Elder of Ziyon: Mondoweiss' Editor at Large claims no evidence of Jewish Temples on Temple Mount

Annie Robbins is the "Editor at Large for Mondoweiss, a mother, a human rights activist and a ceramic artist." 

In one of her typically hateful pieces about how Jews are somehow taking Islamic heritage away from the second holiest Jewish site, a commenter notes:

The Tomb of the Patriarchs was the most important site for Jews prior to the building of the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem, on top of which now stand the Dome of the Rock and Aksa Mosque.

Annie replies:

allegedly. there’s no proof that was the location of some grand temple. maybe lots of jewish stuff retroactively lands itself right underneath islamic structures. did you ever think of that? jealous much?

Its one thing when idiotic Arabs say that there is no evidence of any Jewish presence in the area and every bit of archaeology found there is fake, but now those same easily provable lies are being pushed by Mondoweiss!

Not only that, but she has the stupidity to float the idea that Jews are so jealous of Islamic monuments that they make up a fake Jewish history after the fact! And she's an editor at a site that actually gains some respect from the Left???

Let's just throw out Josephus, the Talmud, the very stones which have been dated before Islam, tons of archaeological findings in the area, everything it says in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Scriptures, and so forth, and pretend that a 7th century Islamic structure pre-dates all of those!

If Robbins was an editor of any normal American newspaper, she'd be fired in an instant for proving herself to have no grasp of reality, and - more importantly - for proving that her hate for Israel is more important than well-established facts. Seriously, Temple denial - at least Second Temple denial - is not much different than Holocaust denial in its goal and its a-historical nature. It is pure antisemitism.

But this is Mondoweiss, so no one will say anything. Robbins will continue to "report" her lies and they will be believed by the thousands of unthinking drones who read it.

(h/t Dan)

Muslims in denial about the existence of the Jewish temple

On the 25th day of the lunar month of Kislev (Dec. 8), Jews around the world will celebrate the eight-day holiday of Hanukah. Hanukah commemorates the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple in the second century BCE by Jewish freedom fighters (the Maccabees) who resisted the Macedonian regime in Damascus. The regime had violently attempted to enforce its polytheistic Hellenistic religion on the inhabitants of Judea — a people who held the then extraordinary belief in the one invisible God of all humankind and whose temple was in Jerusalem.

The story is told in great detail in the Book of Maccabees I and II, which, originally written in Hebrew, now survives in Greek and Latin versions in the Christian Bible. The Jews have kept the story alive through the Hanukah festival itself and the retention of the scroll of Hanukah (the Megillat Antiochus).

The story of Hanukah is the archetypal story of the fight for religious freedom. It has been adopted and celebrated by American presidents at the White House for more than a decade, as an American tribute to the biblical roots of the country’s national dedication to freedom. For 2,000 years religious Jews, Christians and Muslims, and later secular scholars, have all believed that the temple ruins lie beneath the two Muslim mosques that were later built upon the Temple Mount by conquering Arabs after the death of Muhammad — and that the surviving pre-Islamic “Wailing Wall” is the outer wall of the Temple courtyard that existed in Roman times during the ministry of Jesus.

However, 13 years ago, the late Yasser Arafat (and since then his political heirs have taken up the cause) abruptly decided that there is no evidence that there ever was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and, therefore, that Jews — and ipso facto Israelis — have no right to claim Jerusalem as their religious, historical and political capital. A wave of Temple denial is now sweeping the Arab and Islamic world and many fellow intellectual travellers in the journalistic and archaeological world are joining the bandwagon.

The historical, archaeological and literary evidence for the existence of the sacred Jewish temple underneath and beside the two Mosques that now bestride the Temple Mount is overwhelming. It includes thousands of scholarly articles and books supported by scores of archaeological digs and studies of historical documents. The best introduction to the topic is Cambridge Professor Simon Goldhill’s most readable book, The Temple of Jerusalem.

For over a decade the Muslim authorities (the Waqf) who now control the Temple Mount have been despoiling its archaeology through illegal excavations and site destruction. Nevertheless, the physical evidence that they have discarded, and which Israeli archaeologists pore over like forensic scientists at a crime scene, shows signs of the temple’s existence, the most recent being coins minted by the Hasmonean rulers of Judea who were the royal and priestly heirs of the Maccabees, as well as coins minted during the first Jewish revolt against the Romans in 70 AD. It was these pagan conquerors who burnt the temple and brought its sacred treasure back to Rome, and whose golden menorah was beautifully reproduced on the Arch of Titus. A three-dimensional copy of this menorah now stands in front of the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, walking distance from where the original once stood, 2,000 years earlier.

As the Bible is rarely taught in our schools and universities, and as it has, at the same time, become popular to argue that only the winners write history (that it is to say there are no historical facts), let us see how some of the biggest winners in Middle Eastern history have written about the Temple in Jerusalem. I mean the religious and secular scholars of the conquering Muslims who made the land of Israel part of their Islamic empire until the Turks lost it to the British during the First World War.

Abu Abdallah ibn al-Hasan, also known as Hamzah al-Isfahani (from the city of Isfahan in what is now Iran) was a Persian Muslim scholar who was born in 893 AD and died around 971 AD. He wrote extensively about the pre-Islamic history of pagan Persia. Although he wrote in Arabic, historians believe that he had access to Iranian court chronicles and epics whose originals no longer exist. He was also fascinated by the history of the Jewish people. In his book called, The Chronicle of the Israelites, Al Isfahani wrote:

“… between the construction of the Temple by Solomon and the reign of Alexander, 717 years intervened; then between the destruction of the Temple by the Persians and the death of Alexander, 269 years passed. The appearance of the Messiah (peace be upon him) occurred in the 65th year since the reign of Alexander in the 51st year from the beginning of the Arsacids. The birth of the Messiah (peace be upon him) had occurred during the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus, king of the Romans. Then followed the destruction of the Temple at the hands of Titus, son of Vespasian, King of the Romans… after the warriors had been killed and their children had been taken captive to the city of Rome, and the Temple was demolished until not a single stone remained on top of the other … From the destruction of the Temple by Titus until the end of the reign of Constantine 272 years passed.”

Al Isfahani wrote during the height of what scholars of Islamic history call “classical Islam,” when Islamic intellectuals and scientists were most open to the intellectual and scientific heritage of the Greeks that they had adopted. In the above passage we see a scholar who is knowledgeable about the following things: historic periods; who conquered whom; what the chronology was; the trials and tribulations of the temple; the birth of Jesus; and the Roman conquest, which not surprisingly corresponds closely to Josephus’s description in his Jewish War (written shortly after the Roman destruction of the temple) and other historical sources. The existence of the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem is never in doubt.

Abul Al Fida, Imad Ad Din, Ismail bin Umar bin Kathir Ibn Daw Ibn Kathir (now referred to by historians as Ibn Kathir) was born outside of Damascus in 1301. He died in 1373. He was, and perhaps remains to this day, one of Sunni Islam’s most revered religious scholars of the Koran, the sayings of Muhammad (the Hadith) and interpreters of Koranic law (the Shariah). Among present day Salafists he is praised as the teacher of Ibn Taymiyya, the spiritual godfather of today’s supporters of radical Islam such as the Wahhabi Saudis and Taliban. You cannot get more orthodox.

In one of his manuscripts Ibn Kathir retells the story of Solomon and Sheba as an allegorical story of why one should worship the one God. He wrote, “After his father’s death, Solomon became king … in Jerusalem, on a huge rock, Solomon built a beautiful temple to draw the people to worship Allah. Today this building is known as the Dome of the Rock.”

Clearly In Kathir accepts the existence and place of the Jewish Temple in the heart of Jerusalem from the time of Solomon onwards. And in one of the classic books of Islam, the Qisas al Anbiya written in the 12th century by Muhammad Al Kisai, we read about the numerous adventures of King Solomon and his Temple in Jerusalem.

In 1925 the Muslim Waqf, which was and still is in charge of the mosques on the Temple Mount, published a booklet called A Brief Guide to the Haram al Sharif. It can be downloaded from the Internet as a PDF file. On page four it talks about the Dome of the Rock and states bluntly, “Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.” This is also supported by the folk literature of the Jews, Christians and Muslims of the Holy land which was collected in the 19th and early 20th century. This rich and entertaining oral literature is suffused with magical tales about the Temple of the Jews that lies beneath the two mosques of the Temple Mount.

Despite the wave of Temple denial that is becoming mainstream in the Arab world today, there remains one brave contemporary scholar and Muslim religious leader who maintains the time honoured religious and historical Islamic scholarship that affirms the Jewish nature of the Temple in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount. Abdul Hadi Palazzi is a devout Muslim scholar and religious leader based in Italy. He holds a PhD in Islamic studies from the University of Naples. He has studied at Egypt’s Al Azhar University. He accepts without doubt the validity of Jewish, secular and traditional Islamic sources that locate the Temple of the Jews on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But Palazzi goes one step farther drawing on the Koran itself, especially the Sura called “The Children of Israel” to reiterate the traditional Islamic belief that the Jews are blessed in the land of their forefathers. He has said that “… the Koran specifies that the Land of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, that God himself gave that Land to them as heritage and ordered them to live therein. It also announces that … the Jewish people will come from many different countries to retake possession of that heritage of theirs.”

Simply put, Sheikh Hadi is arguing against those who deny the special Jewish connection to the land of Israel where they built a Temple to the one God in Jerusalem and where now mosques stand. He clearly argues that this also flies in the face of the erudition and integrity of some of Islam’s greatest scholars and theologians.

Although it may seem absurd today, it is still possible to hope that Hanukah will one day be celebrated by presidents in Arab capitals as a holiday that pays tribute to the important of the Temple of Jerusalem, so dear to Jews, Christians and Muslims around the world who believe in that one invisible God.

A Palestinian Flag on the Temple Mount

An ancient Islamic tradition foretells the rebuilding of the Holy Temple on Mount Moriah. More about that later: But this past Friday, Aug. 3^rd – it happened to be Tu B’Av, a significant holiday in the time of the Holy Temple – a large Palestinian flag was flown over the Temple Mount, in a deliberate and flagrant violation of Israeli sovereignty. You couldn’t have heard about this outrageous public display of a foreign flag flying over Israel’s holiest site in her capital city, or read about it in any mainstream media, because it was not reported. The incident elicited no response whatsoever, neither from the Israel police, nor from any governmental agency or spokesman.

Two months ago it was reported that an Israeli policeman who displayed a small Israeli flag on the Temple Mount during a routine patrol was relieved of his duties, and would face additional disciplinary measures. The Islamic clerics were enraged and the police response was swift and severe. The Wakf officials viewed the incident with the utmost severity and spoke of it in their sermons, emphasizing that “Al Aksa is Muslim only.” Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri was outraged and noted that of late, more security personnel and ‘settlers’ have been present on the Temple Mount, but he found this action to be particularly infuriating: “The display of an Israeli flag is an act of aggression, with the intention of applying Israeli sovereignty on the Al Aksa mosque, to pull the carpet out from under the administration of the Islamic Wakf.” The police responded, “the officer displayed a tiny Israeli flag in the Temple Mount area. The commanders immediately removed him from the site. The officer was relieved of his duties and severe disciplinary measures will be enacted against him.”

The popular, much-repeated Israeli zeitgeist regarding the Temple Mount is that the holy site is unquestionably under Israeli sovereignty, and that the immortal words broadcast by Motta Gur on June 7th, 1967, “Cease fire, the Temple Mount is in our hands,” are absolute truth. However, the thought goes, herein – in our ability to withdraw and minimize ourselves – lies our greatness. For in a magnanimous gesture of respect for Islamic sensitivity, the government of Israel agreed that administration over the Mount would remain in the hands of the Wakf. The latter exercise almost all authority over the daily affairs at the site.

In 1924, an official guide booklet for tourists was published by the Supreme Muslim Council entitled ‘A Brief Guide to Al-Haram Al-Sharif.’ In this booklet, printed in Jerusalem in 1924 by the Wakf itself, the following statements can be found on page 4: “The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps from pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which ‘David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings (II Sam. 24:25)’.”

The author of this blog holds an original copy of this 1924 publication, as well as subsequent editions that were re-published periodically in the years following the establishment of the State of Israel: I have editions dated 1954, 1962 and 1965. In every edition of this booklet published after the establishment of the State of Israel, the material – or rather, the history – has been completely revised. The earlier statements testifying to Israel’s ancient connection are purged, and the entire historical review of the site has been distilled to this: “Haram es-Sharif – Noble Sanctuary – is the religious center of the Muslims of the Middle East and second only to Mecca in the Muslim World. The Prophet himself spoke of Al-Aqsa, the original name for the place and, according to tradition, made a miraculous journey to it. Thus it has been identified with Islam from its beginning.”

Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute and one of the paratroopers who liberated the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, tells this story about the heady day, 45 years ago, when Jewish soldiers once again found themselves on the Temple Mount after 1900 years:

The IDF paratroopers on the Temple Mount were approached by a Jordanian in civilian clothes who identified himself as the official guide, appointed by the Jordanian government, to guide dignitaries at the site. He asked the soldiers, Yisrael Ariel among them, if they would like a tour of the Temple Mount and began to walk with them, offering his explanation as they went.

“Here is where the Sanctuary stood.”

“Here is where the altar stood.”

“Here is where the Holy of Holies stood.”

A far cry from the official position of the Islamic Wakf today, that denies a Temple ever existed here.

Rabbi Ariel, the young paratrooper, was astonished as to why this man should be telling the Israeli soldiers all these details – preserved by Islamic tradition – regarding the Holy Temple.

The man answered: “We have a tradition from our fathers that one day the Jews will wage a war, and conquer this mountain, and rebuild the Holy Temple. I assume that you will be starting tomorrow, and I want this to be my contribution.”

Apparently, this is what they were expecting. Perhaps if we would have built the Holy Temple back then, we would have had 45 years of peace and security.

Wouldn’t that be ironic.

No Jewish connection to Western Wall: PA university lecturer

A Palestinian Authority university lecturer is the latest PA academic to rewrite history and deny Jewish history in Jerusalem - in particular, the Jewish people's connection to the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) of the Jewish Temple.

Shamekh Alawneh, a lecturer in modern history at Al-Quds Open University, says the Jews invented the connection to the Wall for political purposes, to convince European Jews and Zionists to come to "Palestine."

"It has no historical roots," he said on a television program called Jerusalem - History and Culture. "This is political terminology to win the hearts and the support of the Zionists in Europe, so they would emigrate and come to Palestine. Nothing more!"

The show's interviewer also refers to the "Judaization" of Jerusalem, and to Jewish plots to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Denying Jewish history in Jerusalem and the existence of the Jewish Temple is a central component of PA political ideology. This denial started with Yasser Arafat and continues to be reiterated by academics, politicians and religious leaders. 


PA leaders systematically distort the ancient history of Jerusalem, ignoring the vast historical documentation and thousands of archeological finds related to Jewish history that have been found in Jerusalem.

THE MOUNTING PROBLEM OF TEMPLE DENIAL

Temple Denial is the belief that no Jewish Temple ever existed in Jerusalem. This claim, despite being counter to Islamic tradition, became internalized within Palestinian academic, religious, and political circles following the 1967 Six-Day War. Since the 2000 Camp David Summit, during which Yasir Arafat asserted that the Jewish Temple never existed in Jerusalem, “Temple Denial” has spread with increased virulence in an attempt to deny both Jewish authority and access to the Temple Mount and Western Wall.

On the ninth day of the 2000 Camp David Summit, Yasir Arafat, then Palestinian National Authority President, told President Bill Clinton that “Solomon’s Temple was not in Jerusalem, but Nablus.”[1] Arafat’s remark, known as “Temple Denial,” shook the foundation of the negotiations, as the leading Palestinian figure denied the existence of Judaism’s holiest site. Temple Denial is historical revisionism that runs counter to classical Islamic tradition and archaeological evidence. Since the 1967 Six-Day War, after Muslim control over the Temple Mount was lost to Israel, the belief that no Jewish Temple ever existed in Jerusalem has developed and become internalized within Palestinian academic, religious, and political circles. Since Camp David, Temple Denial has transformed into a virulent delegitimization campaign that attempts to deny both Jewish authority and access to the Temple Mount and Western Wall (or Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem.

JEWISH TIES TO JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT

For Jews, the Temple Mount is the holiest place in the world. The Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount originates in the biblical narrative, as it is said to be the location of the binding of Isaac.[2] The Talmud, Judaism’s supreme canonical text, says that the foundation stone on the Temple Mount is the location from which the world was created.[3] In Samuel II 24:18-25, King David bought the bedrock for the Temple from Araunah the Jebusite. Subsequently, Solomon, David’s son, used the bedrock to build the First Temple.[4] Solomon’s Temple was eventually destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 BCE.

Following the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple, many Jews were sent into exile. However, under the Persian King Cyrus, the Jews were allowed to return and began to rebuild the Temple. The Second Temple was completed in 516 BCE and expanded by King Herod in 19 BCE. In 70 CE, the Roman Empire, led by Emperor Titus, laid siege to Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. Jews have maintained an unbreakable connection to Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount since that time.

Today, Jews follow a number of different customs in remembrance of their fallen Temple. When Jews pray, they pray toward Jerusalem. Within the daily liturgy, there are numerous calls for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple. During the week, after meals, Jews recite a grace, which includes the recitation of Psalm 137 (“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem…”).[5] At the end of a wedding ceremony, the groom breaks a glass, which signifies the Jewish people’s continued mourning over the Temple’s destruction. In addition, many have the custom of leaving a wall in their home unfinished in remembrance of the destruction. All of these customs play a significant part in the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, which former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated “represents the purist expression of all that Jews prayed for, dreamed of, cried for, and died for in the two thousand years since the destruction of the Second Temple.”[6] In addition to the customs and ideology, the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel and Jerusalem is internationally recognized.[7]

ISLAMIC LITERATURE AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT

Classic Islamic literature also recognizes the existence of a Jewish Temple and its importance to Judaism. This makes Palestinian Temple Denial all the more puzzling.

In Sura 17:1 of the Koran, the “Farthest Mosque” is called the al-masjid al-Aqsa. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn,[8] a well-respected Sunni exegesis of the Koran from the 15^th and 16^th centuries, notes that the “Farthest Mosque” is a reference to the Bayt al-Maqdis of Jerusalem.[9] In Hebrew, the Jewish Temple is often referred to as the Beyt Ha-Miqdash, nearly identical to the Arabic term. In the commentary of Abdullah Ibn Omar al-Baydawi, who authored several prominent theological works in the 13^th century, the masjid is referred to as the Bayt al-Maqdis because during Muhammad’s time no mosque existed in Jerusalem.[10] Koranic historian and commentator, Abu Jafar Muhammad al-Tabari, who chronicled the seventh century Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, wrote that one day when Umar finished praying, he went to the place where “the Romans buried the Temple [bayt al-maqdis] at the time of the sons of Israel.”[11]In addition, eleventh century historian Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Maqdisi and fourteenth century Iranian religious scholar Hamdallah al-Mustawfi acknowledged that the al-Aqsa Mosque was built on top of Solomon’s Temple.[12]

This is a small sample of the Islamic literature attesting to the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.  Innumerable other writings from other faiths attest to this fact, as well.

THE TEMPLE MOUNT DURING THE PALESTINE MANDATE

The modern phenomenon of Temple Denial began during the Palestine Mandate. During this period, the Temple Mount was under the authority of the Supreme Muslim Council, led by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husayni. The Supreme Muslim Council published yearly guide books to the Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount). Drawing from those available, the 1924, 1925, 1929, and 1935 guide books all stated that the Haram al-Sharif’s “identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.”[13] The recognition of the Temple Mount’s importance to Jews in the guidebooks continued until 1950, two years after Israel’s establishment.[14] However, by 1954, the references to Solomon’s Temple disappeared. At some point between 1950 and 1954, the Muslim waqf (religious authority) that governed the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque inexplicably began to remove the references seen in earlier guide books.

One of the earliest cases of Temple Denial occurred in the aftermath of the Arab disturbances of August 1929, which erupted over disputes between Jews and Muslims regarding access to the Western Wall. These riots led to the Hebron and Safed massacres and the death of 133 Jews and 116 Arabs. Following the riots and due to pressure from the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, an international investigative body examined Jewish and Muslim claims to the Western Wall. This investigation led to the Report of the Commission Appointed by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the Approval of the Council of the League of Nations, to Determine the Rights and Claims of Moslems and Jews in Connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem.[15]

The report acknowledged Jewish claims to the Temple Mount, noting, “It was Solomon who built the first Temple of Jerusalem, the grandeur and beauty of which have become widely renowned, thanks to the holy books and the historians. The Temple was situated on Mount Moriah on the platform, now known as the Harem-esh-Sherif area.”[16] Despite this acknowledgement, the Muslim claim formulated within the report stated, “It is here a question about property which has belonged to the Moslems for many centuries. The Buraq forms an integral part of the Haram-esh-Sherif, not a single stone of which dates back to the days of Solomon.”[17] This claim played a pivotal role in the commission’s conclusion, which recognized the significance of the Western Wall to Jews, but deemed the site a Muslim property.[18]

THE RISE OF TEMPLE DENIAL

During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel launched a preemptive strike against its neighboring enemies and conquered all of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank, including the Temple Mount. Following the Israeli victory, Israel claimed sovereignty over the Temple Mount and the government immediately passed the Protection of Holy Places Law.[19] While Israel now controlled the Temple Mount, it left administrative control in the hands of the waqf. Yet Israel’s claim of sovereignty did not sit well with many in the Muslim world, sparking fears of Jewish aspirations to usurp all of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Defending Jerusalem from the Jews quickly became the centerpiece of the nascent Palestinian political ideology.[20] The first step in denying Jewish control was denying the Jewish connection to the site. Palestinian historians soon launched a campaign to deny the importance of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to Jews. The new writings quickly spread throughout the Arab world.

These texts typically argued that any Jewish presence in Jerusalem was less significant than the Muslim one.[21] To that end, the existence of Solomon’s Temple was denied. In cases where the existence of Solomon’s Temple was acknowledged, it was described as a minor prayer room. In addition, the Western Wall was deemed a Muslim holy site, while the Jewish connection was declared to be a falsehood.[22] These claims have only risen in popularity throughout pro-Palestinian circles in the Muslim world since 1967.

In the more recent writings, the denial of Solomon’s Temple is expressed through the use of the word al-maz’um (alleged) with al-haykal (the Temple). The use of the word al-maz’um is a direct attempt to negate the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount.[23] The main argument made by those who deny the existence of the Jewish Temple is that no proof of the Temple’s existence has ever been found. Palestinian officials have adopted this position. Former Director of Foreign Publications for the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Ministry of Information Walid Awad stated, “The fact of the matter is that almost thirty years of excavations did not reveal anything Jewish… …Jerusalem is not a Jewish city, despite the biblical myth  implanted in some minds.”[24] Jordanian academic Arafat Hijazi wrote, “42 archaeological teams excavated at al-Aqsa between 1891-1925 and hundreds have excavated since 1967, but not one archeologist has found a remnant of the Temple or any indication of the existence of Jews in Palestine.”[25] Abd al-Rahim Rihan Barakat, the director of antiquities in the Dahab region of the Sinai, further declared, “The legend about the Jewish Temple is the greatest historic crime of forgery.”[26]

TEMPLE DENIAL WITHIN ACADEMIC, RELIGIOUS, AND POLITICAL CIRCLES

Temple Denial is now a popular narrative in universities in the Muslim world. The denial of the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and the Land of Israel often take on traditional antisemitic motifs, even in academic settings. Jordanian academic Muhammad Dohal, for example, asserted that the Jewish connection to Palestine is a modern creation that is part of a Jewish plan to rule the region “through active control, media control, or economic control.”[27] Just as the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is viewed as an imperialist plan, the belief in the Temple is viewed as an imminent threat to the al-Aqsa compound. Former Chief Justice of the Religious Court of Palestine and Chairman of the Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places Shaykh Taysir al-Tamimi declared, “The worrying silence of the nation is what is encouraging the occupation [Israel] to carry out its plans against Al-Aqsa… The Al-Aqsa Mosque is currently subject to domination and desecration and transformation into a synagogue.”[28]

In 2005, Shaykh Dr. Ahmad Nawfal, a lecturer at the Shari’a Faculty of the University of Jordan, argued, “The Jews dug 40 meters into the ground, and found nothing. There is no indication that a temple existed there. Brothers, they are making fun of you. Unfortunately, we are unwittingly legitimizing this nonsense of theirs. This is nonsense. This is heresy and blasphemy against God, history, human beings, and common sense.”[29] The idea of the Temple Mount having a Jewish connection is worrisome for many Palestinians, thus they argue that until hard evidence is shown, it is a forgery; and when pro-Palestinian writers and scholars admit that the Temple did exist, it is usually argued that it was not near the al-Aqsa compound.[30]

Former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Shaykh Ikrima Sabri, arguably the leading Temple denier, stated on many occasions that the Jewish connection to the Temple was a myth. In a 1998 interview with the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon, Shaykh Sabri voiced his opinion:

Moslems have no knowledge or awareness that the Temple Mount has any sanctity for Jews. Why should we allow the Jews to share in places which are holy to us and to Islam… The Moslems ruled the land, since the Caliph Omar, and only now have the Jews remembered to demand a right to the Temple Mount. The Moslems will never permit anyone to enter the Temple Mount. If the Jews really want peace, they must absolutely forget about having any rights over the Temple Mount or al-Aksa Mosque. The Western Wall also belongs to Moslems, and was given to the Jews as a place of prayer only because the British asked and the Moslems agreed out of the goodness of their hearts. The Western Wall is just a fence belonging to a Moslem Holy Site.[31]

Similarly, the aforementioned al-Tamimi stated, “I know of Muslim and Christian holy sites in [Jerusalem]. I don’t know of any Jewish holy sites in it… Israel has been excavating since 1967 in search of remains of their Temple or their fictitious Jewish history.”[32] The current Mufti of Jerusalem, Shaykh Muhammad Hussein asserted that Jews “claim that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built over the ruins of the alleged Temple. The construction of these buildings [by Israel], and the synagogues with the large, wide domes [in Jerusalem]–all of this is meant to erase the remains of the Islamic culture and to replace them with [their] alleged culture, through the power of occupation.”[33] For some, like the Al-Aqsa Institute for Religious Affairs and Heritage, Jewish activity in Jerusalem is viewed as part of a satanic plot:

There is increasing Israeli occupationist madness [aiming] to harm the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to realize a dark and fabled dream–the establishment of the alleged Temple in place of the Al-Aqsa Mosque… All the Israeli actions in Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque are part of a satanic plot, and therefore the position is worrying and most dangerous. Action must be taken to halt this criminal occupationist activity against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem.[34]

While the denial from religious leaders is troublesome, since many Muslims take their cue from their clerics, the most damaging narrative may come from Palestinian politicians, among whom this phenomenon has risen sharply since the 2000 Camp David Summit. At Camp David, while meeting with President Clinton, Arafat declared that “Solomon’s Temple was not in Jerusalem, but Nablus.”[35] In addition, Saib Arikat, a leading Palestinian negotiator said, “This whole issue of the Temple… is a Jewish invention lacking any basis.”[36] These claims were retorted by President Clinton, who said that “not only the Jews but I, too, believe that under the surface there are remains of Solomon’s Temple.”[37]

In late July 2000, Nabil Sha’ath, a Palestinian minister, said, “Israel demands control of the Temple Mount based on its claim that its fictitious temple stood there.”[38] Two years after Camp David, Arafat changed his claim as he asserted that there is “not a single stone proving that the Temple of Solomon was there, because historically the Temple was not in Palestine [at all].”[39] Arafat furthered his claims in 2003 during a presentation to a delegation of Arab leaders in which he argued that the Jewish Temple never existed in Jerusalem, but rather it existed in Yemen and that he had personally visited the site.[40]

Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, also engaged in Temple Denial when he said that Jews “claim that 2000 years ago they had a holy place there. I challenge the assertion [that there has ever been a Jewish temple].”[41] More recently, Yasir Abd Rabbo, Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee, asserted, “[Israel] entered the [Muslim] holy sites [in Jerusalem], in order to fulfill a legend and basing themselves on it… in order to build what is called the false Temple.”[42] Temple Denial has spread throughout many circles because the al-Aqsa compound has become the centerpiece of Palestinian political thought.[43] The fact that the al-Aqsa compound is viewed as a national symbol has moved the denial beyond just the Temple Mount.

DENYING JEWISH TIES TO THE WESTERN WALL

The phenomenon of Temple Denial today includes the Western Wall. The denial of a Jewish connection to the Western Wall is an attempt to restrict the Jewish right to pray at the holy site. Indeed, the attempt to deny Jewish rights to pray at the Western Wall was seen in the aforementioned 1930 League of Nations report. The report, which claimed that the Western Wall was Muslim property, provided the foundation from which current Palestinian scholars, religious, and political leaders reject the Jewish connection to the site.

In general the Palestinian denial of the importance of the Western Wall to Jews is based on three principles. First, there is the claim that Muhammad tethered his steed, al-Buraq, to the Western Wall on his night journey before having the Koran related to him.  This implies that Islam’s claim on the site supersedes that of the Jews. Second, and as a possible means to strengthen their own claims, they posit that Jews invented the Western Wall as a holy site. Third, Jews have no historical claim to the site. These ideas are regularly presented by Palestinians and their supporters in the Muslim world.[44] In 2002, Arafat Hijazi wrote that Muslims “must redeem from its state of desecration occupied al-Buraq, whose sanctity has been violated by the Jews… They can wail anywhere, while the Muslims have no other place where the Prophet tethered al-Buraq.”[45] These ideas were supported by Shaykh Ikrima Sabri who said:

There is not [even] 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. Our right, on the other hand, is very clear. This place belongs to us for 1500 years. Even when it was conquered by the Crusaders, it remained Al-Aqsa, and we got it back soon afterwards. The Jews do not even know exactly where their temple stood. Therefore, we do not accept that they have any rights, underneath the surface or above it… There is not a single stone in the Wailing-Wall relating to Jewish History. The Jews cannot legitimately claim this wall, neither religiously nor historically.[46]

Shaykh Sabri, along with Dr. Nasr Farid Wasil, the former Mufti of Egypt, also issued fatwas (religious edicts) that prohibit Muslims from referring to al-Buraq as the Wailing Wall.[47] In September 2010, a PA TV documentary showed Jews praying at the Western Wall, during which the narrator said, “They [Israelis] know for certain that our [Palestinian] roots are deeper than their false history. We, from the balcony of our home, look out over [Islamic] holiness and on sin and filth [Jews praying at the Western Wall].”[48]

In a study published by the PA Ministry of Information in November 2010, al-Mutawakil Taha, the author of the report, wrote, “The Zionist occupation falsely and unjustly claims that it owns this wall, which it calls the Western Wall or Kotel… this wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount, but Muslim tolerance allowed the Jews to stand in front of it and weep over its destruction.”[49] The study, which is the official position of the PA,[50] concluded that “no Muslim or Arab or Palestinian had the right to give up one stone of Al-Buraq Wall or other religious sites.”[51] Following strong condemnations by Israel and the United States, the study was removed from the official website of the PA’s Ministry of Information.[52] However, it soon reappeared on the official website of the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, Wafa.[53]

CONCLUSION

Despite running counter to Islamic tradition, Temple Denial has since 1967 remained an integral part of the Palestinian nationalist ideology, which is predicated on the rejection of Zionism and Jewish ties to the Land of Israel.[54] The continued spread of Temple Denial poses a serious problem to a peace process based on coexistence and mutual recognition. As the debate intensifies over the final status issues, including the Temple Mount, Temple Denial must now be addressed.

*David Barnett is currently studying at Johns Hopkins University.

NOTES

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[1] Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), p. 694.

[2] Genesis 22:1-19.

[3] Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 54b.

[4] Kings I, 6:1-38.

[5] Psalm 137 is most known for the verses: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my palate if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.” In an interview on Palestinian Authority TV on June 2, 2011, Dr. Hayel Sanduqa, a Palestinian researcher, claimed that these verses were first said by a Christian Crusader and were subsequently “borrowed by the Zionist movement, which falsified it in the name of Zionism.” Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “Palestinian distortion: “If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem” was Crusader Expression Usurped by Zionists,”Palestinian Media Watch, June 9, 2011, http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=5133.

[6] Ehud Olmert, “I Am the Most Privileged Jew in the Universe,” Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1997), p. 65.

[7] Yitzhak Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), p. 39.

[8] The Tafsir al-Jalalayn is a commentary to the Koran that was started by Jalal ad-Din al-Mahalli in the late 15^th century and completed by Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti in the early 16^th century.

[9] “Tafsir al-Jalalayn,” Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, 2010, http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=17&tAyahNo=1&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2; Dore Gold, The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2007), p. 17.

[10] Gold, The Fight for Jerusalem, p. 17.

[11] Yohanan Friedmann, The History of al-Tabari: Volume XII, The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah and the Conquest of Syria and Palestine (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992), p. 195.

[12] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 44.

[13] Gold, The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City, p. 18; A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif (Jerusalem: The Supreme Muslim Council, 1925), p. 4; A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif (Jerusalem: The Supreme Muslim Council, 1929), p. 4.

[14] A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif (Jerusalem: The Supreme Muslim Council, 1950), p. 3.

[15] League of Nations, Report of the Commission Appointed by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the Approval of the Council of the League of Nations, to Determine the Rights and Claims of Moslems and Jews in Connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem,” 1930,http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/181c4bf00c44e5fd85256cef0073c426/59a92104ed00dc468525625b00527fea.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid. While the commission recognized the Muslim claim that Muhammad tethered his steed to the Western Wall, it concluded that “the said place is not situated within the part of the Wall which skirts along the Pavement of the Wailing Place of the Jews, but in its extension to the south…. Under these circumstances the Commission does not consider that the Pavement in front of the Wall can be regarded as a sacred place from a Moslem point of view.”

[19] Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Protection of Holy Places Law, 1967,”http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/Protection%20of%20Holy%20Places%20Law.

[20] Daniel Pipes, “The Muslim Claim to Jerusalem,” Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 4 (2001).

[21] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 42.

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid, p. 47.

[24] Aaron Lerner, “PA: No Evidence of Jewish Temple Period in Jerusalem,” Independent Media Review Analysis, December 3, 1996,http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=1139.

[25] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, pp. 49-50.

[26] Nadav Shragai, “In the Beginning Was al-Aqsa,” Haaretz, November 27, 2005, http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/in-the-beginning-was-al-aqsa-1.175216.

[27] “PA TV History Program: Jews Throughout History Have Sought Rule over All Arab Land, Not Just Palestine,” Palestinian Media Watch, October 10, 2010, http://www.palwatch.org/site/modules/print/preview.aspx?fi=780&doc_id=4373.

[28] “PA Chief Justice of Religious Court: Al-Aqsa Desecrated, Transformed into Synagogue,” Palestinian Media Watch, October 4, 2009,http://www.palwatch.org/site/modules/print/preview.aspx?fi=771&doc_id=1371.

[29] “Jordanian Professor/Terrorist on Saudi Al-Majd TV Says Kings David & Solomon Were Muslims Who Today Would Have Fought Israel, Supports Leading Holocaust Denier,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch, No. 1030, November 22, 2005, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/251/1533.htm.

[30] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 53.

[31] Makor Rishon, May 22, 1998.

[32] “Jews Have No Connection to Jerusalem,” Palestinian Media Watch, June 9, 2009, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=636&fld_id=636&doc_id=1105.

[33] “Mufti of Jerusalem Denies Existence of Jewish Temple, Referred to As Alleged Temple,” Palestinian Media Watch, November 26, 2010,http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=489&doc_id=4378.

[34] Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “PA Daily: Israeli Actions in Jerusalem… a Satanic Plot,” Palestinian Media Watch, January 10, 2011,http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=4222.

[35] Ross, The Missing Peace, p. 694.

[36] Shlomo Ben-Ami, A Front Without a Rearguard: A Voyage to the Boundaries of the Peace Process (Tel Aviv: Yedioth Ahronot Books, 2004), p. 219.

[37] Benny Morris, “Camp David and After: An Interview with Ehud Barak,” New York Review of Books, June 13, 2002,http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2002/jun/13/camp-david-and-after-an-exchange-1-an-interview-wi/?pagination=false.

[38] Yigal Carmon and Aluma Solnik, “Camp David and the Prospects for a Final Settlement, Part I: Israeli, Palestinian, and American Positions,” August 4, 2000, MEMRI, Inquiry & Analysis Series Report No. 35, http://www.memri.org/report/en/print356.htm.

[39] “Interview with Yasir Arafat,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series, No. 428, October 11, 2002, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/835/743.htm.

[40] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 37. According to Yitzhak Reiter, Arafat’s beliefs regarding the Jewish Temple are based on the writings of Kamal Salibi, a professor at the American University of Beirut. In The Bible Came from Arabia, Salibi, a Lebanese Christian, argues that biblical Jerusalem was in the Arabian Nimas highlands in the region of Asir and that the Israelites were from West Arabia. Kamal Salibi, The Bible Came from Arabia(London: Jonathan Cape, 1985), pp. 7-26, 97-132.

[41] “Abu Mazen on the Peace Process,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series, No. 122, August 29, 2000, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/364.htm.

[42] “PA Official Abd Rabbo: Temple Is ‘False’,” Palestinian Media Watch, March 16, 2010, http://www.palwatch.org/site/modules/print/preview.aspx?fi=489&doc_id=3056.

[43] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 45.

[44] Ibid, p. 42.

[45] Ibid, p. 56.

[46] “The PA Mufti: Jews from Germany Should Return There,” MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series, No. 182, January 26, 2001,http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/417.htm.

[47] Reiter, Jerusalem and Its Role in Islamic Solidarity, p. 56.

[48] Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “PA TV: Jews Praying at Western Wall Are ‘Sin and filth,’” Palestinian Media Watch, September 14, 2010,http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=3112.

[49] Khaled Abu Toameh, “Jews Have No Right to Western Wall, PA ‘Study’ Says,” The Jerusalem Post, November 22, 2010, http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=196329.

[50] “Palestinian Official: Western Wall is Not Jewish,” Haaretz, November 24, 2010, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-official-western-wall-is-not-jewish-1.326595.

[51] Abu Toameh, “Jews Have No Right to Western Wall, PA ‘Study’ Says.”

[52] “Palestinians Drop Claim That Western Wall Is Not Jewish,” Haaretz, December 1, 2001, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-drop-claim-that-western-wall-is-not-jewish-1.328220.

[53] “Study Confirms the Right of Muslims to the Wailing Wall,” Palestine News and Information Agency–Wafa, November 22, 2010,http://www.wafa.ps/arabic/index.php?action=detail&id=91079.

[54] “The Palestinian National Charter: Resolutions of the Palestine National Council July 1-17, 1968,” The Avalon Project, 2008,http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp.  See Article 20: “The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.”