Scholastic - Biggest children’s book publisher erases Israel from map

Arab textbooks are not the only ones erasing Israel from their maps. Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, has also eliminated the Jewish state in a book.

Geronimo Stilton children’s series translated from Italian and published by Scholastic in 2012, tells the story of a group of investigative journalists involved in a treasure hunt in Egypt.

The story commences with a map of modern Egypt and its neighboring countries. While Sudan, Libya and Saudi Arabia appear clearly on the map, the territory of Israel is completely covered by Jordan, painted red. A line indicating the Israeli border with the Sinai Peninsula does appear in the book.

Adina Golombek, a Jerusalem resident who emigrated to Israel from Canada last year, said she was shocked to discover Israel’s absence while reading the book with her 7-year-old son.

“I wanted to show my son where we lived in the Middle East, but it didn’t say Israel on the map; instead it said Jordan,” Golombek told The Times of Israel. “I showed him the problem and drew in the border of where Israel is today.”

Founded in Pennsylvania in 1920, Scholastic has grown to become the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books through its book clubs, teaching resources and popular book fairs held inside many North American schools. The company has exclusive publishing rights for the Harry Potter series in the United States.

Kyle Good, a senior vice president for corporate communications at Scholastic, told The Times of Israel in an email that her company was looking into the possibility of amending the map in future editions of the book.

“The Geronimo Stilton series is published in Italy and Scholastic translates the books for the U.S. audience. I’m awaiting a response from the editorial team regarding the timing of reprints and whether this will be corrected. I will get back to you as soon as I have their response,” Good wrote.

A recent study carried out by Israeli and Palestinian researchers found that 96 percent of Palestinian school textbooks did not mention Israel by name in their maps. Similarly, 87 percent of Israeli school textbooks did not designate the Palestinian Territories by name.

ISRAEL MATZAV: Abu Mazen talks about how the 'Palestinian refugee' problem was created

The quote above is 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen talking about how the 'Palestinian refugee' problem was created. Rewriting history cannot erase the truth. More here.

Did digging on the Temple Mount Erase Traces of the Jewish Altar?

Gil Ronen of Israel National News (Arutz 7) published this report about renovation work being carried out at the Dome of the Chain:

Muslim religious authorities are concluding a clandestine eight-month dig on the Temple Mount that is intended to erase traces of the Jewish Temple’s Altar, Temple activists charge.

The digs have been taking place under the Dome of the Chain, believed to have been built over 1300 years ago. For eight months, the dome – which has a diameter of 14 meters – has been surrounded by a metal fence and black cloth, which hide whatever activity has been going on there from outside inspection. The Muslim Waqf religious authority has claimed the activity is simply a refurbishing of the structure, but refuses adamantly to let Jews or tourists near.

Jewish activists made various attempts to enter the Dome, but met with no success. In the end, the Our Temple Mount news outlet found an Arab who was willing to take photos inside the compound in return for a handsome fee (see below). The man said that it appears the Waqf has already completed its digs and is now covering the dig with dirt.

Our Temple Mount notes that according to Jewish tradition, the place where the Dome of the Chain is located is the spot upon which the sacrificial Altar stood in Temple times. Temple activists said that the Muslim digs are intended to erase the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.

Jewish activists paid an Arab to take these photos of illegal digging on the supposed site of the Jewish Temple Altar:

A bulldozer ripping up pavement on the Temple Mount

The screen around the Dome of the Chain.

View of work carried out inside of the Dome of the Chain.

Another view of work carried out inside of the Dome of the Chain.

Although it is deplorable that this much needed renovation work was done without archaeological supervision, no digging to any depth appears to have been carried out, as the paving of the Dome of the Chain appears to be still intact. If the doubtful aim was “to Erase Traces of Jewish Altar”, then the work wouldn’t have succeeded in any case, as the altar stood to the southeast of the Dome of the Chain. If  The Rock inside the Dome of the Rock is the location of the Holy of Holies, then according to my plan of the Herodian Temple Mount, the Dome of the Chain stands where once the Porch of the Temple was located.

This plan shows the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain (blue) superimposed on the plan of the Herodian Temple and its Porch (red). As can be seen from the plan, the Altar stood to the southeast of the Dome of the Chain. © Leen Ritmeyer

In a previous post, I published this photograph of the Dome of the Chain with the location of the Altar outlined in white:

The location of the Altar in relation to the Dome of the Chain and the Dome of the Rock, looking west. © Leen Ritmeyer

The Battle over Silwan Fabricating Palestinian History

On August 26, 2010, a violent clash broke out between Jewish and Arab residents of Silwan, a predominantly Muslim village outside the southern end of the walled Old City of Jerusalem. The name derives from the biblical "Shiloah"[1] and its subsequently Graecized "Siloam."[2]
On the face of it, the sparring that erupted over a gate built illegally by Arab residents[3] may seem like a miniature version of the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians over who controls the Holy Land. But reducing the struggle to a mere real estate dispute misses a critical point in understanding the persistence of the larger conflict. For the battle of Silwan is a microcosm of a larger fight, one in which one side, the Palestinian, seeks to erase the existence of the other—not merely through traditional armed conflict but also by rewriting history.

Erasing the Past

The tactic of denying a Jewish past to sites and holy places in the Land of Israel is of relatively recent vintage in the Arab-Israeli conflict but one that has increased dramatically in the past few years.

Notwithstanding Palestinian denials of the Jewish roots of Silwan, they are much in evidence to the casual observer as can be seen here where Arab homes are literally built atop ancient Jewish tombs carved into the limestone hillside.

Jerusalem's Temple Mount, where both the First and Second Temples stood for some eight hundred years in total, now holds the Dome of the Rock, al-Aqsa Mosque, and the underground Solomon's Stables mosque. Both in 1925 and again in 1950, Palestine's Supreme Muslim Council unequivocally recognized the Jewish connection to the Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary; i.e., Temple Mount), describing it as a holy site for Jews in its self-published A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif:

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."[4]

Supreme Islamic Council declares that Jews have nothing to do with the Western Wall

Qudsmedia reports:

The General Authority of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem confirmed that the Wailing Wall is part and parcel of the Wall of Al Aqsa Mosque... It has nothing to do with the Jews, and it is the yard of the Islamic Buraq, with reference to the League of Nations in 1930, which acknowledged that the Wailing Wall is Islamic and the property of the Muslims.

...It is known a priori that the yard of any house is a part of it. And that the repeated incursions of occupation will not give them any right to the Al Aqsa.

The Commission stressed that the lifting of the Israeli flag in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa is a blatant attack and affects the sanctity of Al-Aqsa and provokes the feelings of Muslims.

...The Commission concluded its statement by emphasizing that "Al Aqsa is for Muslims alone, whose claim is superior to any decisions by the courts, we cannot negotiate, nor abandon it, nor to give up a single grain dust from it."

The anti-Israel Kairos USA recently issued a document that essentially ignores Judaism as a religion and claims that Jews have no rights to Israel. It was taken apart by Adam Gregorman and by Dexter Van Zile. 

Here's one of the least offensive parts of their document, even though it is plenty offensive:

Now, if they believe that the Land has a "universal mission" that includes "all of humanity" then they must believe that Jews have the absolute right to worship on the Temple Mount and build their own synagogue or Temple there as long as it does not impede on the ability of Muslims to worship there as well.

Will any of them say that publicly? Or are the just using a bizarre theological justification for minimizing Jewish rights to the land of Israel while justifying Muslim supremacism n Jewish holy sites?

In other words, do they believe that only Jews are part of this wonderful, utopian "realm of God" that limits their rights to self-determination but Muslims and Arabs can still do what they want?

Because it sure sounds like that is exactly what they are saying.

Betar and the PA's attempts to destroy Jewish history

An interesting contest is being waged over a Judean hilltop known as Betar or Battir.

This hilltop village with a system of stone-walled hillside terraces has been nominated by the Palestinian Authority for recognition as a World Heritage Site, and has won the Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes, awarded by UNESCO.

...The World Heritage site nomination caught the attention of a number of commentators since the village is best known under the older, Hebrew version of the name: Betar. Betar was the military headquarters of the Bar Kochba Revolt, a Jewish revolt against Roman rule in 135 CE, and it was that revolt’s last stronghold. When Betar fell, the defenders and their leader, Shimon Bar Kochba, were killed. The event is commemorated by the villagers who call the ancient defensive tower “Khirbet el-Yahud”, “the Jewish ruin”.

...The ancient village dated back to the Iron Age and the archaeological discovery of a “Lmlk” seal impression establishes that it was part of the Judean kingdom in the eighth century BCE. The site was abandoned after the battle. Bar Kochba apparently chose the small, hilltop farming village because it has a constant spring of water and was on a defensible hilltop beside the Jerusalem-Gaza road. The archaeological survey done in 1993 by David Ussishkin (D. Ussishkin, “Archaeological Soundings at Betar, Bar-Kochba’s Last Stronghold”, Tel Aviv 20, 1993, pp. 66-97) reports that the the Jewish liberation fighters hastily threw up crude stone fortification walls, incorporating parts of the walls and buildings of the Jewish village.

In effect if not in intent, UNESCO has awarded the Mercouri prize to a set of retaining walls at least the upper tier of which belonged to an ancient Jewish village.

The Jewish claim to the land is that Jews are the original people of the land, as attested by the ancient Jewish kingdoms.

The Arab claim to the land is that they are the indigenous people of the land, as attested by farming villages like this one. It is not an unreasonable claim, but perhaps nominating an ancient Jewish village for UNESCO World heritage Status is not the most effective way to make it.

Some of David Ussishkin's research from Betar is online. He notes:

The line of the fortification wall, dating apparently to the time of the Second Revolt, is visible along most part of the site and was studied in the excavations. The northern part of the summit which was not settled was left outside the walled area. The city-wall was built as a retaining wall, its lower part supported by a fill on the inside, thus resembling a terrace on the hilly slope. It contained several semi-circular buttresses or towers(see picture), and at least one rectangular buttress or tower on the western side. Apparently built in a hurry, the wall was carelessly and inconsistently constructed.

So indeed the upper terrace is of Jewish origin, and was not meant to be a terrace at all but a fortification.

The Hebrew LMLK seal found on pottery in Betar establishes it as a Jewish town nearly a millennium before the Bar Kochba revolt, as the many LMLK-stamped artifacts are all from around the time of King Hezekiah, around 700 BCE. LMLK means "for the King." 

Any way you look at it, Betar is Jewish. Which is almost certainly why the Palestinian Arabs choose it to commemorate "Palestinian history."

Because they want to erase Jewish history.

Heritage Site is Jewish, Not Just Palestinian

On Monday, the New York Timesreported about the effort by Palestinians to have the village of Battir designated as a World Heritage site because of the unique ecological nature of the ancient terraced irrigation system at work there. The terraces might be endangered by the construction of Israel’s security fence that in the area runs right along the 1949 armistice lines. While it is not clear that the barrier would actually damage the area, ironically the greatest obstacle to the designation of the site by UNESCO is that the Palestinians are also seeking to get the same honor for the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

But as bloggers Elli Fischer and Yisrael Medad have pointed out, the problem with the article isn’t so much its acceptance of the Palestinian argument against putting the fence there (which is also ironic because Israel’s critics have objected when the barrier was placed anywhere but at the old green line), but that it completely ignored the Jewish heritage of the area. Battir is not just a Palestinian village with an old irrigation system but was the site of the ancient Jewish fortress of Betar, the site of the last organized resistance to Roman rule in 135 C.E. during the Bar Kochba revolt. Moreover, far from the irrigation system being, as the Times claimed, a remnant of the Roman presence, it predates their presence in the country and is clearly the product of biblical-era Jewish settlement. As Medad put it, “Romans, Shmomans.”

Medad also points out that a closer look at the accounts of the dispute there shows the villagers’ problem has more to do with their faulty sewage system than any threats from Israeli construction crews in a nearby valley.

But the main point here is not so much the argument about the location of the fence as it is the willful erasure of the Jewish connections of a place that Palestinians are seeking to have honored for its historical significance. Betar was the last gasp of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel for 1,800 years and a place where tens of thousands of Jews were slaughtered by the Romans.

As Fischer notes:

In fact, the Talmud offers an alternative explanation for the fertility of Battir: “For seven years [after the fall of Betar] the gentiles fertilized their vineyards with the blood of Israel without using manure.”

In this respect the promotion of Battir as a memorial to the supposed history of the Palestinians is stereotypical of the way their supporters have done their best to ignore or actually deny the Jewish connections to this land.

UNESCO stands alone as the only UN agency that recognizes the Palestinian Authority as an independent state. It has in the recent past recognized Jewish religious shrines such as the Tomb of Rachel outside Bethlehem as mosques, so there is little hope it will treat Israel or the Jews fairly. But if it is to grant this site the World Heritage designation, it should, at the very least, declare it to be important to the history of both Jews and Palestinians. In doing so, it would give the lie to the claim that Jews are usurpers or foreigners in the West Bank. And that is probably reason enough for it to continue denying Jewish history and heritage.

"Bank of Palestine" promotional materials

Arab business conference in Nazareth, and one of the promotional items being given away was this mug from the "Bank of Palestine:" Of course, the map includes all of Israel, without any fear of controversy. Making it really hard to argue that the goal of Palestinian Arabs is not to wipe out Israel. No doubt if you ask them about it (in English) they would say that they were merely invoking a romantic map of "historic Palestine." Yet the only time any entity called Palestine looked like this was between 1922 and 1948, which means that "historic Palestine" was a bizarre anomaly of a territory, whose boundaries were drawn by the West, which was under British rule, and  that lasted a mere 26 years. Isn't it weird that people who supposedly had been there for centuries define themselves this way?

PMW: PA TV teaches children to make political map that turns all of Israel into "Palestine"

A children's program teaching arts and crafts on official Palestinian Authority TV instructed children how to make models of "Palestine." The shape of the map of "Palestine," which was cut out of paper, included all of Israel. Adding a political message, PA TV taught the children to cover the entire model with the colors of the Palestinian flag, symbolizing Palestinian sovereignty over the whole area.  

Click to view

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the official PA maps erase all of Israel defining it as "Palestine."  

The international community has criticized the Palestinian Authority for this practice. Before he was elected to office, President Barack Obama said that he viewed the use of these maps that present a world without Israel as a security threat to Israel: 

"I will never compromise when it comes to Israel's security... Not when there are maps across the Middle East that don't even acknowledge Israel's existence." [AIPAC Conference, June 4, 2008]

Maps that "don't even acknowledge Israel's existence" are still the official maps in the Palestinian Authority. 

Another example of a political map that erases Israel was recently broadcast during a PA TV report on an event for youth sponsored by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education. A map displayed at the event likewise showed the Palestinian flag covering and accordingly erasing Israel. Above the map is the word "Palestine" and to the right of the map is the date "Nov. 15, 1988," the date that Yasser Arafat declared Palestinian statehood. 

[PA TV (Fatah), April 29, 2012]

The following is the text from the PA TV program showing children how to make a model of "Palestine" erasing all of Israel:

Child host: "Hello friends, today we will learn how to make a model of the map of Palestine so that we continue to remember our country, Palestine...

Of course, all my friends know how to draw the map of Palestine. Here, the map of Palestine is ready, in its historic area."

[PA TV (Fatah), March 30, 2012]

Palestinians Trying to 'Wipe Out Jewish History' "CBN News" Christian World News.

Erasing our history in the name of ‘heritage’

Last week I attended the grand opening of “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times,” the exhibit housed in Discovery Times Square on West 44th Street in Manhattan. During the reception, we were regaled by addresses from Consul General for Israel Ido Aharoni, the head of the Discovery Times Square museum, and other dignitaries. Neshama Carlebach and a gospel choir from the Bronx performed inspirational Hebrew songs.

The highlight, of course, was the exhibit itself. It was not only about the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of fragments comprising some 900 scrolls dated from around 250 BCE to 60 CE. It was an archeological history of ancient Israel, from the Iron Age, 1,200-1,000 BCE, through the destruction of Jerusalem’s Second Temple in 70 CE.

On display was a four-room Israelite house from the eighth century BCE, which included utensils, pottery, and other household items. There were 2,700-year-old fragments outlining the writings of Eliashib, son of Eshiyahu, the commander of the Judean fortress in Arad, who was asked to give wine and flour to the soldiers in the stronghold. Many artifacts from Jerusalem, the City of David, were also on display.

And, of course, there were the Dead Sea scrolls themselves. According to the exhibition’s catalogue, “These two-thousand-year-old parchments and scraps of parchments demonstrate that in the days of Hellenic and Roman control of Judea and the land of Israel, the Hebrew Bible was already a highly regarded collection of items upon which the people of Israel relied to understand the history and relationship with their G-d.”

Many of the scrolls are non-biblical and represent legal writings, commentary, liturgical texts, and musings addressing such questions as where one fits into God’s plans and how to live when confronted by imminent Roman conquest.

The exhibit puts into context that ancient Israel was “a place, a nation, and also the fount of a new faith that has extraordinary impact down to our own age.” The Hebrew Torah has served as a source for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and has swayed religious thinkers, philosophers, political leaders, institutions of higher learning, and seats of government for two millennia. Ancient Israel was the cradle of religious civilization.

Meanwhile, about a mile to the east, at the United Nations, the executive committee of UNESCO — the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — voted 40 to four to recommend admission of Palestine as a member state. On Monday, in a landslide vote, UNESCO members approved full UNESCO membership for the Palestinians.

Israeli diplomats believe that this unilateral approach by the Palestinians appears to be a continuation of its effort, originally postured by Yasser Arafat, to deny the historical and religious Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. Palestinian membership in UNESCO, which is perhaps best known for declaring “World Heritage Sites,” could mean that such holy sites as the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem could be designated “Palestinian” Heritage Sites, without any connection to the Jewish Bible.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, also noted that Mahmoud Abbas, in his recent speech to the General Assembly, spoke only about Muslim and Christian connections to the land, in direct contrast to the remarks of King Hussein of Jordan during his 1995 visit to the United States, where he explicitly recognized the ongoing attachment of all three monotheistic faiths to the Land of Israel.

When the issue of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state first arose in the context of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, I viewed it as being easy for the Palestinians to accept. After all, this has been a reality for close to 64 years. Instead, some of their leaders have chosen to conjoin the delegitimization of Israel as a Jewish state and efforts to expunge Jewish history.

Negotiations can’t be productive if one side does not recognize the other’s history. If the Palestinians are in need of this history lesson, they might do well to visit the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, a shining reminder of the glory of Jewish history and the Jews’ deep connection to Eretz Yisrael.

Max L. Kleinman is executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey.

PA Plan: Use UN to Cement Claims to Jewish Holy Sites

The Palestinian Authority plans to use membership in the United Nations’ UNESCO cultural committee to lay claims to Jewish holy sites, PA ministers said Monday, speaking to Reuters.

PA Minister of Culture Hamdan Taha said the PA would seek World Heritage status for several sites, beginning with Bethlehem. The PA has already had some success in claiming Bethlehem sites for the Arab world – in 2010, UNESCO agreed to declare the Tomb of Rachel a mosque and “an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories.”

UNESCO also agreed to criticize Israel for declaring the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Me'arat Hamachpelah), in which most of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs are buried, an Israeli heritage site. The organization responded to Israeli protests byerasing them from the record; Israel responded by cutting ties with UNESCO.

The PA will seek UNESCO recognition for its claims in Hevron as well, Taha said. It will also seek recognition for Shechem, the Shomron (Samaria) city that is home to Joseph’s Tomb.

“We think that every old city has the right to prepare a nomination file” for heritage site status, Taha said.

Another site the PA hopes to earn heritage status for is the Dead Sea, he stated.

The PA bid to seek full UNESCO membership has led to conflict as the U.S. warns that by accepting the PA, UNESCO will be putting its U.S. funding at risk. U.S. Secretary of State termed UNESCO’s decision to vote on PA membership “inexplicable,” and said the group should leave voting to the United Nations.

Digging on Temple Mount 'to Erase Traces of Jewish Altar'

Muslim religious authorities are concluding a clandestine eight-month dig on the Temple Mount that is intended to erase traces of the Jewish Temple's Altar, Temple activists charge.

The digs have been taking place under the Dome of the Chain, believed to have been built over 1300 years ago. For eight months, the dome - which has a diameter of 14 meters - has been surrounded by a metal fence and black cloth, which hide whatever activity has been going on there from outside inspection. The Muslim Waqf religious authority has claimed the activity is simply a refurbishing of the structure, but refuses adamantly to let Jews or tourists near.

 

Jewish activists made various attempts to enter the Dome, but met with no success. In the end, the Our Temple Mount news outlet found an Arab who was willing to take photos inside the compound in return for a handsome fee (see below). The man said that it appears the Waqf has already completed its digs and is now covering the dig with dirt.

 

Our Temple Mount notes that according to Jewish tradition, the place where the Dome of the Chain is located is the spot upon which the sacrificial Altar stood in Temple times. Temple activists said that the Muslim digs are intended to erase the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. 

MEMRI: Palestinian Officials: Western Wall Is Islamic Waqf, We Won't Give It Up A Single Stone

Palestinian officials have condemned the decision by the Israeli government to renovate the Western Wall plaza.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said that the Wall is part of occupied eastern Jerusalem and that its historic, cultural, and religious characteristics must not be changed.

PA Deputy Information Minister Al-Mutawakkil Taha stated in a study he published that the Wall is Islamic Waqf and an integral part of Al-Aqsa mosque, that the Jews have no historical religious ties to it, and that not a single stone or grain of soil from it or from the other holy sites can be relinquished.

Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Sheikh Muhammad Hussein said that Al-Aqsa mosque belongs to the Muslims alone and that the occupation will not manage to plunder the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem.

NYT: Western Wall Feud Heightens Israeli-Palestinian Tensions

JERUSALEM — The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday strongly denounced a Palestinian Authority paper that denies any Jewish connection to the Western Wall, the iconic holy site and place of Jewish worship in the Old City of Jerusalem, describing the report as “reprehensible and scandalous.”

The episode appeared to signal a worsening atmosphere after a two-month hiatus in peace talks.

Mr. Netanyahu’s statement referred to a long article that appeared in Arabic on Monday on the Information Ministry Web site of the Western-backed Palestinian government, led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank. Its publication was previously reported by The Jerusalem Post.

Jerusalem and its holy sites are one of the most intractable and emotional issues of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Israel conquered the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the Old City, from Jordan in the 1967 war, and annexed it in a move that was never internationally recognized. About 200,000 Jews live in areas of East Jerusalem that have been developed since 1967, among about a quarter-million Palestinians. The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The Western Wall is a remnant of the retaining wall of a plateau revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the site where their ancient temples once stood. The plateau is also the third holiest site in Islam. Known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, the compound now includes Al Aksa Mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock.

In Muslim tradition, the wall is the place where the Prophet Muhammad tethered his winged steed, Buraq, during his miraculous overnight journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in the seventh century.

The Palestinian paper denying any Jewish historical connection with the site was written by Al-Mutawakel Taha, an Information Ministry official. In it, he stated that “the Al Buraq Wall is the western wall of Al Aksa, which the Zionist occupation falsely claims ownership of and calls the Wailing Wall or Kotel.”

Palestinian officials have often denied claims of Jewish heritage in Jerusalem, arguing that there is no evidence that the plateau was the site of ancient temples.

In the principles for a peace accord laid out by President Bill Clinton in late 2000 after the failure to reach a final Israeli-Palestinian agreement at Camp David, the suggestion was for Palestinian sovereignty over the Haram al-Sharif and Israeli sovereignty over the Western Wall, with mutual consent needed for any excavation in the area.

Mr. Netanyahu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, proposed in his talks with Mr. Abbas in 2008 that the holy sites in and around the Old City be administered by an international trusteeship made up of Israel, the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United States. Mr. Olmert, who left office in early 2009, says that he got no response.

Mr. Netanyahu has insisted on continued Jewish building in the Jewish areas of East Jerusalem, like all Israeli governments since 1967, but he has not spelled out his intentions regarding the future status of the city since taking office.

The unofficial competition for control of Jerusalem takes place stone by stone and house by house. On Tuesday, Jewish activists moved into a building they had acquired in Jebel Mukaber, a predominantly Arab neighborhood overlooking the Old City and its holy shrines, and on Wednesday another group of Jewish activists moved into an apartment on the Mount of Olives, in a Palestinian neighborhood, A-Tur.

Mr. Taha’s paper appeared on his ministry’s Web site a day after the Israeli government approved a $23 million five-year project to renovate and develop the Western Wall Plaza and its environs.

Mr. Netanyahu, in a statement issued by his office, said the Western Wall “has been the Jewish people’s most sacred place for almost 2,000 years, since the destruction of the Second Temple.” He added that the Palestinian Authority’s denial of a Jewish link “calls into serious question its intentions of reaching a peace agreement, the foundations of which are coexistence and mutual recognition.”

Mr. Netanyahu called on the authority’s leaders to disavow the document. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

But in another indication of the strained atmosphere, the Palestinian government issued a statement titled “Israeli crimes of destruction,” listing Israeli actions in Jerusalem and Israel’s demolition in recent days of numerous Palestinian structures that were built without permits in Israeli-controlled areas of the West Bank.

PMW: Jewish history in Land of Israel erased

Denial the Jewish history and connection to the Land of Israel has been policy since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.