A14 nationalpost.com NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015 ‘The Palestinian leadership has incited publicly their people to “spill blood”.’ ISSUES & THEN AND NOW IN JERUSALEM GEOFFREY CLARFIELD (17:11). Muhammad’s miracu- AND SALIM MAN S UR Over the centuries, Muslim leaders have generally lous heavenly journey from King David’s city, referred recognized the rights of Jews to pray at their holiest sites in Arabic simply as al Quds nce again anti- (the Holiness), confirmed Jewish violence his lineage in the fraternity ignited in Jerusa- of prophets reaching back lem has spread be- through Moses and Abraham Oyond into Israel. This present to Adam. spate of violence is part of the Muhammad had prayed long-term campaign of Pal- at first by turning his face in estinians for change in the the direction (qiblah) of Jeru- “status quo” on the Temple salem. After his flight to Me- Mount. Their goal is to insure dina from Mecca he received Jews visiting there feel suf- guidance, as the Quran states, ficiently intimidated so that to “turn towards the Holy they no longer come and this Mosque” (2:144) in prayer. will then mean a victory for Since then Muslims have fol- the latest Palestinian intifada lowed their prophet. From an or the local jihad. It might be Islamic point of view, it might said of this recent upsurge be said, the revelation in- in violence that “it has been structing the Prophet to pray forever thus,” but this would in the direction of Mecca was be incorrect as the history a sign for him and his follow- of Muslim rule over Jerusa- ers not to contest Jews with lem and Jewish presence in unlawful claims or deny their and around the Temple Mount rights in Jerusalem. is complex and checkered. Until 1967 no scholar in or Before we recount this his- outside of the Muslim world tory, let us point out that the doubted that underneath the latest throwing of rocks, knife Temple Mount could be found stabbings, and murders by the site and remains of the Palestinians of Jews, especial- Jewish Temple of Solomon, ly in the vicinity of the Temple Ezra and Nehemiah, and of Mount, are not simply acts of Herod the Great within whose “spontaneous rage” against Temple Jesus of Nazareth Israeli “occupiers.” It is has prayed and preached. Even Haj been strategically organized Amin al-Husseini published in and orchestrated in the hope 1925 a brochure, titled “Brief that it will inspire copycat ac- Guide to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, tions. One of the key organ- Jerusalem” (the Arabic expres- izations involved in perpetrat- sion for the Temple Mount), in ing this violence is called the which is stated, “The site is one “Murabitoun.” of the oldest in the world. Its The Israeli General Secur- sanctity dates from the earliest ity organization (the Shin Bet) times. Its identity with the site explains these Temple Mount of Solomon’s Temple is beyond Palestinian activists receive dispute.” about US $1,000 a month It is now deliberately forgot- for their “spontaneous” ac- ten that when Jordan ruled the tions. The money comes from West Bank and East Jerusalem Hamas out of funds it receives from 1948 until June 1967, the from international Islamist armistice agreement with Is- donors. The young men and JAMES JACQUES JOSEPH TISSOT / JEWISH MusEUM / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS rael was violated and Jews women activists spend time King Solomon dedicates the First Temple in Jerusalem. were denied both entrance to in the Al-Aqsa Mosque osten- the Knesset, declares, “I ers. But Christian rulers of the the Temple Mount and pray- sibly studying the Quran and will personally expel every Crusader Kingdom during the ing at the Western Wall. Only praying, while in fact they are Jew who comes to the Tem- 12th century became mind- after the IDF secured the on the lookout for Jewish pres- ple Mount in a provocative ful of the local traditions and whole Temple Mount in the ence on the Temple Mount. manner,” they are follow- When Ottoman Turks took Jews were allowed to pray on six-day war of June 1967 did When Jews wearing skull caps ing the odious footsteps of control of the city in the 16th century, the Temple Mount. After Sala- the Chief Rabbi of Israel blow or with any other item signi- Haj Amin Al-Husseini. Their din reconquered Jerusalem in the Shofar there, and conduct fying their Jewishness appear, anti-Jew hatred not sur- they banned Jews from the Temple 1187, he restored Jewish rights the first organized Jewish the Palestinian activists sound prisingly is encouraged by following Umar’s precedent. prayers since before the time the alert. Groups of women King Abdullah II, the West’s Mount. However, they strictly When Ottoman Turks took of Ottoman rule. activists in black veils wear- favourite royal pretender control of Jerusalem in the The Temple Mount was, ing niqabs follow the visitors whose family the British im- enforced the right of Jews to pray 16th century they imposed however, returned by Israeli chanting threateningly “Alla- ported from Hejaz in Arabia at the Western Wall a ban on Jews worshipping on authorities to the local Mus- hu Akbar.” and enthroned as unelected the Temple Mount. However, lim administrators of the Waqf Denial of Jewish rights on rulers over the largely Pal- they strictly enforced the right (religious endowment). This the Temple Mount is also be- estinian people and country of Umar when he visited the control of Jerusalem from of Jews to pray at the West- was an unprecedented act of ing pushed by the Palestinian of Jordan, illegally carved Temple Mount and ordered the Byzantines set the right- ern Wall of the Temple, what religious goodwill by Jewish Authority with support of a out of the League of Nations the removal of filth accumu- eous precedent for Muslims is now known as the “Wailing leaders when Israel could have number of Arab states at the Mandate for Palestine in the lated on the site. to follow. When Muslim rulers Wall.” Access to the Temple installed her own administra- UNESCO in Paris. They al- early 1920s. Abdullah shame- Jews were granted per- behaved differently their con- Mount for non-Muslims (in- tors to safeguard with equa- lege that the Western Wall lessly announced recently mission by Umar to live in duct spoke ill of them, as hap- cluding Jews) was relaxed at nimity the rights of Christians, where Jews have gathered for that only Muslims should be Jerusalem and pray on the pened with the Fatimid ruler the request of the British at Jews, and Muslims in Jerusa- centuries past to pray are in allowed on the grounds of the Temple Mount. They were al- Caliph Hakim in Cairo. Hakim the end of the Crimean war in lem. But instead of recipro- danger of being destroyed by Temple Mount. lowed to build a synagogue turned malevolent against 1856. Some six decades later cating goodwill, the Waqf ad- Israel. Apart from the absurd- There is, however, another there. Even after the comple- Christian and Jews, and de- General Allenby, at the head ministrators and Palestinians ity of this allegation, it is made history of Muslim rulers over tion of the Dome of the Rock stroyed the Church of the of the British army, triumph- leaders have taken their cue by those who failed miserably Jerusalem. It is contrary to Al- and the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem antly entered Jerusalem in from A-Husseini to perpetrate to prevent ISIL jihadists de- Husseini’s jihad against the the Umayyad caliphs based in 1009 (for which Jews were November 1917, and Britain’s jihad against the Jews. stroying ancient monuments Jews that became embedded in Damascus, the 10th century falsely blamed and victimized rule over Palestine under the The solution to the contrived in Iraq and Syria, or the Tali- in the politics espoused by Jewish writer Solomon ben by a recurrent wave of anti- League of Nation’s Mandate “problem” of Jews praying on ban’s destruction of the giant Palestinians over the past cen- Jeroham (a Karaite) recorded Semitism in Europe). inaugurated a new era for the Temple Mount is simple. It statues of Buddha in Bamiyan, tury. Though this history has that Jews prayed on the Tem- There were the Crusades, Jews in their ancestral home- is to recall Umar’s precedent, Afghanistan. been deliberately obscured by ple Mount. and Jews were massacred land after nearly 2,000 years. and insist Palestinians abide The Palestinian leader- advocates of political Islam or Umar’s conduct on taking in Jerusalem by the Crusad- For Muslims, Jerusalem by it. United States President ship has incited pub- Islamism in recent years, it is is the third holiest city after Barack Obama could remind licly their people to “spill all the more necessary today Mecca and Medina. But for Palestinians of this tradition, blood.” Mahmoud Abbas, the to hold Palestinians account- Jews, Jerusalem is the first since he boasts of his know- president of Palestinian Au- able for shredding their own and only holy city, since it was ledge of Islam and Muslim thority, declared on television, Muslim tradition that holds made the capital of ancient Is- history. He could invite King “We welcome every drop of the promise of religious co- rael by King David. Yet con- Abdullah of Jordan to join him blood spilled in Jerusalem. existence and mutual respect trary to public opinion (in and in Jerusalem with Prime Minis- This is pure blood, clean among Christians, Jews and outside of the Muslim world) ter Netanyahu and demand an blood, blood on its way to Muslims.