
Not only are Arafat’s minions in Jerusalem today attempting to rewrite the
history of Arabs and Jews in the region as told by others, they are attempting
to rewrite the history of Arabs and Jews in the region as told by Arabs.
The denial of a central historical place in Israel and in Jerusalem by Jews is
perhaps the most astonishing and alarming aspect of those in power within the
Palestinian Authority. Their effort to kill Jews is well documented. Their effort
to destroy peace is well known. Their effort to create a history of “Palestinian”
Arabs where little exists is evident and perhaps even understandable. But their
effort to erase thousands of years of Jewish history in Jerusalem should reveal
to any impartial observer just what the intentions of the PA truly are: genocide.
By denying the undeniable, Palestinian Muslim fanatics are trying to write in
advance a pardon for their future crime – the destruction of the Jewish state
and the elimination of the Jewish population in Israel. If the Jews have no
historical and spiritual ties to the region, the PA suggests, then they have no
business at all in the region now.
Couple this logic – or illogic – with PA policy within its own territory. Arafat and
Mahmoud Abbas say they want all Jewish communities eliminated within their
nation-state. If such a policy were suggested anywhere else in the world, we
would characterize it as “ethnic cleansing” – as a prelude to genocide, as a
“hate crime.”
But in the Palestinian Authority, the Western world seems to accept that
no Jews should be permitted to live within the PA territory.
Meanwhile, of course, Israelis not only permit Arabs by the millions to live
within their Jewish state, they grant them full citizenship, voting rights and
allow them to be well-represented in the parliament.
Why do the Palestinian Arabs take such stances? How do they get away with
such positions? Because the U.S., Europe and the so-called civilized world
permit them to do so.
With the killing of innocent Jewish civilians in Israel by terrorists on the rise
again, it’s time to stop the problem at its root. It’s time to cut off all funding to
the Palestinian Authority. It’s time to recognize the PA leadership as the fathers
of modern Islamic terrorism. It’s time to unleash Israel to defend itself the way
the U.S. and the Western world have been defending themselves against the
global scourge of Islamic terror.
