religions Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17 to capture and destroy al-Aqsa,Article but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan,Rethinking who serves as the guardian the Role of the holy of Religionsites in Jerusalem in1, and Arab with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeksAntisemitic of clashes around th Discoursese Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on theseEsther events, Webman Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July Thedenied Dayan any Center Jewish for connect Middle Easternion to andJerusalem African referring Studies, Tel to Aviv Israel’s University, alleged Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel; futile efforts to find [email protected] proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily



 al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem Received:was never 28 Mayand 2019;will Accepted:never be 20Jewish”. June 2019; If Published:the Israeli 1 Julyclaims 2019 of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian Abstract: “The Palestinian cause is not about land and soil, but it is about faith and belief,” origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. insist Islamists in their attempts to Islamize the Arab–Israeli conflict. This paper examines the Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald instrumentalization of religion in the conflict since its early stages, and its impact on Arab antisemitic Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also discourses. It is based on an ongoing research project exploring references to the Jews in Arab, foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the particularly the Palestinian and Egyptian, Islamist as well as nationalist media, during major Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim landmarks in the conflict’s history, from the Arab Wailing Wall riots in 1929 up to US president Donald world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017. It contends that despite Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in the intensified exploitation of Islam in the incitement against Israel, Zionism, and the Jews, and Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action despite the traditional enmity towards the Jews as a group deriving from Islam, preliminary findings against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious show that the most common themes in the Arab antisemitic discourse originate from a more modern, authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the exogenous vocabulary and perceptions. Classical Christian–Western tropes, such as conspiracy London-based al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as theories epitomized in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Nazi terminology, and Holocaust denial, “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab are extensively used and are much more pervasive. and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by Muslim preachers in Arab countriesKeywords: andAntisemitism; in mosques of Islam; Muslim Arab–Israeli communities conflict; worldwide. anti-Zionism; Judeophobia; anti-Judaism Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that preoccupied Arab writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to Jerusalem in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli historians and archeologists on the interpretation of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel or Tel Aviv,” announced MuhammadThe Temple al-Mula Mount in an and interview Jerusalem, with whichthe Kuwaiti are considered TV on 12 December, by the Palestinians and most of the adding that “Jerusalem is ArabMuslims and Islamic. in the world Jerusalem as Muslim is the city holy of sites, Islam were … It thewill causereturn for to the Arab explosion of disturbances and and Islamic nation”. Trumpclashes adopted between “the IsraeliZionist security narrative”, forces claimed and the ʻUmar Palestinians Hilmi al-Ghul in 2017. in On the 14 July, three Israeli Arabs Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadidafrom on Umm9 December. al-Fahm “It assassinated is not our goal two to Israeli examine police the border falsification guards of at history the exit from the Temple Mount. and Trump’s ignorance,” Inhe response, wrote. If the he Israeli wants authorities to learn the closed truth the he compound should read for worshippers what Israeli to enable the investigation archeologists wrote after “searchingof the incident, for the and past decided 70 years to for place one metal archeological detectors remnant at the entrance related to of the premise. These measures [presence] of a third templesparked [there protestswere only and two], incitement or connecting in the Arab the Jews and Muslimto Palestine worlds in general”. against what was interpreted as an Similarly, Hamas leader MuhammadIsraeli attempt Nazzal to change accused the the status Zionists quo in of the falsifying Temple Mountbiblical and remnants as a further in step in Israel’s efforts to Lebanese al-Akhbar on 13 cleanseDecember, Palestine claiming of its as Palestinians well that inhabitants,Israeli archeological take control scholars, of the Mountsuch as according to a “grand plan” Israel Finkelstein and Davidto destroyUssishkin, al-Aqsa “failed mosque to provide and build important the Third proof Temple. that the city [Jerusalem] was inhabited [by Jews] in the 10thShaykh Century Kamal BC”. Khatib, the deputy head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel In this debate there wasaccused a tacit the agreement Israeli government between inalla Palestinian televised interview factions withHamas, al-Jazira the Muslim TV on 16 July of injecting chemical Brothers in Jordan and Palestiniansubstances Authority’s with a long-term (PA) representatives effect in al-Aqsa on mosque the perception to bring about of Trump’s its destruction. Egyptian al-Azhar declaration as a new andProfessor, worse Balfour Ahmad Declaration. Karima, called Hamas upon leader the Muslim Ismaʻ worldil Haniyya to wage described an armed jihad (holy war) against Trump’s statement at a rallythe marking Jews, whom 30 years she describedto the founding as aggressors, of Hamas thieves, on 14 December, and slayers as of even prophets during an interview more dangerous than the withBalfour the Declaration. Palestinian Authority’sFatah leaders o ffiandcial the TV PA channel considered on 20 it July. as a Imams“second in Friday sermons, such as Balfour Declaration”, whereasEgyptian-born journalist ʻAbdelilahAmr Shahin Belqaziz at the Islamicin United Center Arab of Emirates Davis in (UAE) California, daily called on 14 and 21 July to al-Khalij of 18 December described“liberate al-Aqsait as “the mosque first bitter from fruit” thefilth of the of theso-called Jews”, “Arab and“turn Spring” Jerusalem and a into a graveyard for the severe crime, exceeding “Balfour’sJews”. On crime 21 July, whic Shaykhh is Mahmudexactly one Harmush century of old”. the California-basedTrump was even Islamic Center of Riverside compared to Adolf Hitler.also Ahmad called Qadidi, for the a annihilation Tunisian politician of the Jews, and former and accused ambassador them of to plotting Qatar not only to capture and

1 Jordan was recognized byReligions Israel as2019 the, 10 guardian, 415; doi:10.3390 of the/ rel10070415holy places in Jerusalem since 1967, after its defeatwww.mdpi.com /journal/religions in the War and retreat from the West Bank.

Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17 to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the London-based al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by Muslim preachers in Arab countries and in mosques of Muslim communities worldwide. Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that preoccupied Arab writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to Jerusalem in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli historians and archeologists on the interpretation of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel or Tel Aviv,” announced Muhammad al-Mula in an interview with the Kuwaiti TV on 12 December, adding that “Jerusalem is Arab and Islamic. Jerusalem is the city of Islam … It will return to the Arab and Islamic nation”. Trump adopted “the Zionist narrative”, claimed ʻUmar Hilmi al-Ghul in the Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida on 9 December. “It is not our goal to examine the falsification of history and Trump’s ignorance,” he wrote. If he wants to learn the truth he should read what Israeli archeologists wrote after “searching for the past 70 years for one archeological remnant related to the Religions 2019, 10, 415 2 of 16 [presence] of a third temple [there were only two], or connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. Similarly, Hamas leader Muhammad Nazzal accused the Zionists of falsifying biblical remnants in Lebanese al-Akhbar on 13destroy December, al-Aqsa, claiming but also as to well capture that Mecca Israeli and archeological Medina. Following scholars, negotiations such as with King Abdallah of Israel Finkelstein and DavidJordan, Ussishkin, who serves “failed as the to provide guardian important of the holy proof sites that in Jerusalem the city 1[Jerusalem], and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal was inhabited [by Jews] indetectors the 10th were Century removed, BC”. and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of In this debate there wasclashes a tacit around agreement the Mount between and across all Palestinian the West Bank,factions especially Hamas, onthe Fridays, Muslim defined as “days of rage”, Brothers in Jordan and Palestinianthe protests Authority’s and demonstrations (PA) representatives subsided. on the perception of Trump’s declaration as a new and worseCommenting Balfour onDeclaration. these events, Hamas Lebanese leader columnist Ismaʻil JihadHaniyya al-Khazin described in the London-based al-Hayat Trump’s statement at a rallyon 22 marking and 28 July30 years denied to anythe founding Jewish connection of Hamas to on Jerusalem 14 December, referring as toeven Israel’s alleged futile efforts more dangerous than theto Balfour find archeological Declaration. proofs Fatah to leaders support and its the “lies” PA throughout considered its it 70as yearsa “second of history. Similar contentions Balfour Declaration”, whereaswere voicedjournalist by ʻAbdelilahAli Muhsin Belqaziz Hamid in on United 26 July, Arab in an Emirates article in(UAE) the Egyptiandaily daily al-Ahram titled al-Khalij of 18 December “Jerusalemdescribed it was as “the never first and bi willtter neverfruit” beof Jewish”.the so-called If the “Arab Israeli Spring” claims ofand Jewish a connection were to be severe crime, exceeding true,“Balfour’s he claimed, crime the whic trueh Jewishis exactly inhabitants one century needed old”. to beTrump from Palestinianwas even origin and not Russians, compared to Adolf Hitler.Indians, Ahmad Americans, Qadidi, a Ethiopians,Tunisian politician and so on. and former ambassador to Qatar Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also foresaw the 1 Jordan was recognized byremaining Israel as the of the guardian Wailing of Wallthe holy in Israeli places handsin Jerusalem in any since future 1967, agreement after its defeat with the Palestinians. Turkey’s in the War and retreat frompresident the West Recep Bank. Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the London-based al-Quds al- Arabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by Muslim preachers in Arab countries and in mosques of Muslim communities worldwide. Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that preoccupied Arab writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to Jerusalem in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli historians and archeologists on the interpretation of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel or Tel Aviv,” announced Muhammad al-Mula in an interview with the Kuwaiti TV on 12 December, adding that “Jerusalem is Arab and Islamic. Jerusalem is the city of Islam ... It will return to the Arab and Islamic nation”. Trump adopted “the Zionist narrative”, claimed Umar Hilmi al-Ghul in the Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida on 9 December. “It is not our goal to examine the falsification of history and Trump’s ignorance,” he wrote. If he wants to learn the truth he should read what Israeli archeologists wrote after “searching for the past 70 years for one archeological remnant related to the [presence] of a third temple [there were only two], or connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. Similarly, Hamas leader Muhammad Nazzal accused the Zionists of falsifying biblical remnants in Lebanese al-Akhbar on 13 December, claiming as well that Israeli archeological scholars, such as Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, “failed to provide important proof that the city [Jerusalem] was inhabited [by Jews] in the 10th Century BC”. In this debate there was a tacit agreement between all Palestinian factions Hamas, the Muslim Brothers in Jordan and Palestinian Authority’s (PA) representatives on the perception of Trump’s declaration as a new and worse Balfour Declaration. Hamas leader Isma il Haniyya described Trump’s statement at a rally marking 30 years to the founding of Hamas on 14 December, as even more dangerous than the Balfour Declaration. Fatah leaders and the PA considered it as a “second Balfour Declaration”, whereas journalist Abdelilah Belqaziz in United Arab Emirates (UAE) daily al-Khalij of

1 Jordan was recognized by Israel as the guardian of the holy places in Jerusalem since 1967, after its defeat in the War and retreat from the West Bank. Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17

to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the London-based al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by Muslim preachers in Arab countries and in mosques of Muslim communities worldwide. Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that preoccupied Arab writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to Jerusalem in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli historians and archeologists on the interpretation of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel or Tel Aviv,” announced Muhammad al-Mula in an interview with the Kuwaiti TV on 12 December, adding that “Jerusalem is Arab and Islamic. Jerusalem is the city of Islam … It will return to the Arab and Islamic nation”. Trump adopted “the Zionist narrative”, claimed ʻUmar Hilmi al-Ghul in the Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida on 9 December. “It is not our goal to examine the falsification of history and Trump’s ignorance,” he wrote. If he wants to learn the truth he should read what Israeli archeologists wrote after “searching for the past 70 years for one archeological remnant related to the Religions 2019, 10, 415 3 of 16 [presence] of a third temple [there were only two], or connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. Similarly, Hamas leader Muhammad Nazzal accused the Zionists of falsifying biblical remnants in 18 December described it as “theLebanese first bitter al-Akhbar fruit” of on the 13 so-called December, “Arab claiming Spring” as and well a severe that Israeli crime, archeological scholars, such as exceeding “Balfour’s crime whichIsrael is exactly Finkelstein one century and David old”. Ussishkin, Trump was “failed even to compared provide important to Adolf proof that the city [Jerusalem] Hitler. Ahmad Qadidi, a Tunisianwas politician inhabited and [by former Jews] ambassadorin the 10th Century to Qatar BC”. published an article in the Qatari daily al-Sharq on 14 December,In this describing debate there the was American a tacit moveagreement as “a between final solution all Palestinian to the factions Hamas, the Muslim Palestinian problem”, likening itBrothers to Hitler’s in final Jordan solution and forPalestinian the Jewish Authority’s problem—a (PA) move representatives in which he on the perception of Trump’s “did not succeed”. On the same day,declaration the Palestinian as a new Fatah and movement worse Balfour posted inDeclaration. its hashtag “HandsHamas Oleaderff Ismaʻil Haniyya described Alquds” Trump’s picture on topTrump’s of Hitler’s statement picture, at with a rally an English marking title: 30 years “I can’t to seethe thefounding difference. of Hamas on 14 December, as even Can you?”2 more dangerous than the Balfour Declaration. Fatah leaders and the PA considered it as a “second The Protocols of the Elders of ZionBalfourwere Declaration”, also invoked inwhereas an article journalist by Yasir ʻAbdelilahAbdullah onBelqaziz 19 December, in United Arab Emirates (UAE) daily in the Palestinian Ma an Newsal-Khalij Agency. of After18 December describing described them and it as their “thegoals, first bi hetter claimed fruit” of that the so-called “Arab Spring” and a Jerusalem is in danger, and that thesevere US iscrime, “a tool exceeding for the execution “Balfour’s of the crime Zionist whic plotsh is throughout exactly one the century old”. Trump was even Arab world”. Therefore, he suggestedcompared counteracting to Adolf Hitler. them by Ahmad drafting Qadidi, the “Protocols a Tunisi ofan thepolitician Elders ofand former ambassador to Qatar Palestine/Arabs” for dealing with Arab weaknesses and inter-Palestinian rifts, and enabling them in the next 100 years “to retrieve the lands and restore Arab pride”. In contrast to these commentaries,1 Jordan a fewwas writers,recognized such by asIsrael former as the PA guardian minister of Ziyadthe holy Abu places Ziyad, in Jerusalem since 1967, after its defeat and the Saudi prince Turki al-Faysal,in the called War toand leverage retreat from the the declaration West Bank. for the recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.3 The head of the Middle East Research Institute in Jedda, Abd al-Hamid Hakim, in a televised interview with the al-Hurra TV on 15 December, also expressed his support for Trump’s declaration and recognized Jewish history and links to the city. “We must recognize and understand that Jerusalem is a religious symbol for the Jews. It is sacred [to them] as are Mecca and al-Madina to the Muslims.” Hamid added that “the Arab mind must clear itself from the legacies of Nasserism and political Islam, both Sunni and Shi i, which instilled a culture of hatred [towards] the Jews and denied their historical right to the region.”4 Those two relatively recent episodes are typical examples of the complex entanglement of religion in the Arab–Israeli conflict and its reflection in the Arab antisemitic discourse. They contain major elements: the centrality of symbols such as the Temple Mount and Jerusalem; the pattern and vocabulary of mobilization; the denial of Jewish history in Palestine; the negative perceptions of the Jews; the invocation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; the usage of the Nazi era terminology; and a few dissenting voices, challenging the Islamist and mainstream discourse on Israel and the Jews. This paper seeks to review the role of religion in the conflict over Palestine between the Palestinian Arabs and the Zionist/Jewish settlers, and to examine the way it impacted the Arab antisemitic discourse. It is a part of an ongoing project exploring references to the Jews in Arab, and particularly Palestinian and Egyptian, Islamist as well as nationalist press, during major landmarks in the conflict’s history, from the Arab Wailing Wall riots in 1929 up to US president Trump recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.5 This is a qualitative research which seeks to establish how and when Islam was used to Islamize the conflict and antisemitism, and to assess to what extent these attempts succeeded. A basic premise of this article is that antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim world is a religious, cultural, social and political construction of the contemporary era in the wake of the conflict and the rise of Arab nationalism and Islamism. Another premise is that it comprises religious anti-Judaic and Judeophobic themes as well as imported Christian European antisemitic themes. Hence, it is both a continuation of the past and a modern phenomenon, which creates a new authentic brand

2 Memri, “Violent Incitement Against Trump On Fatah Social Media Accounts,” special dispatch No. 7239, 19 December 2017, accessed 9 March 2019, at https://www.memri.org/reports/violent-incitement-against-trump-fatah-social-media-accounts- comparisons-hitler-execution. 3 Memri, “Saudi Prince Turki Al-Faisal in Open Letter to Trump,” special dispatch No. 7225, 13 December 2017, accessed 9 March 2019, at https://www.memri.org/reports/turki-faisal-open-letter-to-trump. 4 MemriTV, clip No. 6324, 15 December 2017, accessed 9 March 2019, at https://www.memri.org/tv/saudi-researcher-jerusalem- is-capital-of-israel-opportunity-for-peace. 5 The landmarks are: 1929 riots; the period between the two world wars and the 1936–1939 Arab revolt; 1948 in the wake of the establishment of the state of Israel; the Tripartite War of 1956; the 1967 War; the first intifada; the second intifada; and the Arab Spring. Religions 2019, 10, 415 4 of 16 of antisemitism that can be termed as Islamic new antisemitism. There is a great confusion in the terms used to define antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim worlds—anti-Jewishness; Jew-hatred; anti-Judaism; Judeophobia; Islamic antisemitism; Islamic anti-Zionism. For facilitating the discussion, this paper continues to use the term antisemitism, but it suggests to relate the term antisemitism to the imported Western themes, and to refer to the religious-based dehumanization of Jews, especially in the Islamist discourse, as Judeophobia. Whereas Judeophobia encompasses in the Arab/Muslim world: denigration of Judaism, defamation of the Jewish character, discrimination against Jews, and efforts at their destruction, antisemitism encompasses the Western perceptions of the Jews as an omnipotent subversive power, seeking to control the world, absent in Islamic culture which perceive the Jews as meek and coward. (For a discussion on this issue see: Schroeter 2018; Judaken 2018). Such a differentiation refines the understanding of the phenomenon, and avoids the pitfall of essentialism in the search for the roots of antisemitism in the Arab world, common in certain works that claim that it is “an inherent part of the Islamic culture” (Israeli 2005; Bostom 2008). This approach also corresponds with the “schema of paradigms” introduced by Douglas Pratt “to reflect the historical variants and developments of the relationship between Islam and Judaism:” the originating paradigms of the early Islamic era; the historic-legal paradigms or the dhimmi regulations of the Medieval period; the contemporary-negative paradigms or the Islamic neo-antisemitism of the modern era; and the prospective-positive paradigms, based on acceptance and affirmation, which can be traced in recent years (Pratt 2010). Clifford Geertz defines religion as: (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, persuasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the motivations seem uniquely realistic” (Geertz 1973, p. 90; Marvin and Inge 1999, p. 18). Religion provides the motivation, the justification, the organization, and the worldview. This was clearly apparent in the religiously based mobilization of the Palestinians and Muslims for the Palestinian cause as well as for the later mobilization of global Jihadists (Dawson 2018). “The force of a religion in supporting social values rests on the ability of its symbols to formulate a world in which those values, as well as the forces opposing their realization, are fundamental ingredients” (Geertz 1973, p. 131). Kocku von Stuckrad adds that “Religions are powerful not because they reveal transcendent truths or the effects of an ontologized ‘History’, but because they serve as instruments in the communicative formation of identity and provide people with a concrete script of action” (Von Stuckrad 2003, pp. 268–69). Therefore, he suggests examining the role of religions as systems of communication and action. Jonathan Fox posited four roles that religion can play in a conflict between groups. First, religion provides an ideological framework for understanding the world; secondly, religion defines codes of behavior that link the faithful and their activities to that framework; thirdly, religion links the individual to an all-encompassing story and at times creates the institutions that organize and recruit individuals towards the realization of these goals; finally, religion provides legitimacy for activities and institutions in pursuit of these goals (Fox 1999). The gist of these approaches to religion informs my analysis. It comprises of three parts: the first part is a background note on Islam’s attitude towards the Jews and the rise of antisemitism; the second part focuses on the deliberate actions employed in the exploitation of religion during the 1920s, and the two intifadas by political and religious leaders; and the third part deals with the major religious themes raised in the contemporary polemics against the Jews. A major contention of this paper is that Islam played a crucial role in the conflict since its very early stages, and it was naturally so. Most writers on the conflict acknowledged the role of religion but they considered it secondary to the role of the secular, nationalist discourse until the 1967 War, claiming that the conflict underwent an Islamization process with the surge of political Islam in the aftermath of this war (Litvak 1998; Sivan 2008). I will show that from the very beginning of the conflict Islam was used to fan the conflict and mobilize domestic, Arab, and Muslim support for the Palestinian cause. “In contexts of confessional and national-ethnic conflict”, Islam often served Religions 2019, 10, 415 5 of 16

“to articulate the nationalism of groups that are living within a political structure,” contended Coury (Coury 2004, p. 130). Moreover, as Jonathan Gribetz showed in his study on Muslim-Jewish relations in the late years of the Ottoman Empire, “the intellectuals of this period often thought of one another and interpreted one another’s actions in terms of two central categories: religion and race” (Gribetz 2014, p. 3). Religion was central to the empire’s relationship with its diverse populations, and continued to be central during the Mandate period. As Palestinian scholar, Musa Budeiri, further elaborated, “the overt articulation of goals and policies was expressed in terms of Islam. Indeed, it could not be otherwise. No other ideological idiom would have been familiar or comprehensible to the rural inhabitants of the country, who constituted a majority and to whom the idea of nation and national interest was totally alien” (Budeiri 1997, p. 196). Moreover, Islam is perceived as faith (din) and state (dawla), and even the modern concept of nationalism which emerged in the Arab world since the last quarter of the 19th century was infused with religion. The rise of Islamist movements exacerbated the attempts to Islamize the conflict and reinforced themes which have already existed. Another contention is that the entanglement of religion in the conflict had a decisive impact on the rise of antisemitism in Arab and Muslim societies, and on its features. However, since the Islamization of the conflict was seen as derived from the surge of Islamist movements, it had also been assumed that the state-sponsored antisemitism of the 1950s and 1960s was inculcated from above (Harkabi 1974, pp. 263–70), whereas Islamist antisemitism emerged from below, and as such it appears to be more deeply rooted. It seems, however, that Islamist antisemitism was also inculcated from above with the efforts of the Palestinian leadership to construct the conflict as a religious conflict from the 1920s. Both nationalist and Islamist discourse on the Jews drew anti-Jewish themes from Islamic sources, albeit from different standpoints and different degrees, to describe the Jewish threat. Islamist ideology combined the historical religious aspects of its perception of the conflict with national and social aspects (El-Awaisi 1991, pp. 226, 234–44), and combined in its Judeophobic discourse imported Western themes. Preliminary findings of this research clearly show that despite the intensified exploitation of Islam in the incitement against Israel, Zionism, and the Jews, the most popular recurring antisemitic themes were derived from classical Christian and Western vocabulary, especially conspiracy theories, the blood libel, Nazi imagery, and Holocaust denial. During the period between the two world wars, the Arab press was extensively preoccupied with the issue of the Jews, especially in view of the rising antisemitism in Europe and the immigration to Palestine, and exhibited a wide and diversified range of attitudes. Most reports were informative, and did not obsessively deal with the inherent corrupted character of the Jews. Although already then Islamic sources were used to provide justification for the delegitimization of Zionism, and were welded with Western antisemitic tropes, the Islamist discourse acknowledged Jewish history and the Jewish link to the land of Israel–Palestine. An abrupt change in attitude occurred with the establishment of the state of Israel, bringing to the fore a more monolithic discourse, which strives to deny Jewish historical roots in Palestine and challenge the nationhood of the Jews. This trend was exacerbated by the rise of political Islam. Another finding is that there is continuity in the patterns of Islamic mobilization, which started with the first Arab riots of the 1920s—the terms, the symbols, and days of action. However, it seems that in the wake of the Arab revolutions of 2011, and the aversion in Arab societies to the Islamist ideology and practice, as well as a result of regional and global strategic changes there is a growing, albeit slow, trend, of revisiting the attitudes towards Israel and the Jews. A perusal through the content of Hamas mouthpiece Filastin al-Muslima in 2011–12, even shows that the religious themes, such as the early Muslim encounter with the Jews, which were extensively discussed in the 1990s, diminished significantly over the years. Moreover, despite the surge of religiosity at various levels of Arab societies, there is a gap between rhetoric and praxis. While the volume, virulence, and aggressiveness of the rhetoric against Jews continues unabated, especially in time of crises and confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians, the religiously based mobilization attempts failed to achieve their goals, and the Palestinians found themselves again and again alone in their war with Israel. Religions 2019, 10, 415 6 of 16

1. Islam’s Attitude Towards the Jews and the Rise of Antisemitism Two major points of the history of Muslim-Jewish relations from the early days of Islam to the contemporary era are relevant to the discussion in this paper: the Islamic scriptures portrayal of the Jews or the originating paradigms of the early Islamic era; and the Jews’ legal status under Muslim rule or the dhimmi regulations of the medieval period. “The Qur’an has both positive and negative things to say about Jews. However, the positive statements come from the early part of Muhammad’s career, while he was still in Pagan Mecca (610–22), and are mainly in the context of biblical history and lore” (Stillman 2010, p. 212). The Prophet’s attitude underwent a radical change after his emigration to Medina, and the anti-Jewish verses were the result of his encounter with the Jews there and their rejection of his message. These verses attack not only the tenets of the Jewish faith but also the alleged characteristics of the Jewish community: Treachery, clannishness and divisiveness (Ben-Shammai 1988; Sivan 2012, p. 3). This early Islamic history preoccupied Muslim polemicists and shaped attitudes and behavior towards Christians and Jews in Arab lands. “In particular, Muslim polemicists have focused on the Jewish tribes of Medina, those who took up arms against the Prophet and sought to betray him to his enemies as the latter besieged the city” (Lassner and Troen 2007, p. 5). However, Islamic theology was for many centuries less preoccupied with the Jews because of their weakness and misery. As scholar Jeffrey Kenney notes, “the successful military and ideological expansion of Islam overshadowed the earlier challenges that Jews had posed to Muhammad” (Kenney 1994, p. 253). Recognized as ahl al-kitab (the People of the Book), believers in monotheism, Jews and Christians were considered to be ahl al-dhimma—protected religious communities by the Islamic state under Islamic law. “Both the covenant of dhimma and the millet system [established in the Ottoman Empire] rested on institutionalized discrimination on the basis of religion” (Stillman 2019). They were allowed to exercise their religions and their communal life, but had to abide by the rules and duties dictated by “a social framework of discriminations and disabilities that constantly emphasized the superiority of Muslims”, as Wistrich emphasized (Wistrich 2002, p. 6; see also ibid.). It should be noted, however, that until the modern era, Jews lacked demonic qualities attributed to them in medieval Christian literature, and the negative representation of the Jews in Islamic sources did not reflect obsessive emotional hatred (Stillman 2010, p. 214. See also Lewis 1997, pp. 117–39). Historians of medieval Islam, such as Mark Cohen and the late Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, claim that “despite the theological intolerance that Islam shared with Christendom, the Jews of Islam experienced far greater security and integration with the majority society than their brethren in Europe” (Cohen 1986, p. 127). The Jews were indigenous inhabitants of the area, not as in Western Christendom, and they shared their dhimmi status with other non-Muslim groups. Moreover, pluralism and religious heterogeneity were engrained more deeply in Islamic than in European society, and Muslim religious discrimination was directed at the dhimmi class as a whole, rather than at the Jews in particular. Therefore, “the negative psychological impact of second-class status was substantially blunted for the Jews” (Ibid., p. 133). Moreover, there was a gap between theory and practice, which “made for a basically lenient, flexible attitude in many spheres, and for turning a blind eye to many practices which diverged from the desirable theory of holy law” (Lazarus-Yafeh 1999, p. 108. See also Nirenberg 2013, p. 177–78). Even in the later Middle Ages, when relations between Muslims and dhimmis deteriorated, “nobody ever connected Jews with Satan ... or attributed to them any devilish intention” (Lazarus-Yafeh 1999, 111). Jew-hatred, as the renowned scholar Goitein concluded from the Geniza documents, was on the whole “local and sporadic, rather than general and endemic” (Goitein 1971, p. 283, as quoted by Stillman 2010, p. 215). European antisemitism, in both its theological and racist versions, was essentially alien to Islamic traditions, culture, and modes of thought, asserted Bernard Lewis (Lewis 1998, p. 43). However, in the modern era “to an astonishing degree, the ideas, the literature, even the crudest inventions of the Nazis and their predecessors have been internalized and Islamized. The major themes—poisoning wells, the invented Talmud quotations, ritual murder, the hatred of mankind, the Masonic and Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17

to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with Religions 2019, 10, 415 King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian7 ofof 16 the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on other conspiracy theories, taking over the world—remain; but with an Islamic twist” (Ibid. See also Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. (Webman 2018)). Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based Manifestations of ideological hostility to Jews were the products of modernity appearing already al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged in the 19th century, before the emergence of Zionism, as a result of the growing European political and futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. cultural penetration of the Middle East. Coupled with the weakness of the Muslim world they created Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily a sense of deep crisis among Muslims, causing a worsening in their attitude towards the Christian al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish and Jewish minorities, identified as the main beneficiaries of the growing Western influence and of connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian various reform efforts carried out by local rulers. The import of anti-Jewish ideas and antisemitic origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. themes along with other ideas, mostly by missionaries and Christian Arab graduates of European Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald schools, exacerbated the intolerance towards the Jews. The emergence of Arab nationalism and Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also Zionism, Jewish immigration to Palestine, and the deep trauma of the 1948 Arab defeat by the nascent foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the Jewish state exacerbated the anti-Jewish hostility and created a fertile ground for the entrenchment of imported antisemitic perceptions andPalestinians. for the reappearance Turkey’s president of anti-Jewish Recep Tayyip Islamic Erdo traditionsgan, who to aspires to represent the whole Muslim rationalize the negation of Zionism, Israel,world, and convened the Jews. in (For mid-December the rise of antisemitism an extraord ininary the Arab summit of the Organization of Islamic world, see Haim 1955; Harkabi 1974; SivanCooperation 1989; Nettler (OIC) 1989 in; LewisIstanbul, 1997 in; Wistrich which the 2002 particip; Krämerants 2006 reiterated; the significance of Jerusalem in Webman 2017). Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious 2. Patterns of Mobilization authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the London-based al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as “From 1918 onwards, the leadership of the Palestinian nationalist movement drew on Islamic “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab arguments and sentiment in mobilizing popular support around specific threats, in the struggle against and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by the Jewish National Home and the British Mandate. The Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husayni and the Muslim preachers in Arab countries and in mosques of Muslim communities worldwide. Supreme Muslim Council consistently highlighted the Islamic importance of Jerusalem, and the threat Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that posed by Zionism to the Muslim holy sites there, particularly after the Wailing Wall disturbances of preoccupied Arab writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to 1929” (Taji-Farouki 2004, pp. 321–22). Several methods of action were used: Jerusalem in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli - Organizing demonstrations, processions,historians and and riots,archeologists especially on onthe theinterpretation occasion of of religious their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel festivities and in locations with religiousor Tel Aviv,” significance, announced such asMuhammad Jerusalem andal-Mula Hebron; in an interview with the Kuwaiti TV on 12 December, - Issuing fatwas (religious edicts) banningadding the that sale “Jerusalem of lands tois Jews;Arab and forbidding Islamic. concession Jerusalem ofis the any city of Islam … It will return to the Arab part of Palestine; and justifying suicideand Islamic attacks againstnation”. Israeli Trump targets; adopted “the Zionist narrative”, claimed ʻUmar Hilmi al-Ghul in the - Calling for jihad and glorifying martyrdom;Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida on 9 December. “It is not our goal to examine the falsification of history - Convening conferences for the mobilizationand Trump’s of the ignorance,” Muslim World; he wrote. If he wants to learn the truth he should read what Israeli - Constructing the myth of Palestinearcheologists as a sacred Muslim wrote after land, “searching and highlighting for the thepast importance 70 years for of one archeological remnant related to the Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque in Islam;[presence] of a third temple [there were only two], or connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. - Spreading rumors and incitement bySimilarly, political Hamas and religious leader Muhammad leaders. Nazzal accused the Zionists of falsifying biblical remnants in Lebanese al-Akhbar on 13 December, claiming as well that Israeli archeological scholars, such as The Wailing Wall crisis of 1929, consideredIsrael Finkelstein by Israeli and historian David Ussishkin, Hillel Cohen “failed as the to “yearprovide zero important proof that the city [Jerusalem] of the Jewish-Arab conflict” (Cohen 2013was. See inhabited also Samuel [by Jews] 1929 in), isthe indeed 10th Century the first BC”. most important case of the use of Islam by the Palestinian leadershipIn this debate at the there time, was as the a tacit result agreement of a campaign between to make all Palestinian factions Hamas, the Muslim the world, and Palestinians, aware of aBrothers threat to in the Jordan Muslim and Holy Palestinian Places. Many Authority’s of the mobilization(PA) representatives on the perception of Trump’s tools, enumerated above, were used duringdeclaration these events. as a new The Wailingand worse Wall Balfour is the most Declaration. sacred site Hamas in leader Ismaʻil Haniyya described Judaism, but is also the Western boundaryTrump’s of the statementHaram al-Sharif at a rally, the marking Muslim sacred30 years precinct to the whichfounding of Hamas on 14 December, as even includes the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Domemore of dangerous the Rock. It than is also the where Balfour the Declaration. Prophet tied Fata the Buraqh leaders, the and the PA considered it as a “second riding animal upon which he rode duringBalfour the Night Declaration”, of Ascension whereas to Heaven journalist (Mi ʻAbdelilahraj). The incidents Belqaziz in United Arab Emirates (UAE) daily started on a religious day—the Day of Atonement,al-Khalij of 24 18 September December 1928, described when Jewishit as “the worshippers first bitter at fruit” the of the so-called “Arab Spring” and a Wall set up screens to partition men fromsevere women. crime, The exceeding screens were “Balfour’s considered crime an aberrationwhich is exactly of the one century old”. Trump was even status quo by the Arabs and followingcompared their complaints to Adolf to Hitler. the British Ahmad authorities, Qadidi, thea Tunisi screensan werepolitician and former ambassador to Qatar removed. The Supreme Muslim Council exacerbated the tension by harassing Jewish worshippers and by an active campaign to raise Palestinian consciousness of the perceived danger posed by the Jews to the al-Aqsa Mosque. Since its establishment1 Jordan was in recognized 1922, theSupreme by Israel as Muslim the guardian Council of challengedthe holy places in Jerusalem since 1967, after its defeat the Jews’ right of access to the Wall with ritualin the paraphernalia War and retreat (screens, from the benches, West Bank. and so forth) arguing that “the Wall was part of a waqf endowment and therefore Muslim property” (Johnson 1982, p. 25). Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17

to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Religions 2019, 10, 415 8 of 16 Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action The riots reached their peak in summeragainst 1929 and Trump’s spread decision. to other locations,On 12 December, including Shaykh Hebron al-Azhar and Jaff Ahmada al-Tayyib, the highest religious (Porath 1977; Cohen 2013). The councilauthority turned sanctifiedin the Sunni places world, into convened political symbols, the counci andl of infused al-Azhar scholars, which according to the politics in religious festivals in these eventsLondon-based and in the al-Quds 1936–39 al- ArabʻArabi revolt from ( Kupferschmidt13 December, rejected 1984). Trump’s declaration and defined it as In October 1928 the Committee for“an theinjustice Defense with of no Al-Buraq historical Al-Sharif, or legal setfoundati up andons”. inspired The public by protests encompassed most Arab Hajj Amin al-Husayni, issued a declarationand Muslim addressed capitals, to all and Muslims, calls encouraging stressing that a third it is incumbentintifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by Religions 2019, 10on, x FOR allMuslims PEER REVIEW to face the aggressionMuslim against theirpreachers Holy in Places Arab “and countries make and their in 4008mosques of million17 of voices Muslim a communities worldwide. single voice, raised in defense of Al-BuraqAgain, Al-Sharif, it was which Jewish is part history of the blessedand the Mosque so-called of Israel’s Al-Aqsa” and Zionism’s “invented myths” that Al-Aqsa” (Johnson(Johnson 1982, 1982 ,p. p. 2828;; KupferschmidtKupferschmidt 1984preoccupied 1984,, pp. pp. 191–92). 191–92).Arab Inwriters aIn somewhat aand somewhat commentators, different different interpretation, denying any Ilan Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to interpretation,Pappe Ilan belittlesPappe belittles the importance the importance of IslamJerusalemin of this Islam document, inin thisparticular. claimingdocument, A that few claiming it wasof them present that relied it “in was theon backgroundthe controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli present “in theand background marginal”, and and marginal”, it was not and the insultit historianswas ofnot religion the and insult archeologists that of was religion defended on that the was butinterpretation thedefended social andof their political findings. “There is no such thing as Israel but the socialrights and political of the Muslim rights believersof the Muslim (Pappe believers1998or Tel, p. Aviv,” 94). (Pappe Nevertheless, announced 1998, p. Muhammad94). these Nevertheless, events al-Mula had a these strong in an pan-Islamic interview with the Kuwaiti TV on 12 December, events had a impact,strong pan-Islamic and Husayni impact, exploited and Husayni themadding to exploited raise that international “Jerusalem them to raise is Muslim Arab international and interest Islamic. in Muslim Palestine.Jerusalem is In the 1931, city of Islam … It will return to the Arab interest in Palestine.he managed In 1931, to convene he managed in Jerusalem to conven theande Islamicin IslamicJerusalem Congress nation”. the inIslamic defenseTrump Congress adopted of Jerusalem, in “the defense attended Zionist of narrative”, by eminent claimed ʻUmar Hilmi al-Ghul in the Jerusalem, attendedscholars by from eminent all over scholars the Muslim from world,all overPalestinian including the Muslim al-Hayat the renownedworld, al-Jadida including Islamic on 9 December. scholarthe renowned Muhammad “It is not our Rashid goal to examine the falsification of history Islamic scholarRida Muhammad (Kramer 1986 Rashid, pp. Rida 123–41 (Kramer). Followingand 1986, Trump’s in pp. the 123–41). footsteps ignorance,” Following of this he congress, wrote.in the footsteps theIf he OIC, wants anof international to learn the truth he should read what Israeli this congress,organization the OIC, an ofinternational over 50 Muslim organization states,archeologists was offormed over 50 in wroteMuslim 1969 after after states, “searching an arson was formed attack for the on in past al-Aqsa 1969 70 years mosque for one by archeological remnant related to the after an arsona Christianattack on Australian al-Aqsa onmosque 21 August. by a Although [presence]Christian representing ofAustralian a third temple headson 21 of[there August. states were and Although only not religious two], or scholars,connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. representing theheads OIC of dedicated states and a not permanent religious committee scholars,Similarly, tothe the OIC JerusalemHamas dedicated leader issue, a permanentMuhammad and defined committee Nazzal its goals accused asto safeguarding the Zionists of falsifying biblical remnants in the Jerusalemthe issue, interests and anddefined securing its goals the progress as safeguardingLebanese and well-being theal-Akhbar interests of their on and peoples13 December,securing and ofthe allclaiming progress Muslims as inwell the that world Israeli archeological scholars, such as and well-being(Milton-Edwards of their peoples 2008 and, of p. all 78). Muslims Israelin the Finkelsteinworld (Milton-Edwards and David Ussishkin, 2008, p. 78). “failed to provide important proof that the city [Jerusalem] In 1934, with Inthe 1934, increase with in the Jewish increase immigratio in Jewishwasn immigrationdue inhabited to the persecution [by due Jews] to the in of the persecution German 10th Century Jews of German and BC”. in Jews and in land purchases,land Husayni purchases, issued Husayni a fatwa issued, which a forbadefatwa, whichIn any this sale forbade debate of land anythere to sale wasZionists of a landtacit or to agreementtheir Zionists agents. orbetween their agents. all Palestinian factions Hamas, the Muslim He defined theHe sale defined of land the to sale Jews of as land apostasy to Jews (kufr asBrothers apostasy), and treachery in (kufr Jordan), andtowards and treachery Palestinian God and towards his Authority’s Messenger. God and his(PA) Messenger. representatives on the perception of Trump’s He also portrayedHe also the portrayed Jews as seeking the Jews “‘the as seeking extinc “‘thedeclarationtion of extinction the lightas ofa ofnew the Islam light and and of worse Islam the Arabs andBalfour the from ArabsDeclaration. the from the Hamas holy leader Ismaʻil Haniyya described holy land’, whichland’, had which been had granted been grantedto the Palestinians to the PalestiniansTrump’s as a divinestatement as a trust divine at ( amanaa trust rally)” ( amanamarking (Taji-Farouki)” ( Taji-Farouki30 years 2004, to the2004 founding, p. 322; of Hamas on 14 December, as even p. 322; KupferschmidtKupferschmidt 1984, 1984 p. ,195). p. 195). Another Another fatwamore fatwa reinforcingdangerous reinforcing thanHusayni’s Husayni’s the Balfour ban ban ononDeclaration. landslands sales sales Fata conveying h leaders the and the PA considered it as a “second conveying thesame same urgency urgency was was issued issued in in January January 1935Balfour 1935 atat thetheDeclaration”, firstfirst conferenceconference whereas ofof PalestinianPalestinian journalist ʻAbdelilahulamaʼ in JerusalemBelqaziz in United Arab Emirates (UAE) daily in Jerusalem ((KupferschmidtKupferschmidt 19841984,, pp.pp. 196–97;196–97; The Theal-Khalij Jordanian Jordanian of Awqaf18 Awqaf December Department Department described 1990 1990, ,it pp. aspp. 65–69).“the 65–69). first Similar bitter fatwasfruit” of the so-called “Arab Spring” and a Similar fatwaswere were repeatedly repeatedly issued issued since since then, then, prohibiting prohibitingsevere crime, the the sale exceedingsale of lands, of lands, calling“Balfour’s calling for jihad forcrime jihad, and whic, and forbiddingh is exactly peace one century old”. Trump was even forbidding peaceor normalization or normalization with with Israel. Israel.6 Al-Azhar6 Al-Azharcompared scholars scholars issuedto Adolf issued a declaration Hitler. a declaration Ahmad in April Qadidi,in 1948April on a1948 Tunisi the dutyan topolitician fight and former ambassador to Qatar on the duty toin fight Palestine in Palestine and defined and defined the war the as jihadwar as(Jankowski jihad (Jankowski 1984, p. 1984, 320; Reiter p. 320; 2011 Reiter, pp. 2011, 79–80, pp. 175–76), and a 79–80, 175–76),year and after a theyear 1967 after War, the al-Azhar 1967 War, Academy al-Azhar of Islamic Academy Research of heldIslamic a conference Research whoseheld a rulings further conference whoseconsolidated rulings thefurther rejection consolidated of the Jewish the1 staterejection Jordan in religious was of recognizedthe termsJewish (byGreen state Israel in1971 as religious the. For guardian a critical terms of discussionthe holy places of in Jerusalem since 1967, after its defeat (Green 1971. Forthe impacta critical of discussion this conference, of the seeimpact Schroeter of thisin the 2018 conference, War). Theand riseretreat see of Schroeter from Islamist the West movements2018). Bank. The rise in theof wake of the Islamist movementsswift Israeli in the victory wake in of the the war swift and Isra the eli blow victory dealt in to the the war dominant and the pan-Arab blow dealt political to the and ideological dominant pan-Araborder gave political another and impetus ideological to the orde exploitationr gave another of religion impetus and the to theologization the exploitation of the of conflict. religion and the theologizationThese patterns of of the mobilization, conflict. which had been traced already in the first violent confrontations These patternsbetween of Arabsmobilization, and Jews which in the had 1920s, been continued traced already to be employed in the first by violent the Palestinians, confrontations in the first intifada between Arabsin 1987–1992,and Jews in the the second 1920s, intifada continued in 2000–2004, to be employed as well asby inthe subsequent Palestinians, encroachments in the first between the intifada in 1987–1992,Palestinians the and second Israel. intifada They were in 2000 particularly–2004, as evident well as in in the subsequent activities ofencroachments Hamas and Hizballah. between the PalestiniansBoth Hamas and Israel. and Hizballah They were perceived particularly the Arab–Israelievident in the conflict activities as the of epitomeHamas and of an inherently Hizballah. irreconcilable struggle between Jews and Muslims, between Judaism and Islam. It is not a national or Both Hamasterritorial and Hizballah conflict but perceived a historical, the religious, Arab–Israeli cultural, conflict and existentialas the epitome conflict of between an inherently truth and falsehood, irreconcilablemaintained struggle between Hamas’ Jews Charter. and Muslims, The only be waytween to confront Judaism this and struggle Islam. It is is through not a national Islam and or by means of territorial conflictjihad, untilbut a victory historical, or martyrdom religious, (cultural,Maqdsi 1993 and; Nüsseexistential 1993 ;conflict Kramer between 1987; Norton truth 1987 and, p. 169). Both falsehood, maintainedmovements Hamas’ used whatCharter. Bernard The only Wasserstein way to confront called “the this calendar struggle of is communal through Islam riot” and (Wassertein 1996; by means of jihadKupferschmidt, until victory 1984 or) martyrdom for popular (Maqdsi mobilization. 1993; ThisNüsse calendar 1993; Kramer included 1987; the Norton occasions 1987, of: p. 169). Both movements used what Bernard Wasserstein called “the calendar of communal riot” (Wassertein 1996; Kupferschmidt 1984) for popular mobilization. This calendar included the occasions of: 6 For a collection of fatwas from the mid-1930s to 1990, see (The Jordanian Awqaf Department 1990). - Islamic holidays such as ʻId al-Adha (the feast of sacrifices concluding the Hajj); the month of Ramadan; the ʻAshura, commemorating Imam Husayn’s martyrdom, which became a symbol of shiʻi oppression and later shiʻi activism, for Hizballah; - Historic events such as the Battle of Badr (symbolizing the victory of Muhammad’s Muslim minority over the infidel majority in 624);

6 For a collection of fatwas from the mid-1930s to 1990, see (The Jordanian Awqaf Department 1990).

Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17

to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the London-based al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by Muslim preachers in Arab countries and in mosques of Muslim communities worldwide. Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that preoccupied Arab writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to Jerusalem in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli historians and archeologists on the interpretation of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel or Tel Aviv,” announced Muhammad al-Mula in an interview with the Kuwaiti TV on 12 December, adding that “Jerusalem is Arab and Islamic. Jerusalem is the city of Islam … It will return to the Arab and Islamic nation”. Trump adopted “the Zionist narrative”, claimed ʻUmar Hilmi al-Ghul in the Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 8 of 17 Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida on 9 December. “It is not our goal to examine the falsification of history Al-Aqsa” (Johnson 1982, p. 28; Kupferschmidtand Trump’s 1984, ignorance,”pp. 191–92). he In wrote. a somewhat If he wants different to learn the truth he should read what Israeli interpretation, Ilan Pappe belittles the importancearcheologists of Islam wrote in thisafter document, “searching claiming for the past that 70 it years was for one archeological remnant related to the present “in the background and marginal”, [presence]and it was ofnot a thirdthe insult temple of religion[there were that onlywas two],defended or connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. but the social and political rights of the MuslimSimilarly, believers Hamas (Pappe leader 1998, Muhammad p. 94). Nevertheless, Nazzal accused these the Zionists of falsifying biblical remnants in events had a strong pan-Islamic impact, andLebanese Husayni al-Akhbarexploited onthem 13 toDecember, raise international claiming Muslimas well that Israeli archeological scholars, such as interest in Palestine. In 1931, he managed to Israelconven Finkelsteine in Jerusalem and theDavid Islamic Ussishkin, Congress “failed in defense to provide of important proof that the city [Jerusalem] Jerusalem, attended by eminent scholars fromwas al inhabitedl over the [by Muslim Jews] world,in the 10th including Century the BC”. renowned Islamic scholar Muhammad Rashid Rida (KramerIn 1986,this debate pp. 123–41). there was Following a tacit agreement in the footsteps between of all Palestinian factions Hamas, the Muslim this congress, the OIC, an international organizationBrothers inof Jordanover 50 and Muslim Palestinian states, wasAuthority’s formed (PA)in 1969 representatives on the perception of Trump’s declaration as a new and worse Balfour Declaration. Hamas leader Ismaʻil Haniyya described after an arson attack on al-Aqsa mosque by a ChristianReligions Australian2019, 10, 415 on 21 August. Although 9 of 16 representing heads of states and not religiousTrump’s scholars, statement the OIC dedicatedat a rally markinga permanent 30 years committee to the tofounding of Hamas on 14 December, as even the Jerusalem issue, and defined its goals asmore safeguarding dangerous the than interests the Balfour and securingDeclaration. the Fataprogressh leaders and the PA considered it as a “second and well-being of their peoples and of all MusBalfourlims in Declaration”, the- worldIslamic (Milton-Edwards whereas holidays journalist such 2008, as ʻAbdelilahId p. al-Adha78). Belqaziz (the feast in of United sacrifices Arab concluding Emirates (UAE) the Hajj); daily the month of In 1934, with the increase in Jewish immigratioal-Khalijn of due 18 toDecember Ramadan;the persecution described the Ashura of Germanit as, commemorating “the Jews first and bitter in Imamfruit” Husayn’sof the so-called martyrdom, “Arab which Spring” became and a a symbol of land purchases, Husayni issued a fatwa, whichsevere forbade crime, any exceeding shisalei oppressionof land “Balfour’s to Zionists and latercrime or shi theirwhici activism, agents.h is exactly for Hizballah; one century old”. Trump was even He defined the sale of land to Jews as apostasycompared (kufr), and -to treacheryAdolfHistoric Hitler. towards events Ahmad God such Qadidi, and as thehis aMessenger. Battle Tunisi ofan Badr politician (symbolizing and former the victory ambassador of Muhammad’s to Qatar Muslim He also portrayed the Jews as seeking “‘the extinction of theminority light of overIslam the and infidel the Arabs majority from in the 624); holy land’, which had been granted to the Palestinians - as a divine Landmarks trust in( amana the Arab–Israeli)” (Taji-Farouki conflict—the 2004, Balfour Declaration; the Six-Day War of 1967; the Land 1 p. 322; Kupferschmidt 1984, p. 195). Another Jordan fatwa was reinforcing recognizedDay of 30 Husayni’sby March; Israel as7 the theban firstguardian on daylands ofof thethsalese firstholy intifada;places in8 Jerusalem since 1967, after its defeat in the War and retreat from the West Bank. conveying the same urgency was issued in January 1935- at theMemorial first conference Days of of the Palestinian martyrs ( shuhadaʻulamaʼ ), killed during military operations; in Jerusalem (Kupferschmidt 1984, pp. 196–97; The Jordanian- Jerusalem Awqaf Department Day, a commemorative 1990, pp. 65–69). holiday fixed on the last Friday of Ramadan, by Ayatollah Similar fatwas were repeatedly issued since then, prohibitingRuhallah the sale Khomeiniof lands, calling in 1980, for a yearjihad, after and he seized power in Iran. forbidding peace or normalization with Israel.6 Al-Azhar scholars issued a declaration in April 1948 on the duty to fight in Palestine and defined the war as jihad All(Jankowski these occasions 1984, p. 320; served Reiter for 2011, demonstrations, pp. processions, riots, and commercial strikes 79–80, 175–76), and a year after the 1967 War, al-Azhar(Webman Academy 1994). of Islamic Research held a conference whose rulings further consolidated the rejectionThroughout of the Jewish the Mandatestate in religious period, concedes terms Budeiri, Islam served to shape an ideology of resistance. (Green 1971. For a critical discussion of the impact of this“The conference, slogans and see rallyingSchroeter cries 2018). of theThe anti-occupation rise of movement have shown an increasing tendency Islamist movements in the wake of the swift Israeli victorysince the in 1980sthe war to couch and the themselves blow dealt in an to Islamic the mode,” he argues, adding that “the practice of holding dominant pan-Arab political and ideological order gavedemonstrations another impetus after Fridayto the prayersexploitation when of people are congregating at mosques, the use of mosques religion and the theologization of the conflict. as social support networks, their use as relatively safe haves and to carry out teaching when schools These patterns of mobilization, which had been tracareed closedalready and in the later first as centersviolent forconfrontations the distribution of food and money, all tended to reinforce the view between Arabs and Jews in the 1920s, continued to bethat employed political by commitment the Palestinians, is an extension in the first of religious belief.” However, he added, “religion was the intifada in 1987–1992, the second intifada in 2000–2004,medium as well not as the in messagesubsequent... Itencroachments is not that the Palestinians betrayed an early fundamentalist bias or between the Palestinians and Israel. They were particularlypossessed evident a doctrinal in the activities bent, but of their Hamas struggle and against Jewish colonization was perceived in religious Hizballah. terms and this was their only recognizable Weltanschauung”(Budeiri 1997, p. 201). Both Hamas and Hizballah perceived the Arab–Israeli Anotherconflict as tool the of epitome indoctrination of an inherently and mobilization, especially after the 1967 War, was the educational irreconcilable struggle between Jews and Muslims, betweensystem. Judaism Thecurriculum and Islam. It and is not the a schoolbooks national or underpinned the perception of the conflict, Israel, and territorial conflict but a historical, religious, cultural, theand Jews existential in religious conflict terms between (e.g., Mueller truth 2012and; Groiss 2018). During the first intifada leaflets served as falsehood, maintained Hamas’ Charter. The only way toa mediumconfront tothis convey struggle general is through instructions Islam toand the population. They also served as a platform for Hamas by means of jihad, until victory or martyrdom (Maqdsi 1993and; the Nüsse Fatah 1993; United Kramer National 1987;Committee Norton 1987, to voice their respective ideologies and political positions p. 169). Both movements used what Bernard Wasserstein(Mishal called and “the Aharoni calendar 1989 of). communal While the firstriot” intifada witnessed the canonization of civic resistance, (Wassertein 1996; Kupferschmidt 1984) for popular themobilization. second intifada This (al-Aqsa) calendar witnessed included thethe sanctification of suicide acts. “The suicide phenomenon occasions of: emerged in the heat of a struggle for independence by a society in which Islamic symbols of heroism and sacrifice were inherent national elements,” explained Meir Hatina (Hatina 2008, p. 33). Palestinian - Islamic holidays such as ʻId al-Adha (the feast of sacrificessuicide attacks concluding became the a religiousHajj); the ritual month and of their perpetrators were perceived as martyrs (shuhada ).9 Ramadan; the ʻAshura, commemorating Imam Husayn’sThe mart secondyrdom, intifada which became known alsoa symbol as Al-Aqsa of intifada, which broke out at the end of September shiʻi oppression and later shiʻi activism, for Hizballah;2000, after the visit of the then Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, to the Temple Mount, brought - Historic events such as the Battle of Badr (symbolizingabout anthe unprecedented victory of Muhammad’s wave of incitement Muslim and antisemitic manifestations in the Arab world and minority over the infidel majority in 624); worldwide, including among Muslim communities in the West. It highlighted the religious dimension of the Arab–Israeli conflict, and blurred the lines between the nationalist and Islamist discourses. It was no surprise that a symbol such as the sacred Islamic site of al-Aqsa in Jerusalem had the capacity to spark off such an aggressive Muslim reaction. 6 For a collection of fatwas from the mid-1930s to 1990, see (The BesideJordanian the Awqaf popular Department demonstrations 1990). and the violence, the intifada brought in its wake a wave of radicalized anti-Israeli and antisemitic rhetoric. Friday sermons at mosques throughout the Arab world were dominated by angry denunciations of Israeli brutality and calls for jihad, which was presented as a religious duty incumbent on all Muslims. Hamas leaders described Jews as “enemies of humanity”

7 A day marking the confrontations between Israeli authorities and striking Israeli Arabs over land expropriation in 1976. 8 9 December 1987, was the first day of the uprisings in Gaza. 9 Recent studies on nationalism show that as a system for organizing groups, nationalism is a religion of blood sacrifice, since they revere martyrdom for the state and its symbols. See for example, (Marvin and Inge 1999). Religions 2019, 10, 415 10 of 16

and “monsters in the shape of human beings”, and reiterated that “Israel is a foreign body, imposed by force and will be eliminated by force” (Webman 2003). However, these calls to action remained unheeded. The Islamists who generally succeeded in Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW inculcating their perception of the struggle against Israel2 of and 17 the Jews among more moderate and secularist Arab circles, failed in mobilizing them into an all-out war of jihad. A Lebanese journalist to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with wondered to what extent these clerical calls, issued in the form of statements or sermons were made King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with out of conviction, and to what extent they were merely designed to assuage public anger. Indeed, al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were the public anger was mainly vented in demonstrations and a barrage of articles, caricatures, and TV reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on programs invoking the blood libel, Nazi-era terminology and symbols, Holocaust denial, and the Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Protocols of the Elders of Zion. References to the Islamic scriptures were more confined to Islamist media Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based outlets and websites, with the depiction of al-Aqsa strangled by the Israeli occupation as one of the al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged few religiously laden themes. futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli3. Muhsin Constructing Hamid a on New 26 July, Islamic in an Antisemitic article in the Discourse Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish The pseudo-theological polemics, which developed since the 1920s, served as a tool in the connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian incitement to action against Zionism and the Jews. It created a language and a vocabulary and a origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. reservoir of historical precedents to communicate messages, to interpret the present, and to draw Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald encouragement from the historical Islamic heritage. Examples are abundant, and introduced in Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also numerous works (e.g., Holtzman and Schlossberg 2008; Litvak 1998; Yadlin 1989, pp. 41–62). foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the According to historian Boris Havel, the Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin Husayni was the first prominent Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip gan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim Arab leaderErdo and cleric who based his anti-Jewish incitement on the early Islamic texts, but he also world, convened in mid-December reportedlyan extraord memorizedinary summit the textof ofthe the OrganizationProtocols of theof EldersIslamic of Zion, and combined it in his speeches Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in with other political and religious arguments, depending on the audience (Havel 2014. See also Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action Achcar 2010, pp. 128–53; Küntzel 2007, pp. 31–34). Husayni interpreted Zionism as only the most against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious recent of the supposed age-old Jewish hostility not only to the Palestinians or Arabs as modern national authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the groups but also to the religion of Islam. His lasting accomplishment, according to historian Jeffrey London-based al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as Herf, was “to fuse secular Arab anti-Zionism with the Islamist and thus theologically inspired hatred “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab of the Jews and Judaism” (Herf 2015). The propaganda he disseminated in Arabic through millions of and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by leaflets and radio programs during World War II from Germany, where he found refuge in November Muslim preachers in Arab countries and in mosques of Muslim communities worldwide. 1941, was replete with Islamic anti-Jewish themes (Herf 2009; Küntzel 2007, pp. 34–43). Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that Aiming basically at undermining the Zionist claims over Palestine, and delegitimizing the state of preoccupied Arab writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to Israel, historians, religious scholars, preachers, and journalists became obsessively preoccupied with Jerusalem in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli the Jews, resulting in a vast body of scholarly and popular works on: historians and archeologists on the interpretation of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel or Tel Aviv,” announced Muhammad al-MulaJewish in an history interview and itswith links the toKuwaiti Palestine; TV on 12 December, • adding that “Jerusalem is Arab and Islamic.The Jerusalem roots of is contemporary the city of Islam Jews … andIt will their return relation to the to Arab Children of Israel; • and Islamic nation”. Trump adopted “the TheZionist alleged narrative”, misconceptions claimed andʻUmar falsifications Hilmi al-Ghul of the in Torah the by the Jews; • Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida on 9 December.The “It encounter is not our betweengoal to examine Muslims the and falsification Jews in the of early history days of Islam, according to the Qur’an and • and Trump’s ignorance,” he wrote. If heIslamic wants tradition;to learn the truth he should read what Israeli archeologists wrote after “searching for the Thepast age-old70 years Jewish for one hostility archeological towards remnant Islam and related Muslims; to the • [presence] of a third temple [there were onlyThe two], Torah or and connecting the Talmud the asJews the to sources Palestine of Jewish in general”. mentality; • Similarly, Hamas leader Muhammad NazzalThe accused Jews’ inherent the Zionists evil traitsof falsifying and behavior. biblical remnants in Lebanese al-Akhbar on 13 December, •claiming as well that Israeli archeological scholars, such as Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, “failedThis to portrayal provide of important the Jews led proof to the that inevitable the city conclusion,[Jerusalem] which is part and parcel of the Islamists’ was inhabited [by Jews] in the 10th Centuryideology BC”. that the conflict between the Jews and Muslims is irreconcilable and the destruction of Israel is In this debate there was a tacit agreementnot only destined between according all Palestinian to the Qur’anfactions but Hamas, also imperative the Muslim in order to save humanity and civilization 10 Brothers in Jordan and Palestinian Authority’s(Webman forthcoming(PA) representatives). Jews were on depictedthe perception as meek, of coward Trump’s and doomed to misery and humiliation, declaration as a new and worse Balfouron the Declaration. one hand, andHamas as warmongersleader Ismaʻ andil Haniyya traitors, described who betrayed their prophets and even killed Trump’s statement at a rally marking 30 years to the founding of Hamas on 14 December, as even more dangerous than the Balfour Declaration. Fatah leaders and the PA considered it as a “second Balfour Declaration”, whereas journalist10 ʻAbdelilahAli Muhammad Belqaziz Hasan, Letterin United to the editor,Arabal-Risala Emirates, 15 October (UAE) 1945, daily p. 1132. al-Khalij of 18 December described it as “the first bitter fruit” of the so-called “Arab Spring” and a severe crime, exceeding “Balfour’s crime which is exactly one century old”. Trump was even compared to Adolf Hitler. Ahmad Qadidi, a Tunisian politician and former ambassador to Qatar

1 Jordan was recognized by Israel as the guardian of the holy places in Jerusalem since 1967, after its defeat in the War and retreat from the West Bank.

Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17

to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian

Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW origin8 andof 17 not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Al-Aqsa” (Johnson 1982, p. 28; Kupferschmidt 1984, pp. 191–92). In a somewhatTrump’s different declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also interpretation, Ilan Pappe belittles the importance of Islam in this document, claiming thatforesaw it was the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the present “in the background and marginal”, and it was not the insult of religion that wasPalestinians. defended Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim but the social and political rights of the Muslim believers (Pappe 1998, p. 94). Nevertheless,world, these convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic events had a strong pan-Islamic impact, and Husayni exploited them to raise internationalCooperation Muslim (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in interest in Palestine. In 1931, he managed to convene in Jerusalem the Islamic Congress inIslam defense and of their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action Jerusalem, attended by eminent scholars from all over the Muslim world, including the againstrenowned Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious Islamic scholar Muhammad Rashid Rida (Kramer 1986, pp. 123–41). Following in the footstepsauthority of in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the this congress, the OIC, an international organization of over 50 Muslim states, was formedLondon-based in 1969 al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as after an arson attack on al-Aqsa mosque by a Christian Australian on 21 August. “anAlthough injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab representing heads of states and not religious scholars, the OIC dedicated a permanent committeeand Muslim to capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by the Jerusalem issue, and defined its goals as safeguarding the interests and securing theMuslim progress preachers in Arab countries and in mosques of Muslim communities worldwide. and well-being of their peoples and of all Muslims in the world (Milton-Edwards 2008, p. 78). Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that In 1934, with the increase in Jewish immigration due to the persecution of German Jewspreoccupied and in Arab writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to Religions 2019, 10, 415 11 of 16 land purchases, Husayni issued a fatwa, which forbade any sale of land to Zionists or theirJerusalem agents. in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli He defined the sale of land to Jews as apostasy (kufr), and treachery towards God and his Messenger.historians and archeologists on the interpretation of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel He also portrayed the Jews as seeking “‘the extinction of the light of Islam and the Arabsor from Tel them,Aviv,” the 11 announcedon the other Muhammad hand. They al-Mula are stubborn, in an interview corrupt, and with arrogant, the Kuwaiti as they TV consider on 12 December, themselves the holy land’, which had been granted to the Palestinians as a divine trust (amana)” (Taji-Faroukiadding 2004,“Chosen that “Jerusalem People”, is looking Arab and condescendingly Islamic. Jerusalem and hatefully is the city at of other Islam peoples … It will (Al-Jayyar return to 1947 the, Arab pp. 78–80 ). p. 322; Kupferschmidt 1984, p. 195). Another fatwa reinforcing Husayni’s ban on landsand Islamic Theysales werenation”. violators Trump of agreements,adopted “the blood-suckers, Zionist narrative”, “descendants claimed ofʻUmar apes andHilmi pigs” al-Ghul (based in onthe several conveying the same urgency was issued in January 1935 at the first conference of PalestinianPalestinian ʻulamaQurʼ anical-Hayat verses al-Jadida which on state 9 December. that some Jews“It is werenot our turned goal intoto examine apes and the pigs falsification by God,as of ahistory punishment in Jerusalem (Kupferschmidt 1984, pp. 196–97; The Jordanian Awqaf Department 1990, pp.and 65–69).Trump’sfor violating ignorance,” the Sabbath), he wrote. disseminators If he wants of corruption to learn the on earthtruth andhe “enemiesshould read of God what and Israeli humanity” Similar fatwas were repeatedly issued since then, prohibiting the sale of lands, calling forarcheologists jihad,( Litvakand wrote1998, pp.after 150–52; “searching Webman for the 1994 past, pp. 70 1–16;years Milson for one 2004 archeological). remnant related to the forbidding peace or normalization with Israel.6 Al-Azhar scholars issued a declaration in [presence]April 1948 Theof a polemicsthird temple against [there the were Jews only and two], the Children or connecting of Israel the inJews the to Qur’an Palestine “serves in general”. as a basis for on the duty to fight in Palestine and defined the war as jihad (Jankowski 1984, p. 320; ReiterSimilarly, 2011,the pp. negativeHamas leader reconstruction Muhammad of the Nazzal Jewish accused character”, the Zionists and provides of falsifying “an explanation biblical remnants for the in Zionist 79–80, 175–76), and a year after the 1967 War, al-Azhar Academy of Islamic ResearchLebanese heldsuccesses, aal-Akhbar the on off ence13 December, in Palestine, claiming and the as political well that and Israeli economic archeological Jewish domination scholars, such in other as parts conference whose rulings further consolidated the rejection of the Jewish state in religiousIsrael terms ofFinkelstein the world” and (Taji-Farouki David Ussishkin, 1998, p. “failed 15). The to provide Jews’ characteristics important proof have that remained the city constant [Jerusalem] since they (Green 1971. For a critical discussion of the impact of this conference, see Schroeter 2018). wasThe inhabitedrisewere of described [by Jews] in thein the Qur’an. 10th Century “The Jew BC”. is unrepentant in his war against Muhammad, and whether Islamist movements in the wake of the swift Israeli victory in the war and the blow dealt Intocooperating thisthe debate withthere infidelswas a tacit against agreement the Prophet’s between mission, all Palestinian or whether factions clothed Hamas, in the the rags Muslim of a miser dominant pan-Arab political and ideological order gave another impetus to the exploitationBrothersengaged ofin Jordan in usury, and Palestinian or whether Authority’s in an Israeli o(PA)fficer’s representatives uniform, he hason the not changedperception and of willTrump’s not change. religion and the theologization of the conflict. declarationHe will as always a new be and a swindler, worse aBalfour miser, despicable,Declaration. and Hamas arrogant, leader a person Isma whoʻil Haniyya subverts described justice, morality These patterns of mobilization, which had been traced already in the first violent confrontationsTrump’sand statement humanity” at (aAbraham rally marking 1974, p.30 135).years to the founding of Hamas on 14 December, as even between Arabs and Jews in the 1920s, continued to be employed by the Palestinians, inmore the dangerous first The Islamic than the organs Balfour were Declaration. a central platform Fatah forleaders the polemics and the against PA considered the Jews. it Hamas’s as a “second mouthpiece intifada in 1987–1992, the second intifada in 2000–2004, as well as in subsequent encroachmentsBalfourFilastin Declaration”, al-Muslima whereas, Hizballah’s journalistal- ʻAbdelilahAhd (replaced Belqaziz by al- in AhdUnited al-Intiqad Arab )Emirates Jordanian (UAE) weekly dailyal-Sabil between the Palestinians and Israel. They were particularly evident in the activities of Hamasal-Khalijand and of defunct18 December Egyptian described bi-weekly it as “theal-Sha firstb duringbitter fruit” the 1990sof the dealtso-called excessively “Arab Spring” with the and so-called a Hizballah. severecultural-religious crime, exceeding assault—the “Balfour’s allegedcrime endeavorwhich is ofexactly Jews toone destroy century religions old”. andTrump moral was values. evenFilastin Both Hamas and Hizballah perceived the Arab–Israeli conflict as the epitome of an comparedinherentlyal-Muslima to Adolfpublished, Hitler. Ahmad for example, Qadidi, a 10-partsa Tunisi articlean politician entitled and “This former is how ambassador the Prophet to spokeQatar of the irreconcilable struggle between Jews and Muslims, between Judaism and Islam. It is not a nationalJews”, or dwelling on the Jews’ hostility to Islam since Muhammad’s days, their evil behavior, the wrath territorial conflict but a historical, religious, cultural, and existential conflict between truth of and God on them, the punishments inflicted on them, and the danger they pose.12 In another series of falsehood, maintained Hamas’ Charter. The only way to confront this struggle is through1 Islam Jordanarticles and was analyzingrecognized theby Israel encounter as the guardian of Muhammad of the holy with places the Jewsin Jerusalem of Medina, since the1967, author after its Muhsin defeat Abd by means of jihad, until victory or martyrdom (Maqdsi 1993; Nüsse 1993; Kramer 1987; Nortonin the1987,al-Hamid, War and aretreat Baghdad from Universitythe West Bank. professor, repeated the claims that they had betrayed him, rejected p. 169). Both movements used what Bernard Wasserstein called “the calendar of communal him,riot” and plotted against him and against the new religion. The Prophet warned in the Qur an that the (Wassertein 1996; Kupferschmidt 1984) for popular mobilization. This calendar included“Jews the are the most hostile to the believers”, although he was lenient towards them since they were occasions of: considered the People of the Book.13 The Islamist media outlets did not resort only to Islamic sources to portray Jewish evil intention - Islamic holidays such as ʻId al-Adha (the feast of sacrifices concluding the Hajj); the month of and deeds. In many cases, they combined religious and national arguments or Islamic Judeophobia Ramadan; the ʻAshura, commemorating Imam Husayn’s martyrdom, which became a symbol of with imported Western antisemitic tropes. An example of such a combination was a two-part article on shiʻi oppression and later shiʻi activism, for Hizballah; Jewish corruption, entitled “This is how the Jews Planned to Spread Corruption in the Muslim World; - Historic events such as the Battle of Badr (symbolizing the victory of Muhammad’s Muslim the Jews and Sexual Permissiveness”.14 Abd al-Hamid purported to prove that Jews exploited the minority over the infidel majority in 624); femininity of women throughout their history as a means to gain dominance and serve their interests. As proof, he cited the case of Queen Esther, who was used as a ploy by her uncle to reach power and get rid of the Jews’ enemies. In more modern times, he claimed, the Jews exploited the crucial historical moment of transformation from feudalism to capitalism to dominate the industrial movement and then 6 For a collection of fatwas from the mid-1930s to 1990, see (The Jordanian Awqaf Department 1990). carefully planned how to drive the Christians away from their religion and damage their moral values. Worship of gold substituted the worship of God. New non-religious social organizations based on man’s bestiality were set up. This led to the final separation of religion from society and the complete domination of the Jews over modern civilization. Under the banner of equal rights and progress, Jewish conspiracies, aimed at demolishing man’s civility, created the female revolution. The new state of permissibility and feminine challenge to man were manifested in various ways, brought about the dissemination of diseases and shattered family life in the West. The Jews were behind all the

11 Ali Muhammad Hasan, “The story of the Children of Israel in the venerable Qur’an,” al-Risala, 19 November 1945, pp. 1265–66. 12 Ibrahim al- Ali, “This is how the Prophet spoke of the Jews: The Early Enmity of the Jews to Islam,” Filastin al-Muslima, January–October 1996. 13 Muhsin Abd al-Hamid, “The Position of Judaism towards Islam and the Muslims,” Filastin al-Muslima, March–May 1996. 14 Muhsin Abd al-Hamid, “This is how the Jews Planned to Spread Corruption in the Muslim World; the Jews and Sexual Permissiveness,” Filastin al-Muslima, June–July 1995. Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17

to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Religions 2019, 10, 415 Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which12 the of 16participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious revolutions to achieve full political, economic, and social domination. Now the planning centers of authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the international Judaism and the Masonic societies were targeting Muslim women in an attempt to shake London-based al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as the moral values of Muslim society, as they did in the West. “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab This kind of polemics found in scholarly works as well as in newspapers, television channels and and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by other media outlets differs from the traditional Islamic polemics, as Holtzman and Schlossberg show Muslim preachers in Arab countries and in mosques of Muslim communities worldwide. in their study: Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that - It is a one-sided polemic. The author presents hispreoccupied arguments but Arab those writers do not and receive commentators, any serious denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to response and they are not debated; Jerusalem in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli - It is found in the popular print media, whereas inhistorians the past and it was archeologists a formal genre on the written interpretation in the of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel form of chapters of books against various religions;or Tel Aviv,” announced Muhammad al-Mula in an interview with the Kuwaiti TV on 12 December, - It is conducted by politicians, publicists, and representativesadding that of “Jerusalem Islamic movements, is Arab and whereas Islamic. in theJerusalem is the city of Islam … It will return to the Arab past the debaters were primarily members of the religiousand Islamic establishment, nation”. Trump as well adopted as philosophers “the Zionist narrative”, claimed ʻUmar Hilmi al-Ghul in the and intellectuals; Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida on 9 December. “It is not our goal to examine the falsification of history - Contemporary debaters challenge, attack, cite, andand quote Trump’s the Talmud, ignorance,” whereas he in wrote. the past If Muslim he wants to learn the truth he should read what Israeli polemicists attacked, cited and quoted the Old Testamentarcheologists scriptures; wrote after “searching for the past 70 years for one archeological remnant related to the - The modern polemic is not exclusively religious,[presence] but includes of antisemitica third temple themes [there adopted were only from two], or connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. the Western classical and racist vocabulary; Similarly, Hamas leader Muhammad Nazzal accused the Zionists of falsifying biblical remnants in - Modern religious polemics generally serves politicalLebanese purposes al-Akhbar and uses on holy13 December, Muslim scriptures claiming as well that Israeli archeological scholars, such as to negate the “Other” rather than proving the superiorityIsrael Finkelstein of the Islamic and David religion. Ussishkin, (Holtzman “failed and to provide important proof that the city [Jerusalem] Schlossberg 2008, pp. 14–15). was inhabited [by Jews] in the 10th Century BC”. In this debate there was a tacit agreement between all Palestinian factions Hamas, the Muslim Moreover, it seems that the modern polemics doesBrothers not shy in from Jordan inventing and Palestinian tradition and Authority’s defying (PA) representatives on the perception of Trump’s Islamic scriptures. The designation of Palestine as a religiousdeclaration endowment, as a newwaqf and, is aworse modern Balfour invention, Declaration. Hamas leader Ismaʻil Haniyya described aimed at preventing any concession of any part of the landTrump’s in any futurestatement agreement at a rally with marking Israel. Similarly, 30 years to the founding of Hamas on 14 December, as even jihad was traditionally perceived as an obligation uponmore Muslims dangerous (fard kifaya than) the from Balfour which Declaration. the majority Fatah leaders and the PA considered it as a “second are relieved, but jihad in Palestine turned into a personalBalfour duty incumbentDeclaration”, on whereas every Muslim journalist (fard ʻAbdelilahayn). Belqaziz in United Arab Emirates (UAE) daily The denial of Jewish roots also contradicts Islamic scriptures.al-Khalij of It gradually18 December developed described in responseit as “the to first bitter fruit” of the so-called “Arab Spring” and a the establishment of the state of Israel. Early attemptssevere to challenge crime, exceeding Zionists’ claims “Balfour’s to Palestine crime bywhich is exactly one century old”. Trump was even Muslim scholars as Gribetz shows, did not deny Jewishcompared historical to roots Adolf and Hitler. link to Ahmad Jerusalem. Qadidi, Rashid a Tunisian politician and former ambassador to Qatar Rida opposed Zionism because it threatened to dislodge Muslims and Christians from Palestine and to replace the al-Aqsa Mosque with a new Jewish temple. He developed a strong antipathy towards Zionism which verged on antisemitism, but he could not1 dismissJordan was revelation. recognized Therefore, by Israel as he the drew guardian from of the holy places in Jerusalem since 1967, after its defeat the Qur’anic texts the unfavorable references to portray themin the as War hypocritical, and retreat treacherous,from the West and Bank. hostile to Muslims. He also resorted to more contemporarythemes, accusing them of responsibility for all subversive movements and ideologies which led to the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, adopting the spirit and the letter of the Protocols without explicitly naming them (Gribetz 2014, pp. 168–69; Haim 1984, p. 49). Muslim scholars and intellectuals were aware of the discrepancy between the claim that today’s Jews are not the descendants of the Children of Israel, and the insistence on the inherent negative traits of the Jews, and addressed it as Rivka Yadlin showed in her study. The way to support the notion of continuity in character and still deny the Jews’ ancestral connection to the Bible’s Israelites is to explain the continuity in behavioral terms. “One might legitimately view the character of the Jews as a fixed phenomenon since their behavior today fits their description in the Qur’an. Jewish behavior, although its methods and means may change, remains the same in contemporary and ancient history. Continuity, therefore, is not biological but rather ideational and moral” (Yadlin 1989, p. 47).

4. Conclusions Just before finalizing this article, by the end of February 2019, another crisis developed around the Temple Mount. A new mosque opened for prayer in the Bab al-Rahma (the Gate of Mercy) building which had been closed for 16 years, in defiance of the delicate status quo, leading to clashes Religions 2019, 10, 415 13 of 16 between Israeli police and Palestinian leaders and activists, and threatening to fuel yet another bloody confrontation. The waqf leadership of the Haram al-Sharif issued calls to Palestinians to attend the Friday prayers en masse, ignoring Israeli warnings.15 Concomitantly, a group of Palestinian Islamic scholars issued a fatwa on 3 March 2019, warning against any form of normalization with the ‘Zionist entity.’ This was done to thwart the prospective US American plan, known as the “Deal of the Century”, and to prevent Arabs from establishing normal relations with Israel. “Normalization and reconciliation mean empowerment of Jews over the land of the Muslims, surrender to the infidels and loss of religion and Islamic lands”, and contradict the Qur’an, they warned.16 It seems that the same methods and tools persist since the first encounters between Jews and Arabs in the 1920s. In their discussion of the role of religion in interstate or interethnic conflicts worldwide, Hillel Frisch and Shmuel Sandler argue that however infused those conflicts are with religious substance, they remain essentially national or state-centered. “While religion expresses prominent primordial values, the points of contention continue to be territorially centered and the dominant discourse, especially in the international arena, is usually more nationalist or statist than religious and theocratic.” Referring to al-Aqsa intifada, Frisch and Sandler reinforce the findings of this work, showing “that even though religious claims and symbols were important on both sides, they were consistently eclipsed by nationalist or realist discourses, claims, and symbols” (Frisch and Sandler 2004, p. 77). Basically, this is true also as to the antisemitic themes. Despite the disseminated Judeophobic content, the Christian and Western antisemitic themes in Arab discourse are more prominent due to their universality, pervasiveness, and persistence. Even the antisemitic nature of many Islamic radical movements, asserted Olivier Roy, “has more to do with a Western and secular antisemitism than with the theological anti-Judaism of Islam ... Radical Muslims (and many moderate conservatives or even left-wing Arab secularists) quote the Protocols of the Elders of Zion or Holocaust-denial European authors such as Irving and Garaudy more than medieval Muslim theologians” (Roy 2004, p. 49). An unpublished research on radical Islam held in the framework of a project on “Religious Actors in Conflict Areas”, examined the British Muslim Brotherhood to establish to what extent radical Islam’s animosity to Israel derived from classic Islam, an indigenous component, and what had been the role of other, modern and exogenous, components. Using the method of computerized text mining to survey 20,000 articles in the Muslim Brotherhood website ikhwanweb.com, the study discovered that Jews and Israel had been first and foremost associated with the Arab–Israeli conflict—42% of the occurrences; followed by modern European antisemitism—33%; and classical Islam comes only in the third place—less than 25%. An indigenous factor, namely the classic heritage contributes less than European antisemitism and that is in the discourse of an Islamist movement. The finding suggests that there is a wide gap, perhaps unconscious, between ideology and practice, and correlates with the conclusion that the most common antisemitic themes even among Islamists are not necessarily those based on Islamic sources (Sivan and Pardo 2012). Very little has changed in the repertoire and content of Arab antisemitism since its early manifestations. However, in view of the growing aversion towards Islamism in Arab societies, and regional and global strategic changes, the monolithic discourse which typified the period from 1967 to the 21st century has been cracked, and perhaps it is returning to the more diversified attitudes towards the Jews in earlier periods.

Funding: This research received no external funding. Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflict of interest.

15 Haaretz, 19, 25, 27 February, 4–8, 13, 17 March 2019. 16 Khaled Abu Toameh, “Palestinians: No Peace or Reconciliation with the ‘Infidels’,” Gatestone, 4 March 2019, accessed 5 March 2019, at https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13827/palestinians-peace-infidels. Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17 to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the London-based al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by Muslim preachers in Arab countries and in mosques of Muslim communities worldwide. Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that preoccupied Arab writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to Jerusalem in particular. A few of them relied on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli historians and archeologists on the interpretation of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel or Tel Aviv,” announced Muhammad al-Mula in an interview with the Kuwaiti TV on 12 December, adding that “Jerusalem is Arab and Islamic. Jerusalem is the city of Islam … It will return to the Arab and Islamic nation”. Trump adopted “the Zionist narrative”, claimed ʻUmar Hilmi al-Ghul in the Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida on 9 December. “It is not our goal to examine the falsification of history and Trump’s ignorance,” he wrote. If he wants to learn the truth he should read what Israeli archeologists wrote after “searching for the past 70 years for one archeological remnant related to the [presence] of a third temple [there were only two], or connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. Similarly, Hamas leader Muhammad Nazzal accused the Zionists of falsifying biblical remnants in Lebanese al-Akhbar on 13 December, claiming as well that Israeli archeological scholars, such as Israel Finkelstein and David Ussishkin, “failed to provide important proof that the city [Jerusalem] was inhabited [by Jews] in the 10thReligions Century2019, 10 BC”., 415 14 of 16 In this debate there was a tacit agreement between all Palestinian factions Hamas, the Muslim Brothers in Jordan and Palestinian Authority’s (PA) representatives on the perception of Trump’s declaration as a new and worseReferences Balfour Declaration. Hamas leader Ismaʻil Haniyya described Trump’s statement at a rally markingAbraham, 30 S.years Winter. to the 1974. founding The Jew andof Hamas the Israeli on in 14 Modern December, Arabic as Literature. even The Jerusalem Quarterly 2: 119–36. more dangerous than the BalfourAchcar, Declaration. Gilbert. 2010.FatahThe leaders Arabs andand the the Holocaust. PA considered The Arab-Israeli it as a War “second of Narratives . London: Saqi. Balfour Declaration”, whereas journalistAl-Jayyar, ʻAbdelilahAbd al-Gha ffBelqazizar. 1947. inPalestine United for Arab the Arabs Emirates. Cairo: (UAE) Dar al-Kitab daily al- Arabi. (In Arabic) al-Khalij of 18 December describedBen-Shammai, it as “the first Haggai. bitter 1988. fruit” Jew-Hatred of the so-called in the Islamic “Arab Tradition Spring” and and the a Koranic Exegesis. In Antisemitism severe crime, exceeding “Balfour’s Throughcrime whic the Agesh is. Edited exactly by Shmuelone century Almog. old”. Oxford: Trump Pergamon was Press,even pp. 161–69. compared to Adolf Hitler. AhmadBostom, Qadidi, Andrew a Tunisi G., ed.an 2008. politicianThe Legacy and of former Islamic Antisemitism.ambassador Fromto Qatar Sacred Texts to Solemn History. New York: Prometheus Books. Budeiri, Musa. 1997. The Palestinians: Tensions Between Nationalist and Religious Identities. In Rethinking 1 Jordan was recognized by Israel as theNationalism guardian inof thethe Arab holy Middle places Eastin Jerusalem. Edited by since James 1967, Jankowski after its anddefeat Israel Gershoni. New York: Columbia in the War and retreat from the West Bank.University Press, pp. 191–206. Cohen, Mark R. 1986. Islam and the Jews: Myth, Counter-Myth, History. The Jerusalem Quarterly 38: 125–37. Cohen, Hillel. 2013. Year Zero of the Jewish-Arab Conflict. Jerusalem: Keter Books. (In Hebrew) Coury, Ralph M. 2004. Nationalism and Culture in the Arab and Islamic Worlds: A Critique of Modern Scholarship. In Islamic Thought in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Suha Taji-Farouki and Basheer M. Nafi. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, pp. 128–71. Dawson, Lorne L. 2018. Debating the Role of Religion in the Motivation of Religious Terrorism. Nordic Journal of Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW Religion and Society 31:8 98–117. of 17 [CrossRef] El-Awaisi, Abd al-Fattah. 1991. The Conceptual Approach of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers Towards the Palestine Al-Aqsa” (Johnson 1982, p. 28; Kupferschmidt 1984, pp. 191–92). InQuestion, a somewhat 1928–49. differentJournal of Islamic Studies 2: 225–44. [CrossRef] interpretation, Ilan Pappe belittles the importance of Islam in this document,Fox, Jonathan. claiming 1999. Towardsthat it was a Dynamic theory of Ethno-Religious Conflict. Nations and Nationalism 5: 431–63, present “in the background and marginal”, and it was not the insult of religionas cited that in Reiter, was Yitzhak.defended 2010. Religion as a Barrier to Compromise in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. but the social and political rights of the Muslim believers (Pappe 1998, p.In 94).Barriers Nevertheless, to Peace in the these Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Edited by Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov. Jerusalem: The Jerusalem events had a strong pan-Islamic impact, and Husayni exploited them to raiseInstitute international for Israel Studies, Muslim p. 233. [CrossRef] interest in Palestine. In 1931, he managed to convene in Jerusalem theFrisch, Islamic Hillel, Congress and Shmuel in defense Sandler. of 2004. Religion, State, and the International System in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. International Political Science Review 25: 77–96. [CrossRef] Jerusalem, attended by eminent scholars from all over the Muslim world, including the renowned Geertz, Clifford. 1973. Religion as a Cultural system. In the Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. Islamic scholar Muhammad Rashid Rida (Kramer 1986, pp. 123–41). Following in the footsteps of Goitein, Solomon Dob. 1971. A Mediterranean Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, this congress, the OIC, an international organization of over 50 Muslim states, was formed in 1969 vol. 2. after an arson attack on al-Aqsa mosque by a Christian Australian on 21 August. Although Green, D. F. 1971. Arab Theologians on Jews and Israel: Extracts from the Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of the representing heads of states and not religious scholars, the OIC dedicated a permanent committee to Academy of Islamic Research. Geneva: Editions de l’Avenir. the Jerusalem issue, and defined its goals as safeguarding the interestsGribetz, and Jonathan securing Marc. the progress 2014. Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter. Princeton and well-being of their peoples and of all Muslims in the world (Milton-Edwardsand Oxford: 2008, Princeton p. 78). University Press. In 1934, with the increase in Jewish immigration due to the persecutionGroiss, Arnon.of German 2018. Jews Israel, and Jewsin and the Conflict in Palestinian Authority Schoolbooks. 18 December land purchases, Husayni issued a fatwa, which forbade any sale of land to2018. Zionists Available or their online: agents. https: //www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2018/12/E_311_18.pdf (accessed on 9 He defined the sale of land to Jews as apostasy (kufr), and treachery towardsMarch God 2019).and his Messenger. He also portrayed the Jews as seeking “‘the extinction of the light ofHaim, Islam Sylvia and the G. 1955.Arabs Arab from Anti-Semitic the Literature. Jewish Social Studies 17: 307–12. holy land’, which had been granted to the Palestinians as a divine trustHaim, (amana Sylvia)” G.(Taji-Farouki 1984. Islamic 2004, Anti-Zionism. Jewish Quarterly 31: 48–51. p. 322; Kupferschmidt 1984, p. 195). Another fatwa reinforcing Husayni’sHarkabi, Yehoshafat. ban on 1974.landsArab sales Attitudes Towards Israel. Jerusalem: John Wiley & Sons. conveying the same urgency was issued in January 1935 at the first conferenceHatina, Meir. of Palestinian 2008. The ʻulamaUlamaʼ and the Cult of Death in Palestine. In Islamic Attitudes to Israel. Edited by in Jerusalem (Kupferschmidt 1984, pp. 196–97; The Jordanian Awqaf DepartmentEphraim Karsh1990, andpp. P.65–69). R. Kumaraswamy. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 29–51. Similar fatwas were repeatedly issued since then, prohibiting the saleHavel, of lands, Boris. calling 2014. Hajfor Aminjihad, al-Husseini:and Herald of Religious Anti-Judaism in the Contemporary Islamic World. forbidding peace or normalization with Israel.6 Al-Azhar scholars issued aJournal declaration of the Middle in April East 1948 and Africa 5: 221–43. [CrossRef] on the duty to fight in Palestine and defined the war as jihad (JankowskiHerf, 1984, Jeff rey.p. 320; 2009. ReiterNazi Propaganda2011, pp. for the Arab World. New Haven: Yale University Press. 79–80, 175–76), and a year after the 1967 War, al-Azhar AcademyHerf, of JeIslamicffrey. 2015. Research Netanyahu, held Husseini,a and the Historians. Middle East Forum. October 22. Available online: conference whose rulings further consolidated the rejection of the Jewishhttp: state//www.meforum.org in religious terms/5576 /husseini-hitler (accessed on 7 December 2016). (Green 1971. For a critical discussion of the impact of this conference, Holtzman,see Schroeter Livnat, 2018). and The Eliezer rise Schlossberg. of 2008. Fundamentals of the Modern Muslim-Jewish Polemic. In Islamic Islamist movements in the wake of the swift Israeli victory in the war andAttitudes the blow to Israel dealt. Edited to the by Ephraim Karsh and P. R. Kumaraswamy. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 13–28. dominant pan-Arab political and ideological order gave another impetus to the exploitation of Israeli, Raphael. 2005. The New Muslim Anti-Semitism: Exploring Novel Avenues of Hatred. Jewish Political religion and the theologization of the conflict. Studies Review 17: 3–4. Available online: http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-israeli-f05.htm (accessed on 5 These patterns of mobilization, which had been traced already in the first violent confrontations March 2019). between Arabs and Jews in the 1920s, continued to be employed by the Palestinians, in the first intifada in 1987–1992, the second intifada in 2000–2004, as well as in subsequent encroachments between the Palestinians and Israel. They were particularly evident in the activities of Hamas and Hizballah. Both Hamas and Hizballah perceived the Arab–Israeli conflict as the epitome of an inherently irreconcilable struggle between Jews and Muslims, between Judaism and Islam. It is not a national or territorial conflict but a historical, religious, cultural, and existential conflict between truth and falsehood, maintained Hamas’ Charter. The only way to confront this struggle is through Islam and by means of jihad, until victory or martyrdom (Maqdsi 1993; Nüsse 1993; Kramer 1987; Norton 1987, p. 169). Both movements used what Bernard Wasserstein called “the calendar of communal riot” (Wassertein 1996; Kupferschmidt 1984) for popular mobilization. This calendar included the occasions of: - Islamic holidays such as ʻId al-Adha (the feast of sacrifices concluding the Hajj); the month of Ramadan; the ʻAshura, commemorating Imam Husayn’s martyrdom, which became a symbol of shiʻi oppression and later shiʻi activism, for Hizballah; - Historic events such as the Battle of Badr (symbolizing the victory of Muhammad’s Muslim minority over the infidel majority in 624);

6 For a collection of fatwas from the mid-1930s to 1990, see (The Jordanian Awqaf Department 1990).

Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17

to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious authority in the Sunni world, convened the council of al-Azhar scholars, which according to the London-based al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as “an injustice with no historical or legal foundations”. The public protests encompassed most Arab and Muslim capitals, and calls encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW Muslim preachers in Arab countries and in8 mosques of 17 of Muslim communities worldwide. Again, it was Jewish history and the so-called Israel’s and Zionism’s “invented myths” that Al-Aqsa” (Johnson 1982, p. 28; Kupferschmidt preoccupied1984, pp. 191–92). Arab writers In a and somewhat commentators, different denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to interpretation, Ilan Pappe belittles the importance Jerusalemof Islam in in this particular. document, A fewclaiming of them that relied it was on the controversies among Israeli and non-Israeli present “in the background and marginal”, and it wahistorianss not the and insult archeologists of religion on that the was interpretation defended of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel but the social and political rights of the Muslim believersor Tel Aviv,” (Pappe announced 1998, p. 94).Muhammad Nevertheless, al-Mula these in an interview with the Kuwaiti TV on 12 December, events had a strong pan-Islamic impact, and Husayniadding exploited that “Jerusalem them to raise is Arab international and Islamic. Muslim Jerusalem is the city of Islam … It will return to the Arab interest in Palestine. In 1931, he managed to convenande in JerusalemIslamic nation”. the Islamic Trump Congress adopted in “thedefense Zionist of narrative”, claimed ʻUmar Hilmi al-Ghul in the Jerusalem, attended by eminent scholars from all overPalestinian the Muslim al-Hayat world, al-Jadida including on 9 December. the renowned “It is not our goal to examine the falsification of history Islamic scholar Muhammad Rashid Rida (Kramer and1986, Trump’s pp. 123–41). ignorance,” Following he inwrote. the footsteps If he wants of to learn the truth he should read what Israeli this congress, the OIC, an international organizationarcheologists of over 50 Muslimwrote after states, “searching was formed for the in past 1969 70 years for one archeological remnant related to the after an arson attack on al-Aqsa mosque by a [presence]Christian Australianof a third temple on 21 [thereAugust. were Although only two], or connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. representing heads of states and not religious scholars,Similarly, the OIC Hamas dedicated leader a permanent Muhammad committee Nazzal accused to the Zionists of falsifying biblical remnants in the Jerusalem issue, and defined its goals as safeguardingLebanese the al-Akhbar interests on and 13 securingDecember, the claiming progress as well that Israeli archeological scholars, such as Religions 2019, 10, 415 15 of 16 and well-being of their peoples and of all Muslims inIsrael the worldFinkelstein (Milton-Edwards and David Ussishkin, 2008, p. 78). “failed to provide important proof that the city [Jerusalem] In 1934, with the increase in Jewish immigratiowasn due inhabited to the persecution [by Jews] in of the German 10th Century Jews and BC”. in land purchases, Husayni issued a fatwaJankowski,, which forbade James. 1984. Inany this Zionismsale debate of land and there theto Zionists Jewswas ina tacit Egyptian or theiragreement Nationalist agents. between Opinion, all 1920–39.Palestinian In Egypt factions and Palestine.Hamas, the Muslim He defined the sale of land to Jews as apostasyA Millenium (kufr),Brothers and of Associationtreachery in Jordan towards (868–1948) and Palestinian God. Edited and his by Authority’s Messenger. Amnon Cohen (PA) and representatives Gabriel Baer. Jerusalem:on the perception Ben-Zvi of Trump’s He also portrayed the Jews as seeking “‘theInstitute extinction fordeclaration the of Studythe light ofas Jewish aof new Islam Communities and and worse the Arabs in Balfour the East;from Declaration. New the York: St. Hamas Martin’s leader Press, pp. Isma 314–31.ʻil Haniyya described holy land’, which had been granted toJohnson, the Palestinians Nels.Trump’s 1982. as Islama divine statement and thetrust Politics at (amana a rally of Meaning)” marking(Taji-Farouki in Palestinian 30 years 2004, Nationalism to the founding. London, of BostonHamas and on Melbourne: 14 December, as even p. 322; Kupferschmidt 1984, p. 195). AnotherKegan fatwa Paulmore International reinforcing dangerous Ltd. thanHusayni’s the Balfour ban on Declaration. lands sales Fata h leaders and the PA considered it as a “second conveying the same urgency was issuedThe in JordanianJanuary 1935Balfour Awqaf at Department.theDeclaration”, first conference 1990. whereas Fatwa of Palestinian journalist of Muslim ʻʻulamaAbdelilahulamaʼ Prohibiting Belqaziz the in Concession United Arab of any Emirates Part of (UAE) daily in Jerusalem (Kupferschmidt 1984, pp. 196–97;Palestine. Theal-Khalij Jordanian Amman: of Dar 18Awqaf al-Furqan.December Department (In described Arabic) 1990, it pp.as “the 65–69). first bitter fruit” of the so-called “Arab Spring” and a Similar fatwas were repeatedly issued Judaken,since then, Jonathan. prohibitingsevere 2018. crime, Rethinking the saleexceeding of Anti-Semitism: lands, “Balfour’s calling Introduction. for crime jihad ,whic and AHR h is Roundtable. exactly oneAmerican century Historical old”. ReviewTrump was even forbidding peace or normalization with Israel.123:6 1122–38. Al-Azharcompared [CrossRef scholars to ]Adolf issued Hitler. a declaration Ahmad inQadidi, April 1948a Tunisi an politician and former ambassador to Qatar on the duty to fight in Palestine and definedKenney, the Je ffwarrey as T. 1994.jihad Enemies(Jankowski Near 1984, and Far:p. 320; The Reiter Image 2011, of the pp. Jews in Islamist Discourse in Egypt. Religion 79–80, 175–76), and a year after the 196724: War, 253–70. al-Azhar [ CrossRef Academy ] of Islamic Research held a conference whose rulings further consolidatedKramer, Martin. the1 rejection 1986. JordanIslam wasof Assembled: therecognized Jewish The bystate Advent Israel in of asreligious the the Muslim guardian terms Congresses of th.e Newholy York:places Columbia in Jerusalem University since 1967, Press. after its defeat (Green 1971. For a critical discussion ofKramer, the impact Martin. of 1987.thisin the conference,The War Moral and Logic retreat see of Schroeter Hizballah from the. Tel2018).West Aviv: Bank. The Dayan rise Centerof for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Islamist movements in the wake of theKrämer, swift Gudrun.Israeli victory 2006. Anti-Semitism in the war and in the the Muslim blow World:dealt to A Criticalthe Review. Die Welt des Islams 46: 243–76. [CrossRef] dominant pan-Arab political and ideological order gave another impetus to the exploitation of Küntzel, Matthias. 2007. Jihad and Jew-Hatred. Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11. New York: Telos Press Pub. religion and the theologization of the conflict. Kupferschmidt, Uri M. 1984. Islam on the Defensive: The Supreme Muslim Council’s Role in Mandatory Palestine. These patterns of mobilization, which had been traced already in the first violent confrontations In Studies in Islamic Societies: Contributions in Memory of Gabriel Baer. Edited by Gabriel R. Warburg and between Arabs and Jews in the 1920s, continued to be employed by the Palestinians, in the first Gad G. Gilbar. Haifa: Haifa University Press, pp. 175–206. intifada in 1987–1992, the second intifada in 2000–2004, as well as in subsequent encroachments Lassner, Jacob, and S. Ilan Troen. 2007. Jews and Muslims in the Arab World. Haunted by Past Real and Imagined. between the Palestinians and Israel. They wereLanham part andicularly Plymouth: evident Rowan in the & Littlefield activities Publishers, of Hamas Inc. and Hizballah. Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava. 1999. Jews and Christians in Medieval Muslim Thought. In Demonizing the Other. Both Hamas and Hizballah perceived Antisemitism,the Arab–Israeli Racism, conflict and Xenophobia as the epitome. Edited of by an Robert inherently S. Wistrich. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic irreconcilable struggle between Jews and Muslims,Publishers, between pp. 108–17. Judaism and Islam. It is not a national or territorial conflict but a historical, religious,Lewis, Bernard. cultural, 1997. andSemites existential and Anti-Semites conflict. between London: W.truth W. Norton and & Company. falsehood, maintained Hamas’ Charter.Lewis, The only Bernard. way 1998. to confront Muslim Anti-Semitism.this struggle isMiddle through East Islam Quarterly and5: 43–49. by means of jihad, until victory or martyrdomLitvak, Meir. (Maqdsi 1998. 1993 The Islamization; Nüsse 1993; of theKramer Palestinian-Israeli 1987; Norton Conflict: 1987, The Case of Hamas. Middle Eastern Studies p. 169). Both movements used what Bernard34: 148–63.Wasserstein [CrossRef called] “the calendar of communal riot” (Wassertein 1996; Kupferschmidt 1984)Maqdsi, for Muhammad.popular mobilization. 1993. Charter ofThis The Islamiccalendar Resistance included Movement the (Hamas) of Palestine. Journal of Palestine occasions of: Studies 22: 122–34. [CrossRef] Marvin, Carolyn, and David Inge. 1999. Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag. - Islamic holidays such as ʻId al-Adha (the feast of sacrifices concluding the Hajj); the month of Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ramadan; the ʻAshura, commemorating Imam Husayn’s martyrdom, which became a symbol of Milson, Menahem. 2004. What Is Arab Antisemitism? Memri, Special Report 26. Available online: https: ʻ ʻ shi i oppression and later shi i activism,//www.memri.org for Hizballah; /reports/what-arab-antisemitism (accessed on 10 March 2019). - Historic events such as the BattleMilton-Edwards, of Badr (symbolizing Beverly. 2008.the victory Political of Islam Muhammad’s and the Palestinian-Israeli Muslim Conflict. In Islamic Attitudes to Israel. minority over the infidel majority in 624);Edited by Ephraim Karsh and P. R. Kumaraswamy. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 65–85. Mishal, Shaul, and Reuven Aharoni. 1989. Stones Are Not All: The Intifada and the Leaflets as a Weapon. Tel Aviv: Hakibutz Hameuhad. (In Hebrew) Mueller, Chelsi. 2012. The Educational Philosophy and Curriculum of the Palestinian Nationalist Movement: From Arab Palestine to Arab-Islamic Palestine. Middle Eastern Studies 48: 345–62. [CrossRef] 6 For a collection of fatwas from the mid-1930s to 1990, see (The Jordanian Awqaf Department 1990). Nettler, Ronald L. 1989. Arab Images of Jews and Israel. In Survey of Jewish Affairs. Edited by William Frankel.

Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 33–43. Nirenberg, David. 2013. Anti-Judaism. The Western Tradition. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company. Norton, Augustus. 1987. Amal and the Shi a Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon. Austin: University of Texas Press. Nüsse, Andrea. 1993. The Ideology of Hamas: Palestinian Islamic Fundamentalist Thought on the Jews, Israel and Islam. In Studies in Muslim-Jewish Relations. Edited by Ronald L. Nettler. Chur: Harwood Academic Press, pp. 97–126. Pappe, Ilan. 1998. Understanding the enemy: A Comparative Analysis of Palestinian Islamist and Nationalist Leaflets, 1920s–1980s. In Muslim-Jewish Encounters: Intellectual Traditions and Modern Politics. Edited by Ronald L. Nettler and Suha Taji-Farouki. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp. 87–108. Porath, Yehoshua. 1977. The Palestine Arab National Movement: 1929–39. From Riots to Rebellion. London: Frank Cass, vol. 2. Religions 2019, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 17

to capture and destroy al-Aqsa, but also to capture Mecca and Medina. Following negotiations with King Abdallah of Jordan, who serves as the guardian of the holy sites in Jerusalem1, and with al-Aqsa leaders, the metal detectors were removed, and the previous entrance regulations were reinstated. After three weeks of clashes around the Mount and across the West Bank, especially on Fridays, defined as “days of rage”, the protests and demonstrations subsided. Commenting on these events, Lebanese columnist Jihad al-Khazin in the London-based al-Hayat on 22 and 28 July denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem referring to Israel’s alleged futile efforts to find archeological proofs to support its “lies” throughout its 70 years of history. Similar contentions were voiced by ʻAli Muhsin Hamid on 26 July, in an article in the Egyptian daily al-Ahram titled “Jerusalem was never and will never be Jewish”. If the Israeli claims of Jewish connection were to be true, he claimed, the true Jewish inhabitants needed to be from Palestinian origin and not Russians, Indians, Americans, Ethiopians, and so on. Another event which triggered similar reactions a few months later was President Donald Trump’s declaration on 6 December 2017, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which also foresaw the remaining of the Wailing Wall in Israeli hands in any future agreement with the Palestinians. Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to represent the whole Muslim world, convened in mid-December an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, in which the participants reiterated the significance of Jerusalem in Religions 2019, 10, 415 16 of 16 Islam and their support for the Palestinian struggle, and decided to cooperate and take action against Trump’s decision. On 12 December, Shaykh al-Azhar Ahmad al-Tayyib, the highest religious Pratt, Douglas. 2010.authority Muslim-Jewish in the Relations: Sunni world, Some Islamic convened Paradigms. the counciIslaml andof Christian-Muslimal-Azhar scholars, Relations which according to the 21: 11–21. [CrossRefLondon-based] al-Quds al-ʻArabi from 13 December, rejected Trump’s declaration and defined it as Reiter, Yitzhak. 2011. “anWar, injustice Peace and with International no historical Relations or in legal Islam: foundati Muslim Scholarsons”. The on Peacepublic Accords protests with encompassed Israel. most Arab Brighton, Portlandand and Muslim Toronto: capitals, Sussex Academicand calls Press.encouraging a third intifada and jihad against Israel were voiced by Roy, Olivier. 2004. GlobalisedMuslim Islam: preachers The Search in Arab for a New countries Ummah and. London: in mosques Hurst & of Company. Muslim communities worldwide. Samuel, Maurice. 1929. WhatAgain, Happened it was inJewish Palestine: history The Eventsand the of August,so-called 1929, Israel’s Their and Background Zionism’s and Their“invented myths” that Significance. Boston:preoccupied The Stratford Arab Company. writers and commentators, denying any Jewish ties to Palestine in general and to Schroeter, Daniel J. 2018.Jerusalem ‘Islamic in Anti-Semitism’ particular. A in few Historical of them Discourse. relied AHRon the Roundtable. controversies American among Historical Israeli and non-Israeli Review 123: 1172–89.historians [CrossRef and] archeologists on the interpretation of their findings. “There is no such thing as Israel Sivan, Emmanuel. 1989.or Tel A Aviv,” Resurgence announced of Arab Muhammad anti-Semitism. al-Mula In Survey in an of interview Jewish Affairs, with 1988 the. Kuwaiti Edited by TV on 12 December, William Frankel.adding London: that Associated “Jerusalem University is Arab Presses, and Islamic. pp. 78–95. Jerusalem is the city of Islam … It will return to the Arab Sivan, Emmanuel. 2008. The Islamist challenge. In Facing Tomorrow. Jerusalem: The Jewish People Policy Planning and Islamic nation”. Trump adopted “the Zionist narrative”, claimed ʻUmar Hilmi al-Ghul in the Institute. Palestinian al-Hayat al-Jadida on 9 December. “It is not our goal to examine the falsification of history Sivan, Emmanuel. 2012. The Peripeties of Modern Muslim Antisemitism. Justice 51: 3–6. and Trump’s ignorance,” he wrote. If he wants to learn the truth he should read what Israeli Sivan, Emmanuel, and Eldad J. Pardo. 2012. GIF Annual Scientific Progress Report: Opinion Mining in Religious archeologists wrote after “searching for the past 70 years for one archeological remnant related to the Studies. Unpublished Work. [presence] of a third temple [there were only two], or connecting the Jews to Palestine in general”. Stillman, Norman A. 2010. Anti-Judaism and Antisemitism in the Arab and Islamic World Prior to 1948. In Antisemitism:Similarly, A History Hamas. Edited leader by Albert Muhammad S. Lindemann Nazzal and accused Richard the S. Zionists Levy. Oxford: of falsifying Oxford biblical remnants in University Press.Lebanese al-Akhbar on 13 December, claiming as well that Israeli archeological scholars, such as Stillman, Norman A.Israel 2019. Finkelstein Anti-Judaism and/Antisemitism David Ussishkin,/Anti-Zionism. “failed Into Encyclopediaprovide important of Jews in proof the Islamic that the city [Jerusalem] World. BrillOnlinewas Reference inhabited Works. [by Jews] Available in the 10th online: Century https:// BC”.referenceworks.brillonline.com /entries/ encyclopedia-of-jews-in-the-islamic-worldIn this debate there/ anti-judaismantisemitismanti-zionism-COM_000492was a tacit agreement between all Palestinian factions (accessed Hamas, the Muslim on 1 January 2019).Brothers in Jordan and Palestinian Authority’s (PA) representatives on the perception of Trump’s Von Stuckrad, Kocku.declaration 2003. Discursive as Studya new of and Religion: worse From Balfour States ofDeclaration. the Mind to CommunicationHamas leader and Isma Action.ʻil Haniyya described Method & TheoryTrump’s in the Study statement of Religion at15: a 255–71.rally marking 30 years to the founding of Hamas on 14 December, as even Taji-Farouki, Suha. 1998.more A dangerous Contemporary than Construction the Balfour of Declaration. the Jews in the Fata Qur’an:h leaders A Review and the of MuhammadPA considered it as a “second Sayyid Tantawi’sBalfour Banu Isra’ilDeclaration”, fi al-Qur’an whereas wa al-Sunna journalist and ʻAbdelilahAfif Abd al-FattahBelqaziz Tabbara’s in United al-Yahud Arab Emirates fi (UAE) daily al-Qur’an. In Muslim-Jewishal-Khalij of Encounters18 December Intellectual described Tradition it as and “the Modern first Politics bitter. Editedfruit” byof Ronaldthe so-called L. Nettler “Arab Spring” and a and Suha Taji-Farouki.severe Oxford:crime, Harwoodexceeding Academic “Balfour’s Publishers, crime pp.whic 15–38.h is exactly one century old”. Trump was even Taji-Farouki, Suha. 2004.compared Thinking to Adolf on the Hitler. Jews. Ahmad In Islamic Qadidi, Thought a Tunisi in thean Twentieth politician Century and. former Edited byambassador to Qatar Suha Taji-Farouki and Basheer M. Nafi. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, pp. 318–67. Wassertein, Bernard. 1996. Patterns of Communal Conflict in Palestine. In Essential Papers on Zionism. Edited by Jehuda Reinharz1 and Jordan Anita was Shapira. recognized New York by Israel and London: as the guardian New York of Universitythe holy places Press, in pp. Jerusalem 671–88. since 1967, after its defeat Webman, Esther. 1994. Anti-Semiticin the War Motifs and retreat in the Ideology from the of West Hizballah Bank. and Hamas. Tel Aviv: The Project for the Study of Anti-Semitism. Webman, Esther. 2003. Al-Aqsa Intifada and 11 September: Fertile Ground for Arab Antisemitism. In Antisemitism Worldwide 2001/2. Edited by Dina Porat and Roni Stauber. Tel Aviv: The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, pp. 37–59. Webman, Esther. 2017. From the Damascus Blood Libel to the ‘Arab Spring’: The Evolution of Arab Antisemitism. Antisemitism Studies 1: 157–206. [CrossRef] Webman, Esther. 2018. Arab Antisemitic Discourse: Importation, Internalisation, and Recycling. In The Medieval Roots of Antisemitism. Continuities and Discontinuities from the Middle Ages to the Present Day. Edited by Jonathan Adams and Cordelia Hess. New York and London: Routledge, pp. 161–80. Webman, Esther. Forthcoming. Redeeming Humanity from the Evil of the Jews—Islamist Rationalization of Antisemitism. In An End to Antisemitism. Confronting Antisemitism in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Edited by Armin Lange, Laurence H. Schiffman and Dina Porat. Berlin: De Gruyter Publishers. Wistrich, Robert. 2002. Muslim Anti-Semitism: A Clear and Present Danger. New York: American Jewish Committee. Yadlin, Rivka. 1989. An Arrogant Oppressive Spirit. Anti-Zionism as Anti-Judaism in Egypt. Oxford: Pergamon Press for the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism.

© 2019 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).