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.