Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2009.
Jews have no history in the city of Jerusalem: They have never lived there, the
Temple never existed, and Israeli archaeologists have admitted as much. Those
who deny this are simply liars. Or so says Sheik Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, chief
Islamic judge of the Palestinian Authority.
His claims, made last month, would be laughable if they weren't so common
among Palestinians. Sheik Tamimi is only the latest to insist that, in his words,
Jerusalem is solely "an Arab and Islamic city and it has always been so."
His comments come on the heels of those by Shamekh Alawneh, a
lecturer in modern history at Al Quds University. On an Aug. 11 PA television
program, "Jerusalem - History and Culture," Mr. Alawneh argued that the Jews
invented their connection to Jerusalem. "It has no historical roots," he said,
adding that the Jews are engaging in "an attack on history, theft of culture,
falsification of facts, erasure of the truth, and Judaization of the place."
President Barack Obama and his foreign-policy team gear up to propose yet
another plan for Israeli-Arab peace, they would do well to focus less on
important but secondary issues like settlement growth, and instead notice that
top Palestinian intellectual and political leaders deny basic truths about the
region's most important city.
For the record: Jerusalem is the holiest city in Judaism, mentioned more than
600 times in the Hebrew Bible. Three times a day, religious Jews face eastward
toward the city when they pray. At Jewish weddings, the couple's joy is
diminished as they shatter a glass to acknowledge Jerusalem's still unfulfilled
redemption. It is a widespread custom then to recite the 137th psalm ("If I
forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither, let my tongue cleave to my
palate. . ." ).
According to Jewish tradition, Jerusalem's designation as Judaism's most
sacred city made it the obvious place for King Solomon to build the Holy
Temple following the death of his father, King David. After the temple's
destruction by the Babylonians, it was rebuilt by King Herod before being
destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70.
Earlier this month, archaeologists with the Israeli Antiquities Authority
discovered a 3,700-year-old Jerusalem wall - the oldest and biggest ever
uncovered in the region - that they believe was built by the Canaanites before
the First Temple period. It's true: there is scant archaeological evidence of the
First Temple. But not so for the Second Temple, which is accepted as historical
fact by most archaeologists. From the Herodian period, aside from dozens of
Jewish ritual baths surrounding the temple that have been uncovered, one
retaining wall of the temple, the Western Wall, still stands.
But Sheik Tamimi doesn't need to take the Jews' word for any of this, or that
of legions of world-class scholars. For proof of the Jewish connection to
Jerusalem, he need only look at writings from his own religious tradition.
The Koran, which references many biblical stories and claims figures like
Abraham as Islamic prophets, also acknowledges the existence of the Jewish
temples. The historian Karen Armstrong has written that the Koran refers to
Solomon's Temple as a "great place of prayer" and that the first Muslims
referred to Jerusalem as the "City of the Temple." Martin Kramer, a historian
who has combed through Koranic references to the temples in Arabic, notes
surra 34, verse 13, which discusses Solomon's building process: "They
[jinn/spirits] worked for him as he desired, (making) arches, images, basins
large as wells, and (cooking) cauldrons fixed (in their places)."
There is still more recent official Muslim acknowledgment of Jerusalem's
Jewish history - a booklet put out in 1924 by the Supreme Muslim Council
called "A brief guide to al-haram al-sharif." Al-haram al-sharif, the Arabic name
for the Temple Mount, is currently the site of the Dome of the Rock and Al
Aqsa mosque. It is, according to Islamic tradition, where Muhammad ascended
to heaven.
Yet it is also, according to the council's booklet, a site of uncontested
importance for the Jews. "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." And the booklet quotes the book
of Samuel: "This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which
'David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offering and peace
offerings.'"
Later, the booklet says the underground structure known as King
Solomon's Stables probably dates "as far back as the construction of
Solomon's Temple." Citing the historian Flavius Josephus, it claims the stables
were likely used as a "place of refuge by the Jews at the time of the conquest
of Jerusalem by Titus in the year 70 A.D."
So why do those like Mr. Tamimi deny what their predecessors acknowledged?
To undermine Israel, which earned statehood in 1948 and captured the Old City
of Jerusalem during the Six Day War of 1967. Since then, Palestinian leaders
have fought to erase any Jewish connection to sacred places, particularly the
Temple Mount.
While Israel has never hesitated to acknowledge Jerusalem's holiness in Islam -
albeit saying that it has less importance than Mecca - Palestinian leaders insist
that Jews are transplants in the region, nothing more than white European
colonialists. This denial has formed the foundation for their argument that
Jerusalem should become Palestine's capital.
This is why the previous mufti of the Palestinian Authority, Sheik Ikrama
Sabri, dismisses the Western Wall as "just a fence." Yasser Arafat classified it,
bizarrely, as "a Muslim shrine." As Saeb Erekat, Arafat's chief negotiator, said
to President Clinton at Camp David in 2000: "I don't believe there was a temple
on top of the Haram [holy site], I really don't."
These sentiments are echoed in Palestinian primary-school textbooks, preached
at mosques, and printed in official newspapers. The Palestinian leadership isn't
bellyaching over borders - it is stating, in full voice, that Israel has no right to its
most basic historical and religious legacy.
This is no foundation for "peace talks."
